Teaching in Santiago, Chile

Our former partner Chris Whitman invited me to speak on Sustainable Architecture at a Conference at the Universidad Central where he teaches in the Laboratorio Bioclimatico - four big lectures in two days! I have just sent him my reflections on the trip:

Having not been to Santiago for twelve years, I got really excited as we flew in over the snow-clad Andes without a cloud in the sky. The journey from the airport was uneventful but three major changes became apparent; new housing developments were creeping higher up the foothills; then the Costanera Centre tower broke through the smog and appeared behind the Cerro San Cristobal and then the fast-flowing concrete road tunnel under the Rio Mapoccho, each change provoking the question 'but why?'

The success of Santiago as a World City is undoubted but tall buildings, many fully glazed, are built without any concern with orientation or the energy they will consume or the parking that they generate. Although the metro is as popular as the new bus system seems unpopular, Santiago is a car-city and Chile a car-country, the downside of which is the smog over Santiago and the dependency on importing the ever-diminishing quantities of oil.

I remember from way back in 1973 how the centre of Santiago and many of the neighbourhoods were eminently walkable but not now. I set off like a good European to walk around the downtown; it felt familiar but then I walked up Calle San Antonio and was shocked to find myself in a street of multi-storey garages; where had the city gone to? And where were the cyclists? In comparison London is relatively hilly and admittedly slightly more temperate but I cycle on average 10 kilometres a day to go to work, for speed between meetings and for some modest exercise that's free; cycling is growing in London very rapidly but your streets are better suited.

It was great to see old friends and make new ones; the students at the Laboratorio Bioclimatico at the Universidad Central were delightful and really interested in the very different focus that many UK architects have now. We are in a major recession but low carbon construction (ie buildings with Low and Zero Carbon Emissions) is seen across Government to be a major part of the economic recovery plan for England. As a country we have a legal obligation to reduce our carbon emissions by 34% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 and that's seriously difficult but with buildings being 40% of the problem this is a great opportunity for architects and engineers working together.

When I visited Santiago in 1999, I was shocked to find so many office towers, fully glazed and un-shaded, especially to the north, with the honourable exception of the exemplary Edificio Consorcio. This time I was more shocked to find that there had been no change to the office buildings and then the Pacific coast was being re-clad with fully glazed West-facing apartments, all of which must overheat unless air-conditioned.

But I was even more shocked when we drove up the coast past the new coal-powered power stations in the already badly polluted Las Ventanas. I think of air-conditioning and C02 as waste or if you prefer it, bad design. Beautiful generous Chile may be losing some of its hydro-powered electricity but it has an almost perfect geography for low energy living. The cities are well dispersed and surely each could become self-sufficient in power, if you were to harness the boundless carbon-free wind, sun, wave and geo-thermal energy with good opportunities for solar powered distilled water as well. This would be better still if the utilities for each town were owned by the citizens of that city. I can see no need for a national grid and the perfect shape for high-speed trains to connect the very north to the very south.

I love visiting Chile and this time I enjoyed the ambitious Parque Chagual, the impressive Parque Nacional Las Chinchillas and best of all riding into the wooded hills at Zapallar. I like teaching low energy design and realising that we have so much to teach as well as a lot to learn. I hope that next time I will begin to see the architects taking their global carbon duties and opportunities more seriously and designing excellent new buildings while dramatically reducing the carbon footprints of the existing buildings that are going to be with us for a long time.