Abstract

HORN-MORGENSTERN, Andrés. Architectural Skins: Notes on the So-Called German Architecture of Valdivia, Chile (1845-1960). Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2025, n.60, pp.181-215.  Epub Aug 13, 2025. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda60.2025.08.

Following the enactment of the 1843 Colonization Law, southern Chile underwent a systematic migratory process that significantly shaped the region’s sociocultural landscape and its resulting architectures. While various studies have examined these physical traces, analyses of architecture during this period have largely framed them as material evidence of the legacy of migrant families, particularly Germans, who are credited with introducing progress and commercial prosperity to the area, thus constructing a narrative of affiliation: the German architecture of Valdivia. At the same time, the city of Valdivia serves as a key stage in accounts of modern agency in the colonized territories along the northern west coast of the Americas. This article examines the mechanisms at work in the historical processes surrounding these buildings, revealing an intrinsic discursive dimension within architecture. It advances a hypothesis that centers on the possibility of acts of concealment and persuasion. The exploratory methodology combines historical research with evidence and observations collected through fieldwork, addressing both the material and symbolic dimensions of the architectural phenomenon from a historical materialist perspective. The analysis focuses on buildings located in Valdivia’s General Pedro Lagos Street heritage zone, an area recognized for its high social visibility and for the attribution of value to its buildings as representatives of the aforementioned architectural affiliation. The article concludes by presenting the findings and conclusions derived from the review of these buildings and their symbolic condition, inviting a reconsideration of the architectures in Chile’s southern territories under migratory influence.

Keywords : Buildings; claddings; colonization; discourse; immigration..

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