XXIII Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Chile 2025

The XXIII Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Chile brings together a series of cases and reflections on architectural and urban work in the country, focusing on practices that intervene and dialogue with the pre-existing.

‘Double Exposure’ is both the title and the critical statement of this edition: an exploration of transformation processes, where the superimposition of times and materials generates new narratives. In its photographic meaning, double exposure consists of superimposing images to reveal a third meaning; In architecture and city, it implies articulating past, present and future.

In a constantly changing territory, marked by natural disasters, political conflicts and spatial inequalities, architecture cannot be reduced to building from scratch nor persist in the modern ideal of constructions that ignore the richness of the pre-existing. In an era of climate crisis and resource scarcity, intervening in what exists is not just an option: it is an urgency. The question is not whether to build more, but how to do it differently with what already exists. (Re)program without destroying, (re)adapting what exists, (re)constructing obsolescence.

The Biennial will be a space for exhibition and discussion about the need to conserve, modify and reprogram structures that persist in a state of indefinition, but contain possible futures. This edition will unfold as a circuit, occupying different points of the Alameda axis of Santiago, stressing iconic spaces, confronting its history, its current state of obsolescence and its transformative potential. Then, the exhibition will circulate through different regions, moving the debate to territories where urban regeneration and revitalization cannot be postponed.