Architecture

The countries of Latin America exist within a framework of individuality supported by a unity based on the similar factors of urban population, rural morale, and ethnic conformation. The area is isolated even as it is centrally located in geographical terms, almost in a time warp of culture that mixes the modern with the arcane, the elite with the poor, and the primitive with the sophisticated. The common history, common destiny, and common role in the world inherent to the major countries of Latin America--Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela--justify the efforts of regional architects to create a continental identity. Latin American Architecture: Six Voices is a compilation of profiles of architects, one from each of the six major countries. The essays capture the political and social changes that altered the face of Latin American countries and how the architects who work there continually attempt to balance the old with the new, intimating at the same time the continuity and cultivation of a tradition so persistent in Latin American architecture. In doing so, the artists reveal the two major schools of development: minimalist and tectonic tradition. Michael L. Tribe and Pablo J. Rodriguez P., along with editors Malcolm Quantrill and Kenneth Frampton, focus on prominent figures in Latin American architecture such as Colombia's Rogelio Salmona, Mexico's Ricardo Legoretta, and Venezuela's Jesús Tenreiro-Degwitz. Their intent is to correct an imbalanced treatment of the region's architecture at the hands of international critics, who lauded Latin America as the proving ground of modernism in the late 1940s but then quickly lost interest. A refreshing look at some less-famous architects, whose skill is equal to if not greater than that of some stars of the "developed world," Latin American Architecture provides an ideal introduction for the architecture student or anyone interested in architecture as a reflection of culture.

Chilean architecture--along with that of Sao Paolo and Mexico City--sets a benchmark for the intersection of modernism with vernacular influences in Latin America. Culture, landscape, and the geology of this earthquake-prone region have all served as important filters for the practice of post-1950s design in Chile. This volume introduces the modern architecture of Chile to readers in the United States. Looking primarily at domestic architecture as a lens for studying the larger movement, Fernando Perez Oyarzun considers the relationship between theory and practice in Chile. As he shows in his chapter, during the early 1950s the School of Valparaiso offered the possibility of developing experimental projects accompanied by theoretical statements. There, visual artists considered poetry the starting point of modern architecture and contributed their radically modern views to the design process of the project. Next, Rodrigo Perez de Arce examines the material context of architecture in Chile: the availability of materials and technologies, the frequency of violent earthquakes and related seismic activity, and the nation's craft-based, labor-intensive building practices. He applies these considerations to a series of case studies to demonstrate how they interact with cultural, historical, economic, and even political influences. In the book's final chapter, Horacio Torrent reviews the interplay between the architectonic culture and modern shapes that came into sharp focus in the 1950s in Chile. In another series of case studies, he highlights the formation of a system of concepts, thought processes, instruments, and values that have given Chilean architecture a certain singularity during the last fifty years.

"Architecture of Brazil: 1900-1990" examines the processes that underpin modern Brazilian architecture under various influences and characterizes different understandings of modernity, evident in the chapter topics of this book. Accordingly, the author does not give overall preference to particular architects nor works, with the exception of a few specific works and architects, including Warchavchik, Niemeyer, Lucio Costa, and Vilanova Artigas."

Beyond the Super square: Art and Architecture in Latin America after Modernism, which developed from a symposium presented by the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2011, showcases original essays by distinguished Latin American architects, historians, and curators whose research examines architecture and urban design practices in the region during a significant period of the twentieth century. Drawing from the exuberant architectural projects of the 1940s to the 1960s, as well as from critically engaged artistic practices of the present day, the essays in this collection reveal how the heroic visions and utopian ideals popular in architectural discourse during the modernist era bore complicated legacies for Latin America--the consequences of which are evident in the vastly uneven economic conditions and socially disparate societies found throughout the region today. The innovative contributions in this volume address how the modernist movement came into being in Latin America and compellingly explore how it continues to resonate in today's cultural discourse. Beyond the Super square takes themes traditionally examined within the strict field of urbanism and architecture and explores them against a broader range of disciplines, including the global economy, political science, gender, visual arts, philosophy, and urban planning. Containing a breadth of scholarship, this book offers a compelling and distinctive view of contemporary life in Latin America. Among the topics explored are the circulation of national cultural identities through architectural media, the intersection of contemporary art and urban social politics, and the recovery of canonically overlooked figures in art and architectural histories, such as Lina Bo Bardi and Joao Filgueiras Lima ("Lele") from Brazil, Juan Legarreta of Mexico, and Henry Klumb in Puerto Rico.

Runner-up, University Co-op Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, 2015 Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, and Utopia is an introductory text on the issues, polemics, and works that represent the complex processes of political, economic, and cultural modernization in the twentieth century. The number and types of projects varied greatly from country to country, but, as a whole, the region produced a significant body of architecture that has never before been presented in a single volume in any language. Modern Architecture in Latin America is the first comprehensive history of this important production. Designed as a survey and focused on key examples/paradigms arranged chronologically from 1903 to 2003, this volume covers a myriad of countries; historical, social, and political conditions; and projects/developments that range from small houses to urban plans to architectural movements. The book is structured so that it can be read in a variety of ways--as a historically developed narrative of modern architecture in Latin America, as a country-specific chronology, or as a treatment of traditions centered on issues of art, technology, or utopia. This structure allows readers to see the development of multiple and parallel branches/historical strands of architecture and, at times, their interconnections across countries. The authors provide a critical evaluation of the movements presented in relationship to their overall goals and architectural transformations.