Chile will show the strengths of its architecture at Expo Shanghai

Shanghai 002

In July, a little over two months after the start of Expo Shanghai, the Chilean Pavilion will prepare itself for one of its main activities, in which a delegation of Chilean architects will explain why their country’s constructions successfully resisted the 8.8 Richter degree earthquake occurred last February.

The architects will participate in a series of conferences in Shanghai and Beijing, in which they will set out the main strengths of Chilean architecture, including its anti-seismic, sustainable and avant-garde design. In addition, they will provide a detail of certain recently developed projects such as the Titanium and Costanera Center towers, which will be among the tallest buildings in Latin America.

“The earthquake of last February was the maximum ordeal for Chilean architecture in the last decades”, said Fernando Marín, project manager of “Arquitectura de Chile” and director of the Asociación de Oficinas de Arquitectos (AOA). “Thanks to it, however, we were able to verify that in Chile we’ve carried out a world-level work that is exactly in line with the objectives of this universal exhibition, which is to contribute to the quality of life of people in the cities”.

Despite the fact that the earthquake that affected Chile was one of the most powerful ones recorded in history, the design of the country’s constructions, the strict regulations, and the supervision performed by Chilean engineers, allowed the occurrence of what the international press has denominated “a miracle of anti-seismic architecture”.

Together with the conferences, there will be a photographic exhibition that will show Expo Shanghai attendants some of the most outstanding works of contemporary Chilean architecture.

The work of the Chilean architects is particularly relevant because, according to information published in the press, half the deaths caused by an earthquake occurred in the 20th Century have taken place in the Asian giant, and 49% of them were due to the collapse of a building.