Mahesh Daas

Congratulations to Chile’s new Ambassador to the United States, HE Andrés Ergas Heymann, as he begins his appointment in Washington.

I was honored to meet Ambassador Ergas during my recent visit to Chile, and I am grateful for his hospitality and enthusiasm for architecture.

Chile and Massachusetts share longstanding institutional ties, including a history of collaboration in education and innovation since 2011, and I was pleased that our conversation pointed toward future engagement with the Boston Architectural College. We look forward to welcoming Ambassador Ergas to BAC in the near future as those connections continue to deepen.

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ArchitectureEducation Boston Massachusetts
Office of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce

Honored to deliver a keynote presentation last week at the invitation of President José Antonio Guzmán to address the strategic planning forum of Universidad de los Andes (CL) in Santiago, Chile. I spoke about the strategic relevance of the BAC’s practice-integrated immersive education model, which I termed “An Inconvenient Education.”

My argument was simple: the future of higher education will not be shaped by convenience. It will be shaped by courage, permeability, adaptability, and relevance.

An inconvenient education does not protect itself from the world. It lets the world in. It does not isolate knowledge from action. It recognizes that learning happens across classrooms, communities, firms, cities, digital networks, and lived realities. It does not confuse selectivity with excellence, and it understands that access and excellence must rise together.

That conversation felt especially meaningful in Chile, a country whose architectural culture has become a major force in global discourse, and whose universities are thinking seriously about the future they want to build.

Thanks to President Guzman for inviting me to speak with their campus stakeholders, including members of the cabinet, deans, faculty, staff, trustees, and others. I was grateful for the opportunity to engage with university leaders, distinguished architects, and strategic thinkers around questions that matter deeply: What should a new school become? What should education make possible? How should institutions evolve to meet a century defined by complexity, technology, inequality, and global interdependence?

I was heartened by the enthusiastic reception of my talk. Thank you to Universidad de los Andes for the invitation, the generosity, and the seriousness of the exchange. I left energized by their magnificent campus shaped by Boston’s Sasaki and Sheply Bulfinch and the possibilities ahead.

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