Cecilia Puga belongs, along with Smiljan Radic, Alejandro Aravena and Pezo von Ellrichshausen, to a new generation of Chilean architects who from their peripheral situation address concerns that are very much in keeping with certain avenues explored by European architecture.
Cecilia Puga belongs, along with Smiljan Radic, Alejandro Aravena and Pezo von Ellrichshausen, to a new generation of Chilean architects who from their peripheral situation address concerns that are very much in keeping with certain avenues explored by European architecture.
Notwithstanding the apparent isolation that might seem to go hand in hand with buildings created in this situation of remoteness, the work of this new batch of Chilean architects attempts to respond to scarcity by getting the most out of the material and spatial qualities of their designs. In this framework, Cecilia Puga's work responds to the wide range of commissions she has had (from single-family to communal housing and educational institutions), and proceeds from an optimistic attitude that does not, for all that, overlook such fundamental issues as the relationship between building and ground surface or the dialogue between mass in suspension and its stability.
This number of 2G brings together seventeen buildings and projects by the Chilean architect, including the exemplary House in Bahía Azul, in which the classic icon of the section of a house -the outline any child might draw- is manipulated, pivoted and transformed to produce a sense of strangeness in relation to its environment. Situated at the edge of a bare cliff on the Chilean coast, the icon is toned down and the house seems like a strange ruin in the landscape, almost.
The magazine contains introductory texts by her colleague Smiljan Radic and the Chilean architect and editor Patricio Mardones. In the nexus section, a personal photo album includes the Chilean vernacular architecture and landscapes that form an inspiration for Puga's work.