Detalle Casa Club CDUC en San Carlos de Apoquindo. / Detail Club House CDUC in San Carlos de Apoquindo.
El premio lo sorprendió: “Todos peleamos por hacer bien nuestro trabajo, ¿por qué decidieron que yo era especial?”. Más que haber ganado incontables concursos de arquitectura, diseñado numerosos edificios públicos, abordado los más importantes parques urbanos recientes o enseñado 30 años seguidos, Teo Fernández piensa que su gran mérito es haber impulsado de manera consciente el rol de los arquitectos en el campo de la arquitectura y el paisaje público. En una conversación libre y abierta, fue uno de los temas que tocó con el comité editorial de Revista AOA. The award surprised him: “We all strive to do a good job, why did they decide that I was special?” Rather than for having won countless architecture competitions, designed numerous public buildings, tackled the most important recent urban parks or taught for 30 years in a row, Teo Fernández believes that his contribution is having promoted in a conscious way the role of architects in the field of architecture and the public landscape. In a free and open conversation, this was one of the issues he discussed with the editorial board of AOA Magazine.
His office began its operation in 1991 and is nourished by a large number of projects in the public realm - private commissions have been the least – obtained through competitions. From the Estación Mapocho Cultural Center in the early 1990s to the recently inaugurated Bicentenario Moneda buildings and the Onemi Building in Santiago, from educational projects such as the library of the Lo Contador campus, the Faculty of Theology and Scuola Italiana in San Carlos de Apoquindo, to such unique works as a Columbarium for the Archbishopric of Santiago, a fish farming installation or the landscaping for a biodynamic vineyard. But undoubtedly the most visible and recognized are his designs for important urban parks. Among those built, Inés de Suárez Park, the renovation of Quinta Normal Park, Bicentennial Park, all in Santiago, and the Kaukari Park in Copiapó. Pending client decisions or funding are Cautín Island Park in Temuco and the Park of the Citizenship in the National Stadium. As he himself has said: “I am eager to work and I enjoy designing a fence, a small room or a 60 hectare park”. Although in this conversation with the editorial board of AOA Magazine the agreement was to focus on his works of architecture – his landscape career was addressed in issue number 20 - the landscape, geography, urban parks, and the role of the architect as a builder of public spaces were unavoidable. The landscape simply comes with Teo Fernández.
Born in San Sebastián, Basque country, Teodoro Fernández (66) emigrated to Chile as a small child with his family, a small family of immigrants without networks and contacts in this remote part of the world. This is the reason that upon leaving the Piarist Fathers School his father did not see with enthusiasm his son Teo enrolling in architecture: “he thought, who was going to give me a commission in a country where we barely knew anybody”. He insisted that he first study engineering as Bonifacio (his twin, a leading expert on hydraulic issues) and then see. “The only thing I saw was a trap”, he says laughing. His father died before his son received the highest honor that a professional can aspire for in Chile, and Fernández would have liked to show him that “yes, you can become an architect without a family, social, or economic network”. After graduating from the Catholic University (1972) and living 10 years in Madrid, he returned to Chile to establish himself professionally and begin what would become a long and respected teaching career, mainly as a teacher of design workshop at the Catholic University, where he was part of the Group of scholars who created the first postgraduate program in landscape architecture with University status in the country. In fact, this aspect of his career was recognized in 2008 with the Award for Academic Excellence, while his contributions to architecture have earned him the Reina Sofia International Award (2008), the Great AOA Medal in 2013 and finally the National Architecture Award in 2014.
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