Cristian Petschen was born in Santiago , Chile in 1972. At 6 months of age, upon the onset of civil and political turmoil in the country, his father began a multinational career that would lead him into an international life divided among the United States of America, Ecuador, Brazil and Italy.


In 1990, after graduating high school in Brazil, Cristian was admitted to The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture (BARCH) and Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts (BFA).


Upon graduation in 1995 Petschen began to work with renowned New York Architect and Philip Johnson disciple, Jack L. Gordon. During his 3 and half years at Jack L. Gordon Architects he participated in the Shea Stadium Redevelopment, Jones Beach Amphitheater, New York Animal Medical Hospital, Center Stage at Central Park and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America projects.


In 1998 Cristian Petschen was offered a Project Designer position in the world famous Miami based architectural firm Arquitectonica International where he mainly worked on the American Airlines Arena, Gloria Estefan’s Bongos Restaurant, Pan-American Games 2007 Master Plan and Bern Stadium projects. In the year 2000, the American Airlines Arena Project received the design of the year award by the American Institute of Architects.


In that same year, Cristian left Arquitectonica and established his own practice in Miami, Axis International Group. In 2003, after completing an Office building in Sao Paulo, several luxury homes in Miami and working on large scale projects such as the Setai Hotel and Resort in Miami Beach for Schapiro Associates , Petschen moved to live in Chile for the first time.


After finishing an MBA at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, he founded the i-mat architecture office. Cristian has over 140 architecture and 100,000 industrial designs built.