In October 2018, the second edition of the Wood and Architecture exhibition, organized by the Universidad San Sebastián School of Architecture in Puerto Montt, was held in the main hall of the Puerto Montt Historical Museum. The exhibition featured work resulting from an invitation to ten young Chilean architecture firms to participate in a small wood architecture brief: a mountain shelter for a Patagonian national park. The images, plans, and models from these exercises in wood exploration, alongside models, drawings, and photographs of various expressions of woodworking by students and faculty of the USS School of Architecture, were visited by more than 3,500 people.
Woodworking has always been closely linked to the culture of the southern part of our country. Its use undoubtedly transcends the material's functional or structural possibilities, serving as an indisputable component of our culture and heritage.
To continue promoting the use of this material, the third edition of this exhibition will take place this year. This time, the goal is to broaden the range of exhibitors by inviting professionals from outside the USS School of Architecture to participate in a new architectural brief, allowing for continued exploration and speculation regarding the material's structural and formal possibilities. We intend to once again invite prominent young architects from across the country whose work shares a common thread of reflection—a quality we believe will align well with the discourse we seek to generate around wood and architecture. In this way, we aim to foster an open dialogue regarding the various possibilities offered by contemporary architectural perspectives and the new material technologies available today.
