Dora Riedel

Dora Riedel Seinecke (1906–1982) was a Chilean architect who, in 1930, became the first woman to receive an architectural degree in Chile.

Early life and education Dora Riedel was born on 11 March 1906 in Valdivia, Chile to German parents Carlos Riedel and Herminia Seinecke Deppe. She had a sister Alice and a brother Carlos. She began her education at the German School in Valdivia. After the end of the First World War, it is believed that the Riedel Seinecke family returned to Germany in 1918, living in Berlin and then returning to Chile in 1920. She moved with her family to the port city of Valparaíso, where she took lessons in oil painting and completed her secondary education.

Career Following her graduation, Riedel spent a year working at the Chilean Ministry of Public Works.

In 1931, Riedel travelled to Germany, at first to Berlin then in 1933 where she continued her education at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Stuttgart, studying with Paul Bonatz, Paul Schmitthenner and Heinz Wetzel completing her doctorate in Interior Architecture. In August 2018, the prize was presented for the first time to architect Paulina Villalobos; the award ceremony was also attended by Veronika Pavlu Hammerle, a granddaughter of Dora Riedel, who travelled specially from Austria.