COMPETITION IS A MINGA Until 1981, when the College of Architects became a Trade
to the north, the Catholic Temple, the public school, the bank, the Richter Stores, the German Institute and the General Cemetery; to the south, the boat landing, the hotel, the Fire Department and the Lutheran Temple. On the second row, on the plateau overlooking the lake, the hospital, the industrial high school, the headquarters of Universidad de Chile, the entrance to the Botanical Garden, and Reserva Winkler, were located. What is now known as Frutillar's typical architecture were houses made in local sawmills, delivered to the owner as a prefabricated KIT. The buyer chose the model from catalogs that arrived from the Old Continent. When he received the sawn material, the owner organized a party with the neighbors who helped him build it. This cultural environment, characterized by a harmonious dialogue between city and nature, marked Edwin Weil's understanding of architecture. In 1941, when he entered Universidad de Chile to study, he was coming from an active laboratory of urbanism with citizen participation. The Capital and the Plaza Ercilla School allowed him to place that experience in a national and international context. At that time, the country was recovering from the great Chillán earthquake (1939) and the world was shaken by the bombings of World War II. In 1942 he witnessed the enactment of the law that created the College of Architects and in 1944 the law that created the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Universidad de Chile. Two years later, in 1946, his colleagues succeeded in imposing a new curriculum that followed the BAUHAUS educational principle: learning by building, just as he had done in his father's mechanic workshop. At the end of 1946, with his degree and plans to marry a woman from Santiago, he looked for a job in the capital. His supervising professor, Don Juan Martínez Gutiérrez, got him an interview for a vacancy in the Directorate of Architecture. The next day he went to work at the MOP, the institution to which he worked for 50 years. One of his first assignments came directly from the Presidency of the Republic. Gabriel González Videla, a young president who had an ambitious plan to modernize the Coquimbo province, had just taken office. Overnight an urgent task arrived at the office. A blueprint for the new Intendencia building was needed by the next day. Recognizing the opportunity, Edwin Weil signed up for the assignment. He stayed up all night and the next day presented the plans and a watercolor perspective to the President. He was assigned the project and became the youngest co-author of Plan Serena. He then assumed a leadership position. From that position, he designed and managed the sports infrastructure required to organize the World Cup and supervised the preparation of the first Metropolitan Regulatory Plan of Santiago PRMS, developed by urban planners Juan Honold and Juan Parrochia. In the first part of his professional career, he had a private office with his friend Mario Recordon and his wife Graciana Parodi. They won numerous public tenders, among them: the University Boarding School of Concepción (1947); the Central Bank of Osorno (1952); the Sokol Gymnasium of Punta Arenas (1955), the Hostería de Frutillar (1957) and the Municipality of Osorno (1958). They built private homes for clients in Santiago and the south. The Valdivia earthquake (1960) put the “less is more” philosophy to the test. With Graciana Parodi's structural calculations, they had designed buildings with flexible structures that responded perfectly to the stresses of the cataclysm. Amid the contingency caused by the earthquake and the World Cup, Mr. Jorge Risopatrón, who held the position of National Director of Architecture, fell ill. To replace him, the President asked for three candidates. All of them included Edwin Weil. Something unusual in national politics then took place: a career civil servant, due to his merits, was able to access a position of exclusive confidence of the President of the Republic. Between 1961 and 2000, he held the position of National Director in the Ministry of Public Works under five different administrations.
Association, there was a formal relationship between the Directorate of Architecture and the professional institution. The law assigned the responsibility of overseeing the ethical behavior of its members and the development of the correct practices of the profession to the Association. One of these practices was architectural competitions. For Edwin Weil, who participated in several and was a juror in many, the competition was a tradition related to the minga chilota. The community gathered to celebrate the profession in pursuit of a higher good. It was a sensible exercise that demonstrated the commitment of architects to the nation's destiny. He affirmed that “as important as the solution chosen by the jury, was the set of alternatives that were called upon”. He believed that the project chosen should incorporate, as far as possible, all the good contributions that had been made in the process. He regretted that, by transforming the institution of the competition into an administrative procedure to assign service contracts, the country would lose out. The absence of this collegiate professional space has contributed, for example, to the development of excessively bureaucratic practices, known as “permitology”. ILLUSTRABLE SON By 1956, when the city's centennial was celebrated, Frutillar's waterfront was consolidated with elegant private residences and complete civic facilities. The families who lived in the first row cultivated beautiful gardens and took care of the beach in front of them. The only tourist infrastructure was the Richter Warehouse pier where the Santa Rosa (1902-1957), the last steamship that sailed the Llanquihue, docked. It had been remodeled in 1938 as a tourist cruise ship and its useful life was about to end. With this in mind, the idea of building a tourist inn on the waterfront was presented to the President of the Republic at the Centennial Gala. The proposal resonated with the President, who immediately committed funds for the project. In 1957 the municipality called for an architectural competition which was won by Edwin Weil. Three years later, when the great Valdivia earthquake struck, the building was ready for completion. The catastrophe forced a change in priorities. Fourteen years passed before work was resumed. The experience of staying at the hosteria was very similar to that of sailing on a cruise ship. In 1995, a room caught fire. Because there was no insurance coverage, the municipality terminated the concession and the building was abandoned. The Teatro del Lago was built in its place. THE CAPITAL OF COPPER When Unidad Popular came to power, Edwin Weil had to retire from the MOP at the age of 48. That moment helped him to establish a private office that he had with his wife, architect Graciana Parodi. 1971 was a complex year for Chile. Rain and snow storms in the central zone were followed by an earthquake and the enactment of the nationalized copper law. The Swell camp was moved to Rancagua, turning the provincial capital of O'Higgins into the symbol of the country's political, economic, and social transformations. In this context, the Directorate of Architecture called for a competition for the Rancagua Public Services building, which was won by the office of Edwin Weil and Graciana Parodi. The architectural program was resolved in a 10-story building located in front of Plaza de Armas. Due to the economic crisis of those years, construction was not undertaken until 1978. At that time, Edwin Weil had returned to the position of National Director of Architecture. Following the new economic policy guidelines, he reduced the program and completely redesigned the building under a 4-story scheme. As a representative of the Treasury, Edwin Weil had to minimize the project he had won as an architect.
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