This issue of Materia Arquitectura addresses the theme of heritage. Natalia Escobar Castrillón, its guest editor, proposes to expand the concept of conservation to make room for transformation as a lawful strategy, a subject she discusses in the interview with David Chipperfield that opens the issue. The articles that make up the dossier redefine the parameters of conservation, bringing it closer to a theory of change, thus creating a more inclusive version of the past. For K. Michael Hays, history continually reinvents the past from the present and can therefore be used to propose alternative futures; Felipe Hernández seeks to reestablish the dynamic and experimental relationship between society and modern architectural heritage; Armando Caroca Fernández, for his part, disassociates change from devaluation and proposes identifying the potentiality of architecture through its transformation; Alejandro Crispiani and Tomás Errázuriz suggest the valorization of debris from catastrophes for its evocative capacity; Alejandro de Castro Mazarro, meanwhile, defends the recognition and conservation of the environmental value of informal settlements; finally, José Joaquín Parra Bañón completely dissolves the material dimension of cities and resorts to literature and fiction as places of memory.

Guest Editor Natalia Escobar Castrillón