Juan Borchers's five talks in Madrid. Their origin and impact

Abstract

The theoretical framework associated to the Chilean architect Juan Borchers tends to portray a personal, local and intimate connection. His texts are difficult to decipher and his frame of reference covers from ancient Greece, or the Renaissance of Leon Battista Alberti, to the last treatise writer: Le Corbusier. This article presents two less-known aspects of his theoretical production. On the one hand, it defends the Workshop as an entity, organized around a system of postal communication. Borchers, Suárez and Bermejo tried to position their theories within the international circle and, in doing so, they opened a new understanding of their views, at the time considered contemporary, despite coming from a remote country: Chile. On the other hand, this article connects Borchers’ writings to the city of Madrid, how he got to have an influential role among architects and critics in the 1970s, and who helped him get to that position. Madrid was not only a meeting point, but also part of the context and content of the five lectures of his theories, that evoke a special knowledge of the world and of the history of Architecture.