Earthquakes as a force that rebuilds.
Three South American proposals (two from the past, one a contemporary utopia) and reflections on their meaning

Fig. 1 - “America cross of the south”. The constellation of the “Southern cross” drawn on the continent.

 Fig. 2 - “Inner Sea”. Large depopulated space, where what the eye sees, the pass cannot reach.

 Fig. 3 - “Pacific Ring of Fire”. A large pit around the ocean.

 Fig. 4 - “Nazca fault”. A hidden abyss that makes the continent tremble as it moves.

 Fig. 5 - Alberto Cruz, Pajaritos Chapel, 1953. Axonometry, perspective section, plan, elevations. José Vial Historical Archive, PUCV, Valparaíso.

 Fig. 6 - “Pajaritos Chapel”. Space of soft light for prayer.

 Fig. 7 - “Looks between the community”. Looks into a democratic space that surrounds the gathered community.

 Fig. 8 - “Light of a gentle twilight”. Jesuit church of Puerto Montt.

 Fig. 9 - Corral church structure model photo. Photo of the detail of the natural light that illuminates the church of Corral. José Vial Historical Archive, PUCV, Valparaíso.

 Fig. 10 - “Corral” The sunlight enters from the windows that filter it and blend it.

 Fig. 11 - “Puerto Montt”. The construction of a light to come together without changing the existing form.

 Fig. 12 - Photo of the presbytery of the church of Puerto Montt. José Vial Historical Archive, PUCV, Valparaíso.

 Fig. 13 - Perspective sketch by Alberto Cruz of the church of Puerto Montt. José Vial Historical Archive, PUCV, Valparaíso.

 Fig. 14 - “Church of Arauco”. What remained, construction of an entrance.

 Fig. 15 - “Valparaíso trajectories”. Looking at the city today, from its origins.

 Fig. 16 - “Valparaíso plant”. Looking at the city in relation to the new way of democratic assembly of the liturgy.

 Fig. 17 - “City-region”. A city-region proposal in the South American continent in Chile and in other possible locations.

 Fig. 18 - Observe this abyssal land.

 Fig. 19 - From the wall of the Andes mountain range to the hidden abyss of the Nazca fault in the ocean.

 Fig. 20 - “Great geography”. From the capital under the light of the Andes to the dark depths of the Nazca fault.

 Fig. 21 - “City-Region”. City-Region that coexists with earthquakes.

 Fig. 22 - “Architecture”. A new architecture for a happily inhabited area.

 Fig. 23 - City-Region that extends towards the sea-ocean and towards the inner sea of the South American continent.

 Fig. 24 - “Nature design”. Living with nature and animals (with the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom).

 Fig. 25 - “Open ground”. City-region for a new society that can rethink “how” to live.

 Fig. 26 - Being able to see this city-region not only on the surface but also from the bottom of the earth (As Dante does when he comes out of hell).

 Fig. 27 - “Athenea”. In the meeting of the two telluric geographic forms, the sgurado crosses the sculpture towards the waters and the mountains.

 Fig. 28 - A look that rests on the lines of the sculpture to continue towards geography.

 Fig. 29 - “Huinay”. Sign to remember the tsunami that submerged the cemetery and its dead.

 Fig. 30 - “Terrae Motus” in Caserta. In the Royal Palace of Caserta today the gazes of the palace meet with the works of “Terrae Motus”

 Fig. 31 - “Cretto”. In the alleys of the town transformed by Burri into a huge work of art; the gaze flows into the labyrinth.

 Fig. 32 - “Graphic inscription-earthquakes”. Graphic sign that brings together the works (signs) presented.

 Fig. 33 - “Sign-earthquake graphics”. Graphic sign that brings together the works (signs of art presented).

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Lewis Carroll

We begin this essay by poetically observing the South American edges[1] of this Pacific Ocean, a new and enormous “Mare Nostrum”.

We can help ourselves with the epic poem Amereida to understand this reality, in the following lines from the poem:

América[2] fue querida y ocupada por sus bordes (p.17)

[America was desired and occupied along its borders] [ref.1]

Vivimos al borde frente a cuanto no cobra transparencia de realidad en nuestras propias existencias (p.18)

[We live on the edges in front of what finds no transparency of reality in our lives] [ref.2]

Que heredamos amanecidos en este borde? (p.26)

[What do we inherit by waking up on this edge?] [ref.3]

Heredamos esta capacidad de desconocido (p.27)

[We inherit this capacity of the unknown] [ref.4]

“Unknown”: we live in front of an unknown continent and an unknown sea; we are faced by a huge “abyssal” land, and a huge unexplored sea which opens us up to adventure[3]. [ref.4]

Let us continue listening to the poetic word:

Entonces aparece lo abisal ¿cuándo lo abisal? Cuando el país de los ojos lo vigente por visible se separa abruptamente de lo que asientan los pasos y el pasaje América es abisal surge como un monstruo para nosotros y un impedimento para el pasaje (p.158)

[So the abyssal appears when it is abyssal? When the land of the eyes, the currently visible, is radically separated from what our feet establish and the passage of America is abyssal, it rises like a monster for us and hinders our passage] [ref.5]

The continent of America (was) a gift for a Europe which was looking for the East, and then, in the middle of its journey, a new continent suddenly appeared: America. Columbus never knew he had arrived in an unknown land[4]. [ref.4]

1.1 The South American continent: the hinterland cities and the sea ports

The Spanish colonial project was to locate cities on the South American continent, not along the coast, but slightly inland[5]. As a result, Santiago de Chile was born inland and, by the sea, the port of Valparaíso was built. This populating of the continent, which took place mainly along its margins, meant that its centre was uninhabited[6] [ref.1] an “Inland Sea” as a reality to be contemplated, something present in the habitation of this continent. [ref.2]

The poem names it: An “Inland Sea”, not to be thought of from the point of view of conquest and human settlement, but as a poetic reality inspiring reflection. [ref.3]

If, as Rimbaud said, poetry comes before action, listening to it allows us to think in a way which opens us up to a creative field.

We, the inhabitants of the edges of this continent, are the result of a racial cross between native peoples and European migrants, who still cannot understand one another today[7]. [ref.6]

Amereida’s poetic word says:

América regalada ¿se ha aceptado a si misma?[8] (p.15)

[Did America accept itself as a gift?] [ref.6]

Nuestra raíz no está preñada de su hoyo, nuestro apoyo esta en los aires vasto como la residencia de los pájaros[9] (p.46)

[Our root is not nourished by its hole, our support is in the air, as vast as the home of the birds] [ref.7]

Here the poetic text is for us South American architects who listen to the poem “clarifying” our roots in this America, in the air. [ref.7]

Why is it important to bring the poetic word into a text that talks about earthquakes? Because it speaks of this land we inhabit, which we hardly know on the surface and even less in depth, where the earthquakes begin. [ref.4]

1.2 The land we inhabit

We live in the Pacific Ocean basin and, around it, a huge fault, submerged in front of the coast, creates an abyssal pit, surrounded by approximately 4,000 volcanoes, forming the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

This massive fault defines the edges of the ocean and continental lands with a very deep coastline, reaching 8,000 metres: the Nazca fault, which runs along the entire South American and North American coasts. We live on the edges of these rifts. We live on the edge of an abyss.

What earthquakes bring: first of all they destabilize human existence, but then they allow “Re”, Re-building, Re-birth.

1.3 Re-flexions on “Re”

The earth shakes, houses, streets, and cities collapse, but afterwards, the possibility of starting again occurs.

A continuous re-construction.

Humankind’s ability to re-see, to be re-born.

The Renaissance; a Re-birth of classical Roman times, was not a copy of the architecture and art of that past time, it was a re-seeing, a re-thinking, and a re-building; just as we can think of it today, too.

The Risorgimento, a re-arising, a rising again.

The earthquake tests this ability of ours, so typical of the human being.

Humankind renews itself.

Dying to re-arise (the grain which dies and gives life to the plant), a resurrection. [ref.15]

Observing the world and seeing it over and over again, this, I think, is the task of every architect.

The real voyage of discovery does not consist in seeking out new territories, but in having new eyes[10].

In this way, an architectural work of the past, upon observing it carefully, is re-born and becomes present today.

As an epilogue to the previous paragraph: we do not know what earthquakes are, nor when they will arrive, nor what their strength will be. We only know how we can observe them or interpret them: we live in worlds made up of interpretations.

With earthquakes, we understand that we do not possess the biological mechanisms to let us perceive how things happen.

We begin this second part of our essay with the experience of Alberto Cruz in the Pajaritos Chapel project[11], in Santiago de Chile, which gave rise, in architecture, to the “Valparaíso School”.

In this project, although not related to earthquakes, a spatial concept of the light of prayer was born, later re-elaborated in the projects that will be illustrated here.

The Pajaritos Chapel project began with an observation on light and space during the act of prayer; thus a soft uniform light was born which, although not constructed, was of fundamental inspiration in the construction of churches after the 1960 earthquake.

2.1 A renewed “architectural act”

After the Valdivia earthquake in 1960, the Faculty of Architecture of the Catholic University of Valparaíso was tasked with rebuilding the destroyed churches, designing them from scratch free of charge, and seeing in this the possibility of a real architectural work. There was the chance to introduce new liturgical forms which were developing at that time, which moved the act of the faithful towards the altar (and the crisis around participation), with the celebrant seen from behind, to an act in community around the celebrant (for the participation of everyone).

And as a result, after the earthquake, the new churches in the south were born with a new liturgical proposal, which led to a new way of celebrating, in which the congregation redefined itself as a “sign of democracy”.

There was also the possibility of using these spaces for non-liturgical functions such as meetings, assemblies, etc. With this new form, distant gazes intertwined with those of the faithful close by, building “virtual visual trajectories” inside the church.

A unique experience in the relationship between teachers/students, architecture/construction in which, despite the essential nature of the works, the quest was for a great spatial richness through a soft (oblique) light, creating a gentle half-light inside (appropriate for the act of prayer).

A filtered light entering through the windows, referring to the legacy of the Pajaritos Chapel project.

2.2 The Church of Corral and the Jesuit Church of Puerto Montt

Of the various cases that were developed from design to construction, all in the areas affected by the earthquake, we shall talk below about two of them: the Church of Corral and the Jesuit Church of Puerto Montt.

The Church of Corral:

There was already a modest church here, built by local craftsmen, which the 1960 earthquake destroyed. The architectural assignment was therefore accepted; it was a matter of working with what was there, with an architectural form founded “in the act of prayer”. An architectural form that was not “present in its materials”, but in the “light of space” for prayer. Starting from the extant, a metamorphosis was carried out.

An autonomous skeleton was inserted into the extant structure which brought stability against the wind and the seismic movements of all the elements.

The new structure was introduced inside the old one, without demolishing the roofing so as to be able to work through the winter. Two large, 20-metre-long wooden beams supported the vault and some flat roofs, resting on two vertical supports located at the ends of the church.

The 20-metre wooden beams with reinforced concrete joints required only simple cutting of the wooden parts. The formwork for the reinforced concrete was very elementary, in order to be able to work with unskilled workers specializing in construction. This system was also used subsequently in the Jesuit Church of Puerto Montt.

Many destroyed churches were needlessly demolished by order of the authorities and replaced with industrial buildings.

But in Corral, the possibility arose of creating architecture and introducing the new liturgy in a single space (without aisles), with a lighting designed for prayer.

The Jesuit Church of Puerto Montt

From the notebooks of Alberto Cruz Covarrubias, architect of the works:

[...] since the 1960 earthquake in southern Chile, we have undertaken to rebuild works that no one else was interested in doing. [...] looking into the history of architecture, we feel that this is not a historical development but a multiple present. [...] we decided to abandon its condition as a copy, in honour of architecture, and through it in this country hit by earthquakes, we made sure that the internal empty space could find its own limits. This was thus a basic discontinuity [...] for this reason in front of the internal void we built limiting surfaces, crafted with the utmost care for the arrangement of the woods and their veins [...], so that between the central void and the limiting surfaces, a virtual intersection was constituted [...], a ring around the void of flat limits built on the diagonal..., receiving the light in an iridescent way [...] we live in a continent that has no Parthenon, nor a procession of original works, and for this reason the poem indicated to us that the original work would be the poetic word[12]. (Cruz Covarrubias 1961)

Therefore, we believe that in this America, the foundation of architectural creation is to be found in the word, the poetic word.

The poetic word of Amereida and also of some other poets[13] is a manifestation which opens up to architectural thought.

From the notebooks of José Vial Armstrong, architect of the works, we can learn of the difficulties in which the architects found themselves with the client priests, many of them struggling to understand contemporary architecture[14].

From his notes:

[...] The new is formed as a flat surface, shown by the diagonal, thus is a discontinuity established in relation to the old. The discontinuity within a closed, single space, in a cross plan, brings the complexity that opens up the multiple way of being in a church. The flat surfaces build another bright horizon – not naturalistic – with a bouncing light in which the ancient is submerged – just as it is, contained within another distance. This whole reconstruction is full-blown architecture, linking the new with the old. Not a church of present forms, but one of the form of absence [...] (Vial Armstrong 1962)

A new liturgy which tackled the crisis of the participation of the faithful proposed the proximity of the congregation to the altar, avoiding a unique homogeneous relationship with it, giving the possibility for non-liturgical events such as meetings, assemblies, and more. Let us listen to the poem:

Porque el don para mostrarse equivoca la esperanza (p.3)

[Because the gift to show oneself equivocates hope] [ref.8]

La tierra emerge cuando nos encuentra sentido (p.12)

[The earth emerges when it makes sense to us] [ref.9]

Tiene signo nuestro origen? (p.12)

[Is there a sign of our origin?] [ref.10]

Pero un regalo es presente (p.14)

[But a gift is a present] [ref.11]

Sino y signo que demandan (p.14)

[A fate and sign that demand] [ref.12]

Podemos interrogar poéticamente el propio desenvolvimiento del signo (p.15)

[We can poetically question our own development of the sign] [ref.13]

Tratamos de hallar la inscripción (p.79)

[Let us try to find the inscription...] [ref. 14]

volver, hay un llegar que es volver, así como el alba es un perpetuo volver, vivimos orientados por la palabra volver un continuo volver” (p.184)

[returning, there is an arrival that is to return, just as dawn is a continuous return, returning we live guided by the word, a continuous return] [ref.15]

with the churches of the south, the “Sign” was sought, leaving an “inscription” of the new liturgy (in the plan, in the form of the congregation).

3.1 Re-tracing it

On the night of August 16, 1906, an earthquake measuring 8.2 (Richter scale) almost completely destroyed Valparaíso, a port, financial centre and important city of Chile.

After the earthquake, the citizens wanted to re-draw[15] a large part of the city, the Almendral district[16] which was devastated more than by the earthquake, by the fires which broke out due to the rupturing of gas and water mains.

In this way, the citizens expressed a continuation in inhabiting a place, by re-arranging it. The desire was to renovate the city, under a new scheme which would regularize its streets so that – so the citizens claimed – it would become a “real city” like Santiago, with a regular layout. A new residential area was created, on a flat hill known as Playa Ancha, as well as a brand new residential neighbourhood to the north, Viña del Mar, which was born as a “garden city”, a place where the more affluent social groups fleeing from the contagions of epidemics would live, since the earthquake had resulted in poor hygiene.

But in 1914, the Panama Canal opened, the ships no longer made the rounds to the south of the continent, from Cape Horn or the Strait of Magellan, so they no longer stopped at this port. The projects ground to a halt, and the citizens’ dream collapsed. [ref.8]

3.2 Dreaming of the perfection of a city

Towards the realization of a dream. The inhabitants and the local and state authorities dreamed of wide streets, regular blocks, straight lines, gardens, and promenades.

In the reconstruction plans not only was the need for a new city shared, but also the projection of the expectations and ideas of the desired city. The city as a “democratic” urban “Sign”.

The destruction of Valparaíso in 1906 brought with it a stormy discussion on the new plan of the city, placing different visions of its value as imagery and commonplaces on the worktable.

The desire was for avenues 46m wide and side streets of 20m, a new idea of urban public spaces, squares, parks, living with proximity on foot, and the eye in depth, a harmony between foot and eye [ref .9].

The reconstruction projects were concerned not only with rectification, enlargement, and the creation of new roads and avenues, but also with burying the watercourses that run down from the hills. New roads were created which crossed the whole new rectified district, the Almendral.

Taking up the observation developed previously, of “the light” and of the single space, an “inscription of a democratic sign”, we can say that here too, light became a priority: brightly-lit streets, the sun accompanying the doings of the citizens, through the new dimensions of the space that would host the public life of a city for everyone.

“The city as a product of a society and a space that defines and conditions it.[17]“

The regeneration was also a process carried through by the desire to return to the social and cultural life which the disaster had threatened, the genius loci – the sense of place – close-up gazes between people and distant gazes towards the landscape (both the hills and the sea) within a spatial unit.

There was consensus on which general values should inspire an ideal Valparaíso, specifying the search for a more modern, more hygienic, more civilized city, with a democratic inscription (the layout – like the new liturgy).

Thus the catastrophe was transformed into an opportunity to redesign the urban space, generating itself as a large “window”, through which the urban values of a society were observed more clearly. The city had the power to do so. There was no money, the port was no longer the same, but new institutions were born after the earthquake, such as the Seismological Service of Chile which had not existed hitherto.

Today, for the inhabitants of Valparaíso, in winter, the water that flows down from the hills floods their homes. They repair them and come back to live there in a continuous re-turning.

Today, as always, the inhabitants see their house collapse due to earthquakes, but it is rebuilt; many houses, built using the balloon frame system, crack but do not fall down, the plaster breaks, but after each shock it is repaired. A continuous repairing, after the continuous destructive trembling of the earth. [ref.15]

This is a continuous ability to regenerate.

Today Valparaíso is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it preserves and takes care of some of its spaces which can be appreciated by acute gazes, between the hills and the old buildings[18].

An old man who does not want to die but defends himself with difficulty.

Other cities are severely affected by earthquakes, such as San Francisco in California (the same fault but with a different name), and Lisbon in Portugal. These cities have been able to recover by bringing to the world knowledge that did not exist before the earthquakes, thus initiating a major scientific[19] and even philosophical change[20].

Therefore we need to be aware of our vulnerability, living next to a huge invisible fault, which shakes us from below.

How to live in this trembling land and the myth of the Phoenix, of continuous re-building. With the initial observation of the forging light of an architectural void, unique as a “democratic inscription”, we can think of a swathe of Chile’s central territory on the 33^rd parallel south utopically.

4.1 City-region proposal

We can think of a city-region territory in the central area of Chile.

Santiago de Chile, today a metropolis, is on the way to becoming a megalopolis. But given that megalopoleis always have a negative connotation (huge, congested, contaminated, unliveable cities), we can utopically think of the union between Santiago de Chile (inland) and Valparaíso (on the sea) as a “happily habitable” megalopolis, or to put it in better words: “A happily habitable city-region”.

4.2 To be able to think of this territory, poetry can accompany us.

Let us listen to the poetic word of Amereida:

Como recibir América desvelada? (p.25)

[How to accept this unveiled America?] [ref.16]

Desvelar rasgar el velo (p.25)

[Unveiling to tear the veil?] [ref.17]

Consentir que el mar[21]…nos atraviese (p.25)

[Allowing the “Inland Sea” to cross us] [ref.18]

Travesía… la amenaza de lo oculto se dé a luz de canto… (p.26)

[Travesía... let the threat of what is hidden present itself as the light of a profile...] [ref.19]

4.3 How to operate?

Estamos en una tierra en que el obrar es leve (p.95)

[We are in a land where doing is light] [ref.20]

Travesía para palpar el presente de lo leve (p.96)

[we must cross this land to feel the present of this lightness] [ref.21]

… con dicho lenguaje hemos de mirar nuestro oficio de habitar (p.120)

[... so with this language we have to look at our occupation of inhabiting] [ref.22]

¿Cómo en vez de asolar y allanar para olvidar el abismo como podríamos consolarlo? (p.160)

[Instead of ravaging and levelling to forget the abyss, how can we comfort it?]

[ref.23]

Solo se consuela la tierra, solo se logra suelo cuidando del abismo… (p.160)

[Only the Earth is comforted, only land is won by caring for the abyss...] [ref.24]

Así irrumpió América y entró en trance, este es su origen estar en trance, trance presente presente lo que tiene un destino, destino es una fidelidad al origen (p.163)

[Thus America broke in and went into a trance, this is its origin, being in a trance, a present trance – present is what has a destiny, destiny is a faithfulness to origin] [ref.25]

4.4 This America of ours is abyssal

To be able to observe and think about this territory, how to remove the veil, tear it, to allow the “Inland Sea” to cross us, we must travel across it with a sharp, poetically thinking gaze, so that the threat of what is hidden presents itself as the light of a profile, [ref.19] which is not direct but reflected. How to make architectural works that reflect light (Heidegger stated that light exists when the temple reflects it through its columns). Works designed for this, but do all constructions do so? No! In Eupalinos ou l’Architecte,[22] through the architect, Paul Valéry says that most works of architecture are silent, others speak, some instead sing; therefore, we must make works which sing to humankind’s living in the world, through the sunlight that reflects them, transforming them into a significant “sign”.

4.5 Santiago grows towards Valparaíso, a proposal for an “architectural region in a happily habitable territory”

Creating a new city-region in a territory in which we know the hidden faults which are going to open up at a certain moment, the known existing volcanoes and the possible ones that will appear, and the devastating effects of climate change. A studied land (the poetic dwelling which Heidegger proposed is a thinking dwelling), crossed in order to live it by observing it, and thus be able to anticipate the faults that will appear with earthquakes, to coexist with them and with nature.

4.6 The poetic word

In order to think of this utopian project, the epic poetry of Amereida once again accompanies us: 

Que también para nosotros el destino despierte mansamente (p.4)

[May our destiny wake us up gently too] [ref.26]

Y este lenguaje de lo múltiple debe hablar en América (p.124)

[And this language of multiplicity must speak in America] [ref.27]

dar cabida a la tierra en su múltiple urgencia (p.163)

[give capacity to the earth in its multiple urgency] [ref.28]

América vista a partir de la tierra (p.174)

[America seen from the ground] [ref.29]

4.7 Santiago de Chile-Valparaíso, towards a “happily habitable region”[23]

Santiago de Chile, a metropolis which is about to transform itself into a megalopolis, not far from the Pacific Ocean basin where the port of Valparaíso is located, in front of the deep Nazca fault.

Valparaíso as a huge Greek theatre facing the huge Pacific Ocean, certainly not peaceful, but with great waves of water that try to devastate it in the winter. Santiago at the foot of a huge Andes mountain range; snowfall in winter, like a great Japanese wave from Hokusai, in summer like a large greyish rock; but throughout the present year (even if not always seen due to air pollution) a “place” of the city[24]. Thus, the Cordillera – the Chilean Coastal Range – and the Pacific, two large screens mirroring and reflecting the sunlight, transmitting it to the cities.

4.8 There are faults, volcanoes, earthquakes

The Cordillera contains dangerous faults in its slopes towards the city, some today dangerously inhabited due to a lack of awareness.

An earthquake is born hidden and manifests itself on the surface[25].

The city of Santiago, which is constantly growing, will join the coast, is stretching towards it. It can already be thought of as a city-region with a territory capable of being able to live together with earthquakes.

Here we wish to think of a utopian project.

Imagining a territory organized as a city-region, towards a goal, a new way of living in an unusual megalopolis, but one that leads to “happy living”. It is therefore necessary to know the collective dreams in a society that aims to have a “democratic inscription”, in order to be able to build, with the participation of and together with the specialists who take care of cities, architects, urban planners, geographers (very important for this design idea), engineers, scientists, politicians, as well as philosophers, and poets, who see what non-poets cannot see, and geologists (also very important in this vision), since they can see scientifically what happens below ground, which is invisible.

And so with this paragraph we wish to make a proposal for a territory, a special city-region in the centre of the country. [ref.23] [ref.24]

Imagining that this utopian proposal, in a central swathe of the country, from the Cordillera to the Pacific, can be thought of as a habitable territory which is moving towards a “happily habitable city-region...”, therefore a “beauty belt” of the living of the eye and the foot, with acute oblique glances from near to far, in harmony with one another [ref.5], freeing Santiago from an excess of governmental power and also freeing it from a unique metropolitan conception.

It is therefore necessary to expand it towards the sea, not in a natural way, but architecturally, conceived through urban planning and scientifically. [ref.22]

4.9 The architecture

Living in buildings of an experimental architecture, made using cheap materials, [ref.20] immersed in the green of the parks, taking care of the relationship with nature by protecting it as a heritage. Constructions in wood or adobe (unfired earth bricks) [ref.21], without access stairways, a symbol of power, but all on an easily accessible floor, a manifestation of a unique and democratic space; buildings which represent the architecture of a developing country with its multiplicity of ethnic groups [ref.27]. Some constructions in the midst of woods, others in the midst of semi-desert places, places which can have that same variety of nature that the country itself possesses. And with the pre-existent, a harmonious reunion of the old and the new.

New distances to inhabit, distances that take shape from a new way of life (post-pandemic), preparing for new pandemics, future earthquakes, and possible volcanic eruptions.

4.10 The society

Socially mixed neighbourhoods for an awareness of the diversity of economic entries (as I think it was in the ancient Italian Old Towns where the palaces of the nobility shared the neighbourhood with houses and artisan shops), and of the diversity of thinking [ref.27] and a new education which eliminates huge social inequalities[26].

4.11 The great geography

- The Cordillera: reaching this huge wave above the city with its ski centres, from the city itself. Being able to climb the Andes mountain range, not only to ski, but to enter it, to enter the first part of this South American “Inland Sea” [ref.18], transformed into a huge rocky park to be taken care of. Tunnels for connections beyond the Andes to join the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

- The Pacific Ocean, which invites you to sail it, with boats which allow you to extend this route between the Andes and the Ocean towards the sea, to go beyond the limits of this new “happily habitable city-region”. The first steps to enter the “non-Pacific Ocean”. The poetic destination of this beauty belt is the Pacific Ocean.

A territory of a city-region that stretches from the “Ocean Sea” to the “Inland Sea” of the continent.

4.12 Indigenous cultural plurality

A city-region which hosts a cultural plurality [ref.27] and a respect for and protection of animals and nature.

Imagining that the imprint of the past is present, just as the original peoples, the Mapuche[27], think today. For the natives, the present is to be lived, but the past is always present as in a rear-view mirror, which, looking forward, can be seen behind.

The future is to be foreseen.

For them, what is done daily, such as looking after the animals, cultivating the land, is not work..., it is life[28].

Respect for nature must be redeemed from the original peoples, as a heritage that must be taken care of.

This paragraph intends to propose a residential area which looks at the present from the past and projects itself towards the future (a union of the indigenous world with the Western world). [ref.25]

4.13 Nature as a protagonist

Nature is the protagonist of living (today some sociologists and anthropologists question the separation between nature and society and consider non-humans, plants and animals, to be players with full rights). Some contemporary philosophers promulgate a new perception of the world[29], and that we must celebrate a new relationship with the other beings that live with us. The original peoples have much to teach us on this theme, they are bearers of “another knowledge”; who knows if through them we might identify the causes of the ecological catastrophe currently underway[30].

This paragraph intends to propose the territory of a city that lives with other beings that forge nature and with which we could live together[31].

Thinking of a territory for urban and administrative living in the city, the region and the country, in close relationship with nature, aware that an earthquake might occur.

Parks to walk in, sports areas and roads flooded with greenery that could start being built now for the Pan American Games of 2023.

A territory of a “City-Region” that builds an “open ground”, open to citizens, to nature, to animals (veterinarians will see to this).

A large single piece of ground (from the democratic “in common” of the congregation, full of the light of the profile [ref.19], the light for a new living, continuing with the luminous observation begun in the Pajaritos Chapel project, but shaped by different parts, different parts that forge a single “democratic sign with an inscription” to be established (like the congregation of the southern churches).

This essay therefore presents the territory of a city-region, which, starting from architectural interventions, can achieve the status of a “Happily Inhabited City-Region”, an “open ground” which recovers the joy of belonging to a new form of city. [ref.28]

Thinking of a new proposal of governability, given that the State should be reformulated towards forms of administration in which democracy can manifest itself more directly, without representatives, who do not usually represent the civic thinking of citizens; a representation today in crisis, therefore moving towards a more real, less formal, direct and non-representative democracy, in which the plebiscite modality is frequent, otherwise we may never escape from this crisis of civilization.

This is the lesson we can remain with after the pandemic, with the crisis of institutions leading to non-governability and the building of a distance between people that prevents the groupings which favour tragedies in earthquakes.

Being able to think of the great architectural elements that allow meetings of small and large groups outdoors, taking the experience gathered in the churches of the south, a sign of a democratic meeting in which no one is above any other, all at the same level in order to think of the country together, under new forms of government and its inscription (for example those formulated by the “Demarchy”, a form of democracy now proposed by some, in which the participating citizens are drawn by lot), logically as a way that includes the new technologies of online communication, complementary to the idea of being face-to-face proposed here, in the form of assemblies such as the one proposed by the author of this essay for the 1997 Claustro Pleno (Congress of the entire Central University of Venezuela in Valparaíso, for that year), and the 2004 APEC (Congress of all the Pacific Rim countries) transformed into installations that shape from a distance thinking about the destination of this new “city-region”, between Santiago and Valparaíso, directing living anywhere from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. [ref.26]

Places to discuss the present and the destiny of Chile in this Southern Cone of America, in an intertwining of disciplines, a laboratory of the future of democracy, in Chile. This is the favourable moment, the study of a new Constitution is beginning, and all these aspects can be considered.

It could offer space for other South American countries to think of unity among themselves, a possible Latin-American Parliament.

Thinking not only of governability but of the tragedies that the Earth brings: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, effects of climate change and finally being able to think of the United States of South America, and not, as now, the disunited states of South America.

4.14 An “open ground” design

At the time of constructing the new churches in southern Chile, enormous changes were taking place, the congregation, an expression of a new democratic sense, and the city of Valparaíso which was never to recover, are events, the first positive and the second negative, that have built this world of ours.

Now a great change is desirable and necessary; we could say, a great virtual earthquake to shake the very foundations of society, the foundations of our life, and make us reflect on what it means to inhabit this land and not continue to live on it as if nothing was important enough to change, while instead we must move towards a new type of society and a new type of city. [ref.16] [ref.17]

For this idea of the city, some ideas for a new type of society and an invitation to other disciplines to think about it have been developed here, the artists (whom we shall see below) have already done so in their own way, but we also need the word of the poets, philosophers, geologists, geographers, scientists, and all those who could bring an orientation to this new time, on the land of a city-region that wants to aim towards happy living.

The construction of a land which allows this America to be seen from the depths of the earth, and not only from the “inscriptions on the surface” (the extended plan of this new city-region, but also underground, looking for the origin of earthquakes , and through the dead..., who have much to teach us). [ref.29]

We have seen two architectural interventions after the earthquakes and an architectural proposal in preparation for this to happen, however, we can reflect on how the world of art “sees” the earthquake, perhaps this world has more capacity than the world of architecture to think of a meaningful “sign” a “signal” to reflect.

The “Sign” to transform the catastrophe of the earthquake into a creative force[32].

Let us carry on to see the “Signs” in contemporary art:

5.1 The sign of Athenea

Athenea a sculpture (by Claudio Girola) at the meeting of two watercourses, forces of nature that meet in Santiago de Chile[33].

The poet G. Iommi wrote: “Therefore, this city must work to ensure that its disasters are dealt with in such a way that adversity is transformed into a resource.[34]“

Looking for the “sign” [ref.10] that indicates Amereida, we read in the notes the poetic word written on the spot[35].

A sculpture to be pursued beneath the pergolas, a living on foot with close-up gazes towards the sculpture with the eye in distant gazes towards the river and the hills, oblique gazes like those constructed in Huinay, a fishermen’s cove in southern Chile, (1970) where a tsunami carried the cemetery away, but the inhabitants continue to live there, with the dead submerged[36].

The Huinay “sign” is a tribute to the flood dead.

5.2 The “Sign” [ref.12] of Terrae Motus

In contemporary art, the Terrae Motus[37] exhibition in Caserta, Naples, appeared after the Irpinia catastrophe.

Lucio Amelio, a Neapolitan dealer in contemporary art, summoned the great artists of the time to transform the catastrophe of the earthquake into a creative force[38].

A “Sign” of the earthquake in Caserta; works of art with a close-up gaze, and the palace of the Reggia, with its distant gaze, in a spatial union of oblique gazes between the old and the new.

5.3 The “Sign” [ref.13] of the Cretto di Gibellina

From the earthquake of the Belice Valley in Sicily; the great Cretto di Gibellina by Alberto Burri was born. A Land Art work 1984-89[39].

Transforming the catastrophe into a work of art through a great creative force.

A “Sign” indicating a village devastated by an earthquake; a “Sign” built on the very site of the earthquake, in its alleyways, inhabiting it with the foot and the eye, in near and far gazes, forging trajectories of gazes that coexist in harmony. [ref.5] “Silence with white, Burri wanted, not black, absolutely white is the light, the light of the crack, the light where darkness has occurred, the light that springs from the rubble, from the presence of death, and elevates the wound to the dignity of beauty.[40]“

Epilogue:

We have seen the reconstructions of churches in southern Chile after the 1960 earthquake; we have seen the case of the projects for Valparaíso after the 1906 earthquake; we have seen an idea ofa utopian project for a city-region of happy living, which studies this land to predict earthquakes, on the 33^rd parallel of Chile. Three gazes towards a luminous space through trajectories that seek to connect the foot to the eye in harmony to welcome the poetic word which says that it is this lack of harmony which makes this America an abyssal land [ref.5].

Each of the three key words at the beginning of this text receive a manifestation in contemporary art, manifestations which allow us to reflect from another point of view on what has been exhibited; one in Chile, the other two in Italy.

Sign: Athenea

Light: Cretto

Gazes: Terrae Motus

* The meanings of the keywords are intertwined...

* For the relationship between the Amereida poem and the written text, the notes placed in square brackets [ref.xx] referring to the text are found alongside the lines.

* Another widely used word is “inscription” which also comes from the poetic word of Amereida, in a particular reading of it. [ref.14]

Notes

[1] In this essay, ‘America’ is taken to mean the entire continent: North America and South America or Latin America.

[2]Amereida: all of Latin America was occupied by the Spaniards along its edges to better defend the settlements. See Vv.Aa., Amereida. Ediciones e[ad] PUCV, 2011.

[3] The poetic vision of the constellation of the "Southern Cross" marks the Pacific Ocean as an adventure. See Vv.Aa., Amereida. Ediciones e[ad] PUCV, 2011.

[4] Vv.Aa. (1967) – Amereida. Volumen primero. Editorial Cooperativa Lambda, Santiago de Chile.

[5] O’Gorman E. (1992) - La invención de América. Ed. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México; Errazuriz Zañartu J. (2000) - Cuenca del Pacífico. 4000 años de contactos culturales. Ed.U.C.de Chile; Góngora M. (1975) - Studies in the history of Spanish America. Cambridge University Press; Cruz A., Iommi G., et al. (1971) -Para un punto de vista latinoamericano del Océano Pacífico. Es.Arq. UCV Revista de Estudios del Pacífico [www.ead.pucv/escuela/amereida]; Iommi G. (1984) - El Pacífico es un mar erótico (Conversación en la Ciudad Abierta a propósito del Pacífico) 1984,published on the school’s site [www.ead.pucv/escuela/amereida].

[6] The “Leyes de Indias” [“Laws of the Indies”] were promulgated by the Spanish monarchy to regulate the social, political and economic life of its colonial territories in South America. Ed Cultura Hispánica 1973.

[7] Garcia B. M. (2006) - “El discurso poético mapuche”. Revista Chilena de Literatura, 68. Ed universidad de la Frontera.

[8] America was a gift to the world, Europe was looking for the Indies and found this land not realizing it was a new continent; Columbus never knew he had arrived in an unknown land, he thought he had arrived in the Indies.

[9]We don't have roots like Europeans; here in America the historical development from its origins was interrupted with the arrival of Europe.

[10] Maturana H., Varela R. (1984) - “Ontologia del lenguaje”. in: El árbol del conocimiento. Ed. Universitaria, Santiago del Chile.

[11] Brighenti T. (2018) – “La Scuola di Valparaíso: l’osservazione, l’atto e la forma. L’insegnamento dell’architettura come pratica costruttiva”. in: Idem Pedagogie architettoniche. Scuole, didattica, progetto. Accademia University Press, Turin, pp. 25-75.

[12] Sentence taken from Alberto Cruz's personal notes from 1961 in which he speaks about the Jesuit Church of Puerto Montt.

[13] Mistral G. (1936) - Geografía Humana de Chile. Discurso en la Unión Panamericana Washington 4/1936, [Bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl]; Neruda P. (1960) – “Terremoto en Chile”. in: Idem, La Barcarola. Ed. Losada, Buenos Aires; Parra V. (1961) - Toda Violeta Parra. (An anthology presented by Alfonso Alcalde) Vol. VIII del Folklore de Chile.

[14]José Vial stated that "... the work brought great problems with the local authorities of the Jesuits, who did not accept the new form of the church, saying that the transformations did not belong to them and that they would not return to using the church, saying that they would never reconcile the old with the new; the faithful did not like it either, some because the transformed church was not the same as the old one, others because they would have preferred a brand-new church, which would have cost even less, and would have been better... only some (it is not known how many...), would make it their own. Sentence taken from personal notes of José Vial written in 1961.

[15] Compared to the regularity inherited from the Roman castrum, the “ideal city” of the Renaissance brought to America from Spain was not evident in Valparaíso, a port city which had grown haphazardly.

[16] Pablo Manuel Millán-Millán (2015) - Los Planes de reconstrucción de Valparaíso (Chile), tras el terremoto de 1906: la búsqueda de la modernidad en el trazado urbano”. in: Biblio3W, Revista Bibliográfica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, Vol XX no.1.129.

[17] Munford L. (1966) - La ciudad en la historia, sus orígenes, transformaciones y perspectivas. Infinito, Buenos Aires.

[18] Waisberg M. (1999) - “El multifacético patrimonio d Valparaíso”. in: Monumentos y Sitios de Chile. ICOMOS-CHILE, Ed. Altazor, Santiago de Chile, p. 153.

[19] Hernandez M. M. (2005) – “Un texto de Immanuel Kant sobre las causas de los terremotos (1756)”. Evsal Revistas Vol. 6, nov. 23, Ed. Universidad de Salamanca 2005.

[20] Rocío Peñalta Catalán R. (2009) – “Voltaire: una reflexión filosófico-literaria sobre el terremoto de Lisboa de 1755”. Revista de Filosofía Románica, vol. 26 pp. 187-204.

[21] The "Inland Sea", the vast interior of Latin America described in Amereida (an epic poem by various authors). See Vv.Aa., Amereida. Ediciones e[ad] PUCV, 2011.

[22] Valéry P. (2000) – Eupalinos o el arquitecto / El alma y la danza (La balsa de la Medusa). Ed. A. Machado Libros, Madrid.

[23] See Barla B. (2020) – “Verso una megalopoli felicemente abitabile. Quattordici ritratti e scenari poetico-architettonici di una città globale, Santiago del Cile”. Singola. Storie di scenari e orizzonti, [https://www.singola.net/pensiero/santiago-verso-una-megalopoli-abitabile-bruno-barla].

[24] Norberg-Schulz C. (1991) - Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. Rizzoli, New York.

[25] The Italian writer Erri De Luca speaks of the earthquake as "a shipwreck on earth" referring to the tremors which struck Central Italy in 2016.

[26] Barla B. (2020) - “Quando il virus se ne andrà, una relazione utopica tra Virus, Vizi e Virtù. Verso la costruzione di un mondo migliore”. in: Sestito M., Scenari post pandemia. Arte. Architettura. Utopia. Timia, Roma. 

[27] See Castro Martínez A. (2021) - “El mapuche en la ciudad”. Le Monde Diplomatique [Chile], 226, p. 8.

[28] See García Barrera M. (2006) – “El discurso poético mapuche y su vinculación con los ‘temas de resistencia cultural’”. Revista Chilena de Literatura, 68, pp. 169-197.

[29] Cavieres C. A. (2020) - “¿Cómo avanzar hacia la protección de la naturaleza”?. Le Monde Diplomatique [Chile], 223, p. 14.

 [30] Poupeau F. (novembre 2020) - “El ambientalismo de los ricos”. Le Monde Diplomatique [Chile], 223, p.15.

[31] In some countries like New Zealand, the constitution recognizes the right of some rivers, giving them unprecedented legal status by equating them to a person. See Carrasco Hidalgo C. (2020) - “La luz al final del camino para una recuperación verde”. Le Monde Diplomatique [Chile], 223, p.11.

[32] See Claro A. (2014) - Tiempos sin fin. Ediciones Bastante.

[33] ATHENEA: A monument placed at the intersection of two rivers (Maipo-Mapocho) in Santiago de Chile, made by A. Cruz, M. Eyquem, G. Iommi, C. Girola, V. Boskovic, March 1990 ARQ March 14, 1990.

[34] “The name of this monument is Athenea: because it ‘signals’ what it meant for the Greek city and continues to mean for any city to this day. Athenea had her place on the Acropolis; this is what happened in Athens and from there she indicated to the city that adversity must be transmuted into necessary coexistence, pointing out that what appears as adverse must be dealt with as such to transmute it into something favourable, into a source of peace. The Cordillera brings down catastrophes from it, but at the same time gives Santiago a light that bathes it with its splendour, a splendour which comes from the high illuminated peaks, and which makes it that light mentioned in the poem. Consequently, this city must work to ensure that its catastrophes are dealt with in such a way that adversity is transformed into a resource like that named ‘light’.” (Iommi G.1990).

[35]ATHENEA

1. cual promisorio
2. o detrás
3. cercada luz

-el secreto no registra-

4. Aún otra
5. intima
6. se dice a si

conmoviendo la apariencia

7. Tal antaño

por nieves negras

8. al hilo

ciñe

ciegas

libertades

recurrentes

9. Esta tierra guarda

El silencio inviolable de su eco

10. y vedada

Se enamora de sus gentes

11. Lampara

Que todo olvido vuelve

* Notas al poema “ATHENEA”

1. Aún la catástrofe encierra una esperanza: lo promisorio
2. La Cordillera, el fondo o el detrás de la ciudad construye, cercando como un vaso abierto la luz magnifica de la ciudad
3. Pero a primera vista la razón, la causa de ese efecto-el secreto-no se registra
4. la tierra se hace a si misma otra
5. cuando tiembla
6. ella se dice si misma al temblar conmoviendo la apariencia
7. desde siempre las nieves cordilleranas
8. se deslizan en hilos (Mapocho, Maipo) y encauza ciñe las aguas libertadas violentas, recurrentes,

Por esos lechos bajan a su vez las ondas telúricas.

9. Pero este lugar cuida el silencio del eco que se produce entre su estremecimiento y su permanente presencia segura,
10. Como si al temblar indicara que nadie puede poseerla (pues ella es sólo eco de sí misma) y así de algún modo vedada toma distancia para enamorarse de sus gentes.
11. Cordillera, ríos, conjunción de ambos en el San Carlos que une el Maipo al Mapocho, son la lámpara que recuerda la destinación de la ciudad.

Por eso que todo olvido, querer olvidar, gracias a ese peculiar modo de ser lugar, el destino vuelve

[36] Bruno Barla et.al., “Travesía a Huinay”. A Travesía carried out with the architecture students at the Valparaíso School in which a work of architectural opening was built in homage to the now submerged dead.

[37] Terrae Motus: from the Irpinia earthquake a contemporary art collection of the most famous world artists of the 1980s was born. See the Salotto dell’Arte, 2016 [https://www.ondawebtv.it/].

[38] The artists taking part were: Beuys, Warhol, Mapplethorpe, Pistoletto, Jannis, Kounellis, Paladino, Haring, Rauschenberg, Paolini, Cucchi, Fabro, Condo.

[39] Arendt H. (2005) - La condicion humana. Editorial Paidós, Buenos Aires.

[40] Massimo Recalcati and Aurelio Amendola Massimo: Alberto Burri. Il Grande Cretto di Gibellina, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria Perugia, 2 November 2018.