This article addresses the case of the School of Architecture and Design at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile, which established an original position in arts and education by exploring the productive relationship between poetry and architecture. The focus of this article is to examine the pivotal presence of poetry in
the school’s artistic position and its role in the design and building actions carried out by students and professors, which are an essential trait of its educational approach. The article displays this trajectory from the poetic word to the act of building by discussing a crucial topic raised within inter-nal debates of the School of Valparaíso: the relationship between word and action. While illustrating the role of poetry in the school’s creative practices, the article argues that the poetic word is not instrumentalized as a concrete method or tool in design studio practices, but is present as an underlying element that opens a primordial creative field from which architecture operates. The article aims to contribute to the existing literature by clarifying the role of poetry in the School of Valparaíso’s curriculum, which is a particu- larly unclear aspect surrounded by myths and assumptions. Therefore, this article focuses on the formulation and practice of the ‘poetic act’, its role
in the design and building processes of the school projects, and the way in which the professors and students of the School of Valparaíso proceed with their works after the poetic act that takes place at the start of every project. By clarifying these points, we shine a light on the presence of poetry in the articulation of the school’s artistic production and academic structures, locating the relationship between word and action at the centre of the school’s debates, where it remains open and vividly discussed to this day.@en

Re-founded in 1952 by a group of architects, artists and poets; the School of Valparaíso represents one of the most long-lasting and original experimental artistic experiences in the Latin American context. The article comments on a fundamental aspect of the School approach: the lived structure of Acts that organizes and gives shape to its creative experience and learning ambit—a continuous rhythm of Acts, structuring the spheres of life, work and study. The authors propose that one of the particular dimensions constructed by this practice is to summon and situate the work at the centre of the School quests. The article develops the idea that it is exactly through the work that the School seems to fulfil its role, transforming ourselves into the crafts.@en