Entrevista al arquitecto Federico Peña Mohr

Abstract

Federico Pena arrived in Valdivia as a child; he studied in the German Institute and graduated from the city’s Boy’s High School. Returning from a trip to Europe and having finished all his architecture courses at University of Chile, he lived through the 1960 earthquake and was invited by the Municipality of Puerto Montt to work in its zoning plan. There, he worked in his dissertation titled “Puerto Montt, year 2000”, jointly with Juan Leonhard, which focused on rural-urban planning in the Province of Llanquihue. Once graduated as an architect, he was invited to work with the Municipality of Osorno by Major Rene Soriano, with whom he completed several urban projects. By then, the Eduardo Frei Administration was launching a broad scale land reform. Federico left his post in the Municipality and joined a rural development bureau which, among others, was in charge of the Rupanco Estate’s urban project. The team later moved to Valdivia, where he was for the 1973 Coup. On account of being unemployed, he began developing a private practice with other colleagues. By that time, the Ministry of Housing launched a national contest to improve the city’s Barrios Bajos (slums) and even though they won first place, the zoning plan froze the area and the project was never completed. He worked for several years as a professor of descriptive geometry in Valdivia’s Professional Institute (former Technical University) and subsequently, he joined a private architecture firm in Valdivia. Simultaneously, along with his wife, he established a private park in Isla del Rey (which he still keeps) and is now actively involved in Valdivia’s Association of Architects.