Juan Frigerio was one of the architects behind the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium in London, as well as numerous projects in Jordan and South America. He has worked at Foster + Partners for 23 years and has headed the firm’s Latin American branch for the last 14. Today, he leads a team of architects, engineers, and designers planning Maratué, the Lería family’s ambitious housing development in Puchuncaví, which last week reached a crucial milestone: the approval of its Environmental Impact Assessment. Now, the Argentine architect must finalize the long-awaited master plan. “Plans of this magnitude have to go through a lot of approvals because they affect large areas,” he explains from Buenos Aires.
It was in the middle of last year that Óscar Lería and his daughter Claudia, along with Felipe Lizana—real estate manager of the Osler Inversiones group—arrived at the London offices of Foster + Partners, one of the world’s largest architecture firms. The purpose of the trip was to spend three days at the F+P offices to brainstorm and design Maratué, one of the leading real estate projects underway in Chile. There, they met with associates from the Chilean architecture firm BL, which is also working on the project. Environmentalists, engineers, designers, and sustainability experts, each from their own perspective, were focused on envisioning the future of Maratué. The group was led by Juan Frigerio, a partner at Foster + Partners. “It was three days of brainstorming to define what we call ‘the vision.’ That is, to understand what the objectives were and what we wanted to achieve,” says the Argentine professional from Buenos Aires, where he has lived since 2010. “We made a large scale model of the site, and we had a lot of chips representing buildings, houses, and streets. There were threads, and paper balls that we made to represent densities. We created about 20 different iterations of the models,” Frigerio explains. “That brainstorming session was part play and part science. And from that integration, the master plan’s identity began to emerge.” He reflects: “You always come with a lot of preconceived notions, and we try to break them down to find the creative ideas you don’t initially have. Suddenly you say, ‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’” This is how the Maratué project, which involves a US$2 billion investment, was forged less than 18 months ago. Last week, it reached a key milestone for its future: with nine votes in favor and three against, the Valparaíso Environmental Assessment Commission (COEVA) approved its Environmental Impact Study, which envisions the construction of 14,000 homes. These homes are projected to be built over 45 years on a 1,015-hectare site in Puchuncaví, facing the coastal cliffs of Quirilluca, considered a key biodiversity hotspot.
Santiago, Buenos Aires, and London
Juan Frigerio was born in the United States, but quickly moved to Argentina. Because of his father’s work, he says, he lived in many countries, including Chile. “In fact, I enrolled in civil engineering at the Catholic University, but I had a hard time. The only course I enjoyed was descriptive geometry. So I went in thinking, ‘Actually, I’m more interested in artistic, cultural, and social things,’” he recalls. “I returned to Buenos Aires and studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires. At the same time, I studied film, but I realized that my true calling was to be an architect.”
He began his career in Buenos Aires and in 1996 moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned a master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard. After graduating, he worked as a project architect for the local firm Machado Silvetti. “I wanted to create architecture of the highest caliber and be in places where projects of real social value and significant cultural content were being developed,” he explains. In 2001, he applied to Foster + Partners, the firm founded by Norman Foster, Pritzker Prize winner and considered one of the world’s most influential living architects. Frigerio doesn’t hold back when describing it. “I’ve said it’s ‘the great icon of architecture in the last 100 years.’ According to the Chilean developers, the Argentine professional is directly coordinating the development of Maratué.”
Frigerio’s first major project at the London office was the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium, which opened in 2007. It was a monumental undertaking involving hundreds of engineers, architects, and designers. “I was there from the design phase to the inaugural match. It was six years dedicated to that,” he says.
– An Argentine designing Wembley… Didn’t they bother you about that?
– (Laughs) Not at all, quite the opposite. I had the Scots, who are our great allies. I was among them, the Irish, the Welsh, the Australians, and the South Africans. They all supported me. And in fact, I spent so many years in England that I obtained my British citizenship. Beyond the political issues that cause divisions, Argentinians love English and English love Argentinians. Not to mention rock and roll: English bands are the favorites of the Argentinian public.
Wembley was a mark of quality on Frigerio’s resume. With that under his belt, he grew in the firm, eventually becoming a partner. From London, he developed award-winning projects such as the Bexley Business Academy and the Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan. In 2010, he was offered the opportunity to open the Foster + Partners branch in Buenos Aires and take charge of leading the entire region.
In that role, he has developed projects such as the El Aleph residential building in Puerto Madero, the Emiliano Paraty Hotel in Brazil, and the Buenos Aires Government House, an icon of the Argentine capital. “Every two months I spend three weeks in London. The rest of the time I divide between Buenos Aires and the region. We currently have a large project in Brazil and others in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.”
But by far the most ambitious and significant—in terms of size, development timeline, and number of homes—is Maratué, says Frigerio.
“Going backward is very difficult.”
The first time Juan Frigerio visited Quirilluca, he says, he felt something magical. “I couldn’t believe it,” he explains.
After the initial meeting with the Leria family, he got to work. Foster + Partners gathered a great deal of data, and the teams analyzed the various factors surrounding the site: “The climate, the landscape, the characteristics of the location. The goal was to understand the problem.”
Then came the presentations and conversations with Osler, Óscar Leria’s family office, which develops real estate projects throughout Chile and Spain. “There was a very strong synergy with the developers. We fell in love with the idea. And it wasn’t just about sustainability; it was also about social integration. The project includes a lot of social housing to help the area grow and develop,” Frigerio points out.
The main challenge, he explains, is figuring out “what the different developments should be, with extensive linear conservation parks. We want to create a whole green area that conserves wetlands, a green spine where all the homes face these parks, which function as natural recreation areas.”
The other important aspect, he adds, is that the homes built be primary residences. “The challenge was to ensure that these were permanent properties and not weekend or temporary homes,” he adds.
The total land area is 1,015 hectares, similar to the total territory of the Providencia district. Therefore, the roadmap envisions a 50-year timeframe for completing the development. However, the most important stage is the current one, which involves creating the master plan, the guiding document for defining Maratué’s layout. Frigerio points out that it is crucial for the initial design to be the best possible. “If you start off on the wrong foot, it’s very difficult to reverse course.”
This study must take into account a series of variables that will change over time. That, the Argentine architect explains, is the great challenge. “It’s about how to approach such a large area and how to create a structure that will endure. In the best cities, public spaces and parks are maintained, and sometimes the architecture evolves. It’s like designing in a vacuum.”
The master plan, he details, is a document that will already define “the traffic routes, the park boundaries, the integration of wetlands, and the characteristics of the subsidized housing: where it is located and how it integrates with Puchuncaví.” They must also define specific programs: “Where will the schools and health centers be located? What types of housing, what height and density?”
Creating the master plan will take between three and six months, and for this, all the stakeholders involved in Maratué will meet again. “We are going to visit the site, certainly talk with the various social actors, and gather a lot of input, because this has to address a multitude of needs.”
“The environment, in many instances, doesn’t protect itself.”
No images or renderings of what the Maratué project will look like are available. Very few people have had access to these documents. One of them, of course, is Frigerio. For now, they want to keep the details under wraps.
The architect is aware of the criticisms surrounding the project: many environmental organizations argue, for example, that the development would triple the population of this natural area. They also point to soil and water pollution, given that Chile lacks comprehensive regulations.
On the other side, Osler defends the project, stating that 125 hectares will be designated as a nature sanctuary. Furthermore, only half of the area will be developed, excluding urban wetlands, areas of northern belloto forest, booby nesting grounds, and marine otter habitat.
– In Chile, it’s criticized that these types of projects take many years to obtain environmental approval. Maratué has been in the permitting process since 2017 and only received the green light last week. Do you think that’s too long?
– It’s not my area of expertise, but projects of this magnitude have to go through numerous approval processes with many organizations because they affect large parts of the territory. This process takes time worldwide because it involves the community. Whether it takes a long time or a short time, I don’t know how to measure it, but in general, all over the world, where there are functioning government entities, things take time. It’s not like you submit a proposal and get approval in three months. There are a lot of protocols that I believe strengthen the project and make it better.
—Do you think housing development is compatible with environmental protection?
—Absolutely. I’d even say it’s desirable. Because the environment, in many instances, doesn’t protect itself. So you need some density to help generate the resources to protect it. People need cities, places to live, recreational spaces, schools, and hospitals as the population grows. And urban and real estate development responds to those needs.
Juan Frigerio says he communicates weekly with Claudia Leria, director of Osler Inversiones, and Felipe Lizana, the group’s real estate manager, to update them on the progress of the master plan. The Argentine architect projects that from now on he will spend a couple of days a month in Chile to visit Maratué on-site. He will also travel to London to review the progress of specific areas at the Foster + Partners offices. And in December, he anticipates, the British team will travel to Puchuncaví. “We can’t design in a vacuum. We need to be in direct contact with our clients and for them to understand what we want to achieve.”
Juan Frigerio, partner at Foster + Partners: “People need cities, places to live, recreational spaces, schools, and hospitals as the population grows. And urban and real estate development responds to those needs.”