October 3, 2022 Valenzuela Named Inaugural Visiting Professor, Awarded in Ibero-American Architect Biennial
In fall 2022, the UT School of Interior Architecture named Germán Valenzuela Buccolini as its inaugural visiting professor, and in September, Valenzuela received two international awards.
A native of Chile, Valenzuela is co-founder and director of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Talca, Chile, where he is a professor of undergraduate courses. He is the author of several publications and has served as visiting professor at various schools of architecture throughout Latin America.
Valenzuela earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture from the Universidad Marítima de Chile and a Master in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña and the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Universidad de la República del Uruguay.
As the 2022-2023 visiting professor for the UT School of Interior Architecture, Valenzuela exposes students to a different culture and ways of looking at the disciplines of architecture and interior architecture. This fall, he teaches 2nd-year studio and upper-level Latin American Architecture.
“Prof. Valenzuela enlightens our students through a new understanding of the social, environmental and financial responsibilities designers from another culture observe,” said Milagros Zingoni, associate professor and director of the School of Interior Architecture. “He brings a new engagement in studio dialogue between teaching and learning and a different perspective about how others see the world. This broadens our students’ ability to design with empathy. We’re thrilled to welcome Prof. Valenzuela as our first visiting professor.”
In September, Valenzuela traveled to Mexico to receive two prizes in the international Ibero-American Architect Biennial 2022. The BIAU, now in its 12th year, recognized the most outstanding of Ibero-American architecture and urbanism of the last three years through several categories. Valenzuela received two awards in the categories of Publications, for the book “From the territory to the detail” of the Editorial Bifurcaciones, and of the category of Teaching Programs for his architecture workshop “Domestic Interventions.”
“It has been very interesting to be able to verify that a significant number of initiatives and award-winning projects are in line with the work carried out by the School of Interior Architecture, and it seems to me that the relationship with Latin America can give very good results in the near future,” said Valenzuela.
The BIAU is a cross-discipline event that brings together architects, interior architects and other designers who reflect on the “livability of the city and the search for alternative solutions for a fairer and more sustainable urban future,” according to the BIAU’s website. This year’s biennial was themed “Living on the Margin,” highlighting proposals and experiences focused on the different ways of living and rethinking the domesticity of living.
The biennial is convened by the government of Spain through the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda through the Urban Agenda and Architecture. Read the details about BIAU en español: bienaliberoamericana.org/. Learn more about the event, and see a full list of winners of the XII BIAU.
In addition to the BIAU awards, Valenzuela has earned many other awards and tutored students in award-winning works that have received the Archiprix International Award in 2013 and 2017 and the European Union Young Talent Architecture Award in 2020. A significant number of works carried out with students have been published and exhibited in various disciplinary events.
Valenzuela has organized and participated in biennials and symposia for the dissemination of architecture knowledge. He is director of the Seminar on Architecture of the Territory in Detail and was architectural advisor for the Chilean Pavilion at the 15 Mostra Internacionale di Architettura (Biennale di Venezia, 2016).
