From October 9th to 11th, the event 'Oficios en obra' (Crafts at Work) will take place in the Cultural Park of Valparaíso, Chile. This gathering is intended to serve as a platform for learning and collaboration focused on the city's traditional building crafts. Organized by the Municipality, the event aims to highlight and preserve the historical methods of work associated with Valparaíso's construction, promoting the recognition and ensuring the continuity of these methods among new generations through free and public events.
Valparaíso, once a vital port in the South Pacific, showcases various applications of structural timber, adobe (tapia), and imported industrial technologies used in the 19th century in its architecture. This makes the city a subject of study for traditional crafts and building techniques, which are regaining value against the backdrop of modern challenges related to climate change and economic difficulties, offering an alternative path forward.
The main goal of 'Oficios en obra' is to create a space for the exchange of knowledge, learning, and joint work around the city's material and intangible heritage. Over three days, the event will bring together craft masters, industry specialists, educational institutions, sector companies, heritage organizations, and the local community through craft exhibitions, master classes, and city tours. The program, which includes two days of music, features panel discussions, major lectures, practical workshops, live demonstrations, experience-sharing sessions, as well as routes and stands organized around five thematic areas addressing contemporary issues facing these traditional forms of knowledge.
As the first event of its kind in the region, the initiative aims to explore the relationship between tradition and innovation, considering the integration of new technologies into heritage preservation (which usually implies the use of traditional methods or local materials). A central objective of the meeting is the care for preserving and transmitting knowledge, which includes studying the interaction between specialists, restoration experts, and companies, the role of highly specialized artisans, the development of craft schools, and the identification of practices at risk of disappearing.
One of the three thematic areas is dedicated to applying traditional knowledge to promote more sustainable construction methods based on the use of local materials, efficient resource management, and environmentally responsible heritage preservation. A more pressing fourth thematic block addresses the issue of visibility gaps, barriers, and difficulties faced by women and people with gender diversity in the historically male-dominated sector, bringing a gender perspective to the study of cultural heritage sites.
Finally, the last thematic focus of 'Oficios en obra' is directed specifically at the city of Valparaíso and the issues related to the preservation and maintenance of its built heritage from material, regulatory, and economic perspectives. In 2003, UNESCO inscribed the historic center of Valparaíso on the World Heritage List due to its outstanding universal value, which transcends borders and generations. This decision was based on criterion (iii) as 'an outstanding example of a phenomenon that embodies the cultural traditions, spiritual aspirations or beliefs of a culture or civilization,' specifically noted as 'an outstanding testimony to the initial phase of globalization in the late 19th century, when the city became a major trading port on the Pacific coast of South America.' The event proposes to examine management issues related to the implementation of the World Heritage Site Management Plan, the restoration of historic dwellings, disaster risk management, and the recovery of public space as a common good.
This first meeting complements other local initiatives aimed at heritage preservation, which is understood not only as a built form but also as a way of doing and maintaining things over time. Over the past three years, the Municipality of Valparaíso itself has established a Craft Heritage School, offering free courses to the community through a registration system. Training cycles include courses in carpentry, form making, adobe construction, and the restoration of public statues, focusing on techniques and materials found in the city's buildings and public spaces. Like 'Oficios en obra', the goal of this school is to stimulate the co-creation of knowledge about building crafts, as well as providing residents with more tools to understand and develop heritage preservation projects.
Among other recent global heritage preservation news, there is a new workspace project in London developed by the art collective Assemble. This project transforms a Grade II* listed building into a new creative workspace and light industry hub. Since its founding in 2010, the studio has created a community around craft and manual labor, providing creative and light industrial jobs resilient to market forces, acting as a platform for ecologically and socially responsible work.