Valparaiso School: Open City Group (Masters of Latin American Architecture) - Hardcover

Rispa, Raul; Perez De Arce, Rodrigo; Perez Oyarzun, Fernando

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 077352620X ISBN 13: 9780773526204

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003

Synopsis

The Valpara�so School, as it became known, acquired an international reputation for its radical stance and its commitment to dialogue between architects and other disciplines. Since 1970 the Valpara�so School has focused much of its research and design activity on the Open City (Ciudad Abierta) project, created by a group of architects, artists, poets, and engineers with a vision of a city with "no master plan, no imposed ordering devices, and no hierarchical networks of infrastructure." Originally set up as a laboratory-type environment, this alternative community has since become the place of residence and work for many people. Valpara�so School: Open City Group provides insight into this radical experiment in urban development through a series of essays and photographs.

About this title

Synopsis:

Since 1950 the avantgarde architect Alberto Cruz has had such a defining influence on the Faculty of Architecture at the Catholic University in Valparaiso that the phrase Valparaiso School was soon coined. Out of this work emerged in 1970 the anonymous group "Open City Group". Architects, students, artists and scientists went on to form the Open City outside the town of Valparaiso. They chose the word "open" to convey their unique attitude to dialogue and work where members of the collective are the architects, the inhabitants and also the clients - and also to show their experimental form of architecture which included erecting 1:1 size models! "Open" also refers to the act of creating and confronting oneself with an unknown result. Architectural solutions emerge from the dialogue between architects from different schools with artists, scientists, painters, sculptors and writers. In this way many highly expressive buildings have been created.

About the Author:

Fernando Perez Oyarzun was dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts at the PUCCh in Santiago, Chile.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 077352620X
• ISBN 13: 9780773526204
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 168