The Lay Apostles of Valparaíso and Their Architecture Manifesto

The Valparaíso School in Chile is celebrated as an experiment in post–World War II educational ideas and neo-avant-garde aesthetic practices. The school’s singular collective works, such as the Open City—charged with developing an architecture cogenerated with poetry—have sought to erase the boundaries between learning, working, and living. This essay posits a reinterpretation of the Valparaíso School by foregrounding the religious framework underlying its members’ collective undertakings. It examines the 1967 Architecture School Manifesto, which called for testimonies of Christian faith, underpinned by a masculinist rhetoric, to contextualize the revolutionary impetus of the school’s practice, the relationship between poetry and theology, and the founding of the Open City in 1971. With close readings of foundational texts, archival evidence, and original interviews, this essay reveals a lay apostolate guiding the school’s philosophy, pedagogy, and practice. By challenging the secularizing logic of modernity, it highlights progressive Christians who, oriented toward a sacrificial form of masculinity, sought an ecumenical project based on their faith.