
In early July, the Minister of Public Works, Hernán de Solminihac, and a delegation of prominent Chilean architects, participated in a series of conferences in Shanghai and Beijing to provide information about the main strengths of Chilean architecture.

Appearing over 100 times on TV, radios, specialized magazines, newspapers and information portals, “Chile’s Week of Architecture, Engineering and Infrastructure” was widely covered by the media in China, which highlighted the Chilean architecture’s sustainability and anti-seismic design.

A seminar was held in Shanghai with the presence of Chile’s Minister of Public Works, Hernán de Solminihac, Chinese authorities, representatives of ProChile and of the Architectural Office Association of Chile (AOA), which successfully showed the characteristics of Chilean architecture that may be attractive for Chinese investors.
This event is one of the different activities contemplated by ProChile’s strategy of positioning Chile’s service exports in China.

With a photography show and a series of conferences, a group of Chilean architects together with the Minister of Public Works, Hernán de Solminihac, explained why Chile’s infrastructure was able to successfully withstand one of the strongest earthquakes that have hit the planet in recent years.

A little over three months after the earthquake and tsunami that affected the Chilean south, a project promoted by the Municipality of Lo Barnechea and the Asociación de Oficinas de Arquitectos (AOA) will allow building new housing units in this legendary island, together with designing a master plan that will substantially improve the quality of living of its inhabitants.

With a photographic sample and a series of conferences, a group of Chilean architects will explain why their country’s infrastructure was able to successfully resist one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded in the last few years.

With around 15,000 visitors a day, the building has captivated the Chinese public with attractions such as the “Well of the Antipodes” and original products from our country. Also, in July it will receive a delegation of architects from the AOA.

© Nicolas Saieh
52 stories and almost 200 meters high, the “Titanium La Portada” tower, in operation since May, is not only one of the ten tallest skyscrapers in Latin America but it also firmly withstood the earthquake that devastated Chile last February.

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.

As part of the project "Ruta de las Caletas" ("The Fishing Bays Route"), financed by the Luksic group through their affiliate Antofagasta Minerals, the Association of Architect Offices in Chile (AOA) is actively participating in this tourism initiative that aims at strengthening the economic development of several towns damaged by the earthquake of February last.

The main Chinese media pointed out the high quality of Chilean buildings, which were able to resist one of the strongest earthquakes in history, thus saving many lives.
The project, submitted together by six Chilean architect offices, consisted in planning a 50 ha area for the complementary program and landscape master plan of the new airport in the city of Hefei.

An agreement for the collaboration between the Chilean Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo and the AOA was subscribed today by the chairman of the Asociación de Oficinas de Arquitectos (AOA), Patrick Turner, and Hernán Somerville, the Commissioner General for Chile at the 2010 version of this universal exposition.