Santiago de Chile (Chile), 1918 – 2013
By Roberto Segre
Despite the chronic housing crisis that exists in most Latin American countries, in Chile there was a concern for addressing the need for housing—both during the Christian Democratic governments and the brief period of the Unidad Popular—and for achieving a significant quality of architectural design. In this pursuit, the work of Fernando Castillo Velasco was paradigmatic. A graduate of the Catholic University (1947), he joined the professional team formed by Carlos Bresciani, Héctor Valdés, and Carlos G. Huidobro (1950). The Unidad Vecinal Portales, in Quinta Normal, Santiago (1956-1963), for a lower-middle-class population (1,850 units), financed by CORVI (Corporación de la Vivienda), gained international recognition for the balance and interrelationship achieved between the residential buildings, public space, and social services through ramps, covered galleries, and exterior staircases, surpassing the repetitive schemes of autonomous volumes. His architectural firm became one of the most successful in the country due to the seriousness and coherence of its projects, which include the Universidad Técnica del Estado (1957-1970) and the Tajamar residential towers (1960-1964) along the Mapocho River.
In 1964, invited by President Eduardo Frei to join political life, he held the position of mayor of the Commune of La Reina (1964). Faced with the challenges presented by the poor and marginal characteristics of the area, Castillo Velasco established urban guidelines associated with popular participation and promoted the creation of jobs to transform its character as a “bedroom community.”
The educational reforms demanded by the student movement at the Catholic University, reflecting the May ’68 events in Paris, led him to assume the position of rector until Augusto Pinochet’s military coup (1973) and the intervention in the university. Exiled in the United Kingdom and Venezuela, he returned to Chile in 1977. Unable to obtain state or major corporate positions, he focused on designing small low-cost housing complexes, built with the participation of the residents, which maintained the urban compactness of the homes, used traditional materials, and prioritized public space with green areas and spaces suitable for community life. Among others, he built Quinta Jesús (1977) and Comunidad Los Castaños (1984).
With the return of democracy, he held the position of mayor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region (1994) and was elected multiple times as mayor of the Commune of La Reina (1996-2004). In addition to the many residential complexes he designed, he created the Comunidad Andalucía, an international collaboration between the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MINVU) and the Junta de Andalucía of Spain (1991-1992). Located in the center of Santiago and carried out with community participation, it housed nearly two hundred low-income families in a set of three-story blocks with apartments designed to accommodate population growth over time. The emphasis on green areas and the use of brick and steel allowed for the development of an original typology with significant formal and spatial finishes. This work received the grand prize at the X Biennial of Architecture of Chile (1996). In 1989, in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Fernando Castillo Velasco was awarded the Premio América by the IV Seminar of Latin American Architecture (SAL).
Content updated on 07/04/2017 16:54.
