Chilean mountain architecture

In Chile, the word mountain requires further disambiguation, otherwise it will not define a specific landscape or climate condition. Unlike other mountainous conglomerates, climatically it is as highly diverse as it can be expected when covering such different latitudes. With the arrival of mountain sports in the first decades of the last century, a number of first Refugios were explored in several valleys primarily in central Chile, where altitude, precipitation, temperature and population density overlapped with the will and power of the first pioneers, many of them carrying their own dreams and knowledge from Europe. These settlements, together with a handful of new villages further south, constitute the bulk of study, to which we at DRAA (Del Rio Arquitectos Asociados) have been mostly invited, aiming to provide a sensible approach to the changing needs of the mountain in a diverse array of topographic and climatic situations, such as those described. Mountain design has influenced the way we have understood architecture, regardless of context; the limited use of space, energy efficiency and context pertinence have been key issues to address. At present, with the Farellones Mountain Museum and other museums, housing and refuge projects underway, we aim to convey our view of architecture.