Architecture, History, and Myth: Considerations about the Self-Construction of a Story in the Valparaíso School of Architecture

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the Valparaíso School of Architecture has become a subject of widespread historiographical interest within the history of modern Latin American architecture. Among other aspects, its radical teaching system, its interdisciplinary approach, and its understanding of the Latin American continent have been highlighted. However, from a historiographical perspective, there remains a need to reflect on the construction of the narrative surrounding the School. It is particularly important to examine how a powerful internal discourse on the origins, history, foundations, and mission of this institution was gradually developed and consolidated. This article aims to examine that discourse. It begins by contextualizing the group and examining how its mission gradually became more sophisticated. It highlights ambiguities, omissions, and contradictions that reveal the main challenges in attempting to reconstruct the history of the School’s early years. Finally, the study examines how, by the mid-1960s, a canonical narrative was developed that remains in force within the institution to this day. It concludes that this collective conceived of itself conceptually and that its connection to poetry enabled it to articulate a discourse of great theoretical depth. This helps us understand the importance that this self-constructed narrative continues to hold to this day and how essential it is to rethink it in order to approach its project from a historiographical and critical perspective.