Early 20th century building innovation: architectural modernity’s preamble and under-estimated architecture

The first decades of the 20th century represent an especially important period in the history of Chilean architecture in general, particularly in the architecture of the country’s capital city Santiago. It is a phase qualified as a transitional one, when avant garde foreign models that answer to different social and cultural realities were reproduced locally. This phenomenon has not been studied with the appropriate depth of analysis, and frequently the ideology and models of the so called Modern Movement are highlighted as the sole source that launched the local architectural

modernity.

Nevertheless, there are other factors that, even with a less evident revolutionary character, contributed significantly to the burst of historical and architectural modernity in the country. That is the case of the innovation in building technology that prior to the appearance of the modern architecture itself, started to pave the way for, make possible and demand the modernizing change to follow. The introduction of reinforced concrete, both as a material and as the new building conception that it implies, is a good example.