Álvaro Mercado Jara
Álvaro Mercado is an architect and PhD researcher (ANID-Chile Fellow) at the Faculty of Architecture of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
He graduated in Architecture (2010), Master in City and Territtory (2017) from the School of Architecture and Design of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile (PUCV), where he remains an assistant professor since 2011.
His doctoral research explores the South American geo-poetic approach in design studies grounded at the Valparaíso School in Chile (1964-1984). He investigates how the Travesías de Amereida –collective and situated design experiences performed across the Mar Interior– became original poetic and design practices and tools to question the modernity/coloniality rationale embedded in the historical urbanisation of the South American hinterland (16th-20th century), delivering critical perspectives for and beyond the field of architecture and urbanism.
contact:alvaro.mercado.jara@ulb.be