The Architecture Biennial and the Establishment of Neoliberalism. The Gradual Transformation of the Architect’s Profession in Chile, 1977 – 1983

Abstract

The relationship between the production of architectural debates and the implementation of the neoliberal model in Chile, is especially relevant to analyze considering that the vectors of the early implementation of the neoliberal model –such as policies oriented to the deregulation of the market, the reduction of the State and the weakening of civil organizations– found in the urban space a key resource. The forging of a “neoliberal urbanism” –in addition to a political process of broad and violent cultural transformations– directly affected the architect’s professional practice, obliterating his public role and transforming the social perception of the discipline. In this context, the essay explores how the professional and pedagogical debates of architecture changed, in relation to the cultural transformations imposed by neoliberalism in Chile. To do that, it focuses on the definition and the outcomes of the Chilean Architecture Biennial, a surrogate public sphere developed in the context of the dictatorship, where the professional clash between a social and a market oriented professional practice is rendered through the record that the biennial offers of the encounter between architectural discourse and public policies, pedagogical projects and conceptual frameworks of architecture.