Eduardo Vargas

18/10/2017


 

Eduardo Vargas Herrera (1933 – 18.01.1996) studied architecture at the Catholic University of Valparaíso (1950-57), later continued his postgraduate studies at Hfg Ulm, Germany between 1957-1958. In 1958 he married Cornelia Koch student of the information department and they decided to follow the teacher Max Bill and work in his atelier in Zurich prior to their return to Chile. From 1960-66 they built 2,000 homes in different cooperatives in Valparaíso, in direct dialogue with future residents and the nascent construction industry. Subsequently, the Minister of Housing entrusted him with the position of delegate of the ministry, a new and unique experience of decentralization of power, of financial and human resources, so that they could also, in direct dialogue with the affected sectors, initiate various solutions for the post- earthquake of 1965. In the work for the ministry they came to build about 30,000 family units during the next three years.

In 1966 he was called by the University of Chile to practice the chair of architecture and urbanism and from 1969-74 he was director of Channel 4 (TV), restructuring the television channel into a public law corporation with an educational function. During this time they expanded the channel signal, increasing viewers from 500,000 to 3,000,000. The channel building was adapted to new needs and finances were rehabilitated. Restructuring of the administration. Cooperation with foreign cultural institutions. Training of staff through scholarships in the United States, England, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. In 1975 the Vargas-Koch family moves to Germany, where Eduardo Vargas receives the order of merit and is assigned as a life professor at the University of Hannover, where he served until 1996 at the Institute of Theory of Architecture, dedicated to methods design and design in developing countries.