About Andrés Garcés
Andrés Garcés is an architect and professor at the School of Architecture and Design at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso(PUCV), where he also completed his undergraduate studies. Since 2000, he has led research and teaching centered on the relationship between public space, performance, and architecture. Through projects such as La ciudad-teatro and more than 25 continental journeys (Travesías) across the Americas, he has explored ephemeral architecture, collective action, and the poetics of place. As a member of the Amereida Cultural Corporation, his work has been exhibited internationally and continues to influence how we inhabit and imagine territory.
This section gathers collaborative works developed under his mentorship, reflecting a shared approach to space, memory, and construction.
I first met Andrés in 2021 during the second semester of the Programa y Forma de la Edificación workshop, a moment when in-person teaching was slowly returning after the pandemic. That same year, I participated alongside him in the Andada, a local version of the Travesía, held within the Valparaíso region due to ongoing travel restrictions.
During this period, I developed the academic project included in my portfolio, a first approach to architecture through dance, where movement becomes a reciprocal way of understanding space. This project later evolved into an interdisciplinary performance combining music, dance, and architecture.
Andrés also invited me to collaborate at his architecture office Espacio Vacío, where I contributed to the digitalization and advancement of drawings for the Araya family house. Since then, we’ve continued to work together closely. He later became my thesis advisor and greatly influenced the development of my final project, one that extends beyond construction systems to explore the collaborative and poetic dimensions of building.
I also joined him on a Travesía in Brazil, where we helped establish a partnership with the Federal University of Ouro Preto. The goal was to share the methodology and spirit behind our journeys so they could initiate their own.
You can see more of Andrés' work in his portfolio of Espacio Vacío: