Free Dialogue With Heritage

architects Klotz y Asociados, Alvano + Riquelme
project Palacio Astoreca Hotel, Valparaiso, Chile
written by Ricardo Abuauad

 

 Valparaíso seaport, a major stopover for merchant navy before Panama Canal was opened, witnessed rapid material prosperity and its population becoming wealthy during the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, therefore resulting in the construction of a new model of the city. Construction of significant buildings with facades decorated with ornamentation as well as integration of public spaces changed the appearance of the city and transformed the scope of urbanity from the one valid within local and national context to an entirely different pole of values – the status of an internationally important seaport. Life of a seaport stimulated a peculiar diversity, which implied that harbouring of large vessels symbiotically merged with the lifestyle of prosperous bourgeois, trades, and industry.