Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago (Chile)

The IV Latin American Biennial of Architecture and Civil Engineering, organized by an assorted group of univeristies, professional associations and government institutions from Spain and Peru, and with housing as theme, has been celebrated in the city of Lima. Professionals from Latin America, Spain and Portugal have gathered in the Andean university Ricardo Palma to take part in an extensive program of conferences and exhibits. This time, the first prize went to the Chilean José Cruz Ovalle for his building in the Peñalolén campus of Adolfo Ibáñez University, in Chile. The architect, who earned international recognition with the Chilean pavilion at the Seville 1992 World Exposition, has since then designed in his country several housing projects and public buildings, characterized by the use of laminated wood as structural material, among which several wineries and a couple of industrial buildings devoted to the manufacturing of construction elements made of wood. The awarded building, which takes up a surface of 12,000 square meters, extends its broken floor plan over an uneven topography.