Lecture: Andrés Gaviria

Andrés Gaviria graduated from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. Through a grant from the Government of Canada, he conducted studies at the Master of Applied Science (M.Sc.A) Program in Conservation of the Built Environment at the University of Montreal. He developed his master’s thesis in Conservation of Military Architecture during a nine-month internship in the fortified abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, in France, under the supervision of the chief architect of the monument. He has worked professionally in the area of conservation of architecture and urbanism in organizations such as the Foundation for the Preservation and Restoration of the Colombian Cultural Heritage and the Corporation Barrio La Candelaria (currently Institute of Cultural Heritage) for the conservation of the historic center of Bogotá. In 1993 he founded Conservatura, private office specializing in the conservation of architecture, professional activity that has simultaneously to his teaching.

Between 1995 and 2001 he worked at the School of Architecture and Design at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana as full time professor, director of the Aesthetics Department, the Institute of Conservation Studies as well as Academic Dean.

Between 2001 and 2007, responding to a professional career move of his wife, he lived in the United States of America, where he also worked as adjunct professor in the field of historic preservation, first in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) at the University of Minnesota, then at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and finally, for the last three years of his North American life experience, as full time professor in the Savannah College of Art and Design, (SCAD), Savannah, Georgia.

Later, responding again to a new career move of his wife, this time back to Colombia, he returned to his native Bogotá where he reactivated his professional work and his private office. In August 2007, he restarted his teaching and researching at the School of Architecture and Design of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and in the Program of Interior Design in Canadian based Lasalle College International (LCI - Colombian branch).

As part of the Faculty Enrichment Program for University Teachers of the Canadian Embassy in Colombia, in 2008 he received a grant for the development of a Canada-Colombia Chair on Built Heritage.

He also has been honored as an official member of the Board of Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI) appointment that was made official at the annual conference of the organization held in October 2008 in Montreal, Canada. Similarly he has been a fellow of the Getty Foundation Professional Travel Support Program attending APT Annual Conferences in Montreal, Canada, 2008, Los Angeles, USA, 2009, Denver, USA 2010, Victoria, Canada, 2011, Charleston, USA 2012 and Quebec, Canada, 2014.

In September 2008, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana nominated him to receive the distinction "Badge of Honor Javeriana 2007-2008" imposed by the university president on October 16, 2008.