MAGAZINE ARQ 65 | april 2007
Land
The
discussion of this issue called “In territory” refers in
one way to a panoramic review of architectural projects with a strong
relation with the territory where they are located, even if is natural
or built. In other way, it presents a selection of articles that exemplifies
from different point of views the relation between architectural projects
with the context where they are located. The article from Fernando Perez
Oyarzun about Lo Contador House exemplifies maybe, in the best way,
how a specific building can be crucial in the destiny of its own territory,
in this case a neighborhood in Santiago.
This new issue of ARQ takes particular focus in the recent architecture
built in Chile and its relation with its particular geography. The multiple
options in how to use this territory present a wide range of different
conditions: from two houses on the sea border, works from Smiljan Radic
and Teodoro Fernandez respectively to a Ski Box in Portillo, in Los
Andes Mountain Range from Del Rio y Nuñez. The strong relation
with its context also is clear in the Geometric Terms in the Villarrica
National Park in the South of Chile, from the chilean National Prize
in Architecture German del Sol. This issue also presents projects in
urban territories like the Lofts in Valparaiso from Menendez y Barrientos
and the Patriarch Square in Sao Paulo from the Pritzker Prize, Paulo
Mendes da Rocha. All those works are part of a panoramic view, where
location and context present a wide repertory of possibilities, where
appears the common problems of the architectural practice.