MONOLITH. CONTROVERSIES PABELLÓN DE CHILE - BOOK

DAM Architectural Book Award 2014.

Catalog for the Chilean contribution to the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale 2014, winner of the Silver Lion 2014.

A historical milestone of architectural modernism in Chile.

A large concrete slab is at the center of the Chilean pavilion: it is one of the first original wall panels made by the Chilean KPD factory for mass housing construction. The KPD industrial plant for the production of prefabricated houses was donated by the Soviet Union in 1971 to support the "democratic path to socialism" taken by President Salvador Allende. The record on display sparked political and ideological controversy. In a gesture of power, Allende engraved his signature in the damp concrete and Augusto Pinochet covered it again with a depiction of the Virgin and Child. The volume traces the history of this record using authentic voices, such as former KPD workers or residents of the prefabricated houses, and makes a fundamental contribution to the exhibition theme Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014. (Spanish edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3826-2)

Exhibition: La Biennale di Venezia – 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice June 7 – November 23, 2014