Montserrat Palmer

Montserrat Palmer (Santiago, Chile, September 13, 1933) is a Chilean architect, designer, academic, researcher, and editor.

She was the first female Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Education and career Born to Catalan parents, Palmer was born in Santiago, Chile, and enrolled at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1952. However, she eventually graduated from the University of Chile in 1961.

As a researcher, her first publication was entitled 50 años de arquitectura metálica en Chile ("50 Years of Metallic Architecture in Chile"), composed of two volumes. In 1984, she published La comuna de Providencia y la ciudad jardín ("The Providencia District and the Garden City"), a study where she deployed an analysis strategy that mixed morphology and history to examine the Providencia commune in Santiago, Chile.

Between 1980 and 2010, she was the Editor-in-chief of Ediciones ARQ, advocating for the technical dimension of architecture and for finding an aesthetic that arises precisely from architects' commitment to building materials. In 2010, when Montserrat stepped down as director, the publisher released a monograph on her works. In 2023, as part of the Chile Architecture Biennial, architects Loreto Lyon and Cristobal Molina reinterpreted the Plaza de la Constitución pavilion, which references an intervention created by Montserrat Palmer for the 1972 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD III) in Santiago.

Notable works

Hostería La Pirámide (1963), alongside Carlos Martner Plaza de la Constitución Pavilion (1972)