Architectures for solitude. Proliferation and pandemic of isolated chapels [chilean versions]

Abstract

"Architectures for solitude", which are those that are small in size and were first used by a single resident to later be inhabited by a very small number of people as a place of spiritual retreat or for liturgical rites, deals with analysing the circumstances and causes of the great increase in the number of isolated chapels that have been projected and built in the first two decades of the 20th century around the world, and particularly in Europe and Latin America. The study of such a notorious proliferation focuses, by way of example and symptom, on a reduced repertoire of works designed by Chilean architects. Methodologically speaking, although the progress presented only contains some indications of the procedures used, the study will be carried out by reviewing the pages and cover pages dedicated to them by architecture publications, printed or digital, resorting to the discursive strategies of architectural types and semantics analysis, comparison and statistical calculation, the communicative potential of the photographic image, and the expressive capacity of the word. From the theses raised, it is proposed that the term “chapel” be redefined to re-signify it; of the cases presented, that the heterogeneous formal repertoire of contemporaneity starts from the vernacular to venture into experimentation devoid of prejudice. Ultimately, the data allow us to deduce that the current rise of hermitic architectures is related to the circumstances of hegemonic urban societies, as well as to predict that the process will be accelerated by upcoming pandemics.