Architects reward the supporters of reconstruction

FEL_7213

The Association of Architects’ Offices AOA rewarded businessmen Jean Paul Luksic of Antofagasta Minerals, Carlos Alberto Délano of the Telethon Foundation and the mayor of Lo Barnechea, Felipe Guevara, for their participation in the reconstruction projects of Curepto, Juan Fernández and Fishing Villages in the center of the country fostered by the AOA.

The awards were handed in within the framework of the association’s Annual Ceremony which gathers together 173 of the most important architectural offices in the country.

This time, the Chairman of the AOA, Patrick Turner, spelt out the details of the reconstruction project that the Association is developing in the towns of Juan Fernández, Curepto, Fishing Villages in Maule and in the Modular Schools that the Telethon Foundation is bringing from the USA.

Regarding these initiatives – shouldered by the Association in an alliance with the private sector, authorities and the communities affected - Turner stated that “in the year of our Bicentenary, our mission is to help the country, rebuilding with quality and improving on what there was before in each of the places affected, both in urban development terms as well as in construction issues”. And he added that “working in a coordinated fashion with the authorities and the communities as we are doing today ensures that the projects respond to people’s real needs and that they can be executed quickly and effectively”.

Regarding the initiative at Juan Fernández, the mayor of Lo Barnechea, Felipe Guevara, pointed out that “the master plan we are working on, paves the way toward designing the village of San Juan Bautista anew and sustainably. The idea is to generate a new image for the island oriented toward tourism and the fisheries. This is a grand opportunity for Juan Fernández to become an icon of our country’s tourism”.

On the other hand, businessman Jean Paul Luksic of Antofagasta Minerals, one of the prize-winners and sponsor of the initiative aimed at recovering the productive sectors of the fishing industry in villages in the Maule Region, said that “this is a project that we shall be undertaking together with the Association of Architects’ Offices in Chile (AOA), who have offered their professional work free of charge to develop tourism infrastructure that hitherto was practically nonexistent”.

At the same time, the progress made with the Promotions Plan of Chilean Contemporaneous Architecture in China was announced, with which the Association expects to expand markets for exporting professional services to Asian markets within the framework of Expo Shanghai.