Chile singular. Apuntes de viaje

J O U R N E Y N O T E S Since my early childhood, I have drawn with crayons and colors, submerging myself in the innocence of expressing myself freely without apprehensions or rules. My time in a school of architecture taught me that drawing needs an intention beyond simple enjoyment. My history of architecture courses and the studio assignments let me explore and analyze cities and edifices through drawing. I learnt that through observation one discovers, and to draw is to comprehend and give evidence. As a student, I ascended the hills of Valparaíso with my notebooks, I took the train south to Chiloe’s archipelago, and I sailed between its islands and churches, making sketches and taking notes. I traveled to the Atacama desert to roam its towns and abandoned nitrate mines. All these drawings and discoveries filled the pages I presented in the architectural history and heritage courses; in the assignments of architecture workshop/studio; and finally formed the base of the memoir and the final project of my degree. It was in the late ‘70s, as a young architect, that I chased the buildings and cities that we had studied a thousand and one times in the faculty. I traveled to distant lands seeking the traces of the great architectures of the past and the present. I went through America, I flew to Europe and beyond, crossing the world several times over, always to learn, to draw, to understand, and to discover and store in my notebook’s memory all the routes I had taken. I filled my notebook with the abandoned cities of Prehispanic America, the modern works of Mexican architects, the unexpected magnitude of the north American cities. I studied and traveled through the cities of Europe drawing squares and stone buildings. I arrived at the far east to surprise myself with its temples and traditions, that I recorded in notebooks and drawings. I crossed to Africa to see the desert and to know cities of sand and shadows. I returned many times to continue the voyage, always with pen and paper to search and to see further and better. More than 50 years have passed since this architect’s travels far from his homeland. Notebooks were fi l led, expositions and presentations were made. And now, in this new book, I retrace my steps to where I began. One must go far away and for a long time to be able to return with a different perspective on the places to which one belongs; to return to these places that seem not to have changed and realize how much one has. Travel not only takes us to real places, but also to an interior journey of knowledge and understanding of our own identity. If one wants to know the world and oneself, one must go traveling; the road will provide the teachings. Having completed the fieldtrips (travesías) and my pilgrimage, I returned to draw in my own country and came back to the places where all the voyages started. This publication collects drawings and observations of towns and cities with strong characters and identities, hence the title “Singular Chile (Chile singular)”. From north to south, our elongated country offers a notable diversity that expresses itself strongly in the architecture and its relationship with the scenery. To wonder, to observe, and to draw these places is to be submerged in our cultural roots and to connect with the territory , the architecture, and the collective and essential inheritance of our history. To gather, in a minimal sense, in these pages, the beauty and singularity of Chile has been a gift to for this draftsman and has helped him remember who we really are. JORGE IGLESIS GUILLARD 08