1985-a. In the midst of a “not-so-lost” decade...

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vi
3. Foreword xi
4. Acknowledgments xv
5. (Notes Toward an) Introduction 1
6. 1903. Francisco Pereira Passos begins a project to “civilize” Rio de Janeiro by applying Baron Haussmann’s ideas as an answer to the tropical (lack of) urbanism 7
7. 1904. Víctor Meano, Francisco de Oliveira Passos, and Emile Jéquier build a Latin American character with a classical vocabulary 10
8. 1906. Julián García Núñez’s Hospital Español defines a characteristic search for a new language: Secession/Art Nouveau 14
9. 1914. Jesús T. Acevedo and Federico Mariscal lecture in Mexico on the character, importance, and role of the Spanish colonial legacy 18
10. 1915. Antonin Nechodoma introduces the Prairie style to Puerto Rico 21
11. 1922. In an attempt to create a building expressive of the “cosmic race,” José Vasconcelos inaugurates in Mexico City the headquarters of the Secretaría de Educación Pública and formalizes the muralist project 23
12. 1923. Mario Palanti: Palacio Barolo and Palacio Salvo 28
13. 1924. Martín Fierro presents Alberto Prebisch and Ernesto Vautier’s Ciudad Azucarera en Tucumán and formalizes the connections and interests in architecture among the literary and artistic avant-gardes 30
14. 1924. Martín Fierro presents Alberto Prebisch and Ernesto Vautier’s Ciudad Azucarera en Tucumán and formalizes the connections and interests in architecture among the literary and artistic avant-gardes 34
15. 1925-a. Estridentópolis en 1975: Literary Architecture and the Avant-Garde 38
16. 1925-b. José Villagrán García, Instituto de Higiene y Granja Sanitaria 40
17. 1928. The Columbus Memorial Lighthouse Competition sparks an investigation into what architecture for Latin America should be like 42
18. 1929-a. The Ibero-American Exhibition opens in Seville, revealing the complex and contradictory relations between Spain and its former American colonies 47
19. 1929-b. Le Corbusier’s first encounters with South America: lectures and early projects for Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay 51
20. 1929-c. With the History of the Skyscraper, Francisco Mujica articulates the skyscraper’s Latin American dimension 55
21. 1929. Sergio Larraín and Jorge Arteaga’s Oberpauer Building initiates a new direction in Chilean architecture 59
22. 1930-a. Getúlio Vargas takes power in Brazil and appoints twenty-eight-year-old Lúcio Costa as director of the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA) 61
23. 1930-b. Commemorating the centenary of its independence, Uruguay takes the first Soccer World Cup at home, and Montevideo is at the center of its modern ambitions 64
24. 1930. Flávio de Carvalho, “City of the Naked Man” 69
25. 1931. Juan O’Gorman, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Houses and Studios 71
26. 1933. In his Pláticas sobre arquitectura lecture, Juan O’Gorman highlights the existing polemics between functionalism and academic architecture 73
27. 1936. Le Corbusier is back in Rio de Janeiro 77
28. 1936-a. The Kavanagh Building is finished, becoming the tallest skyscraper in Latin America 83
29. 1936-b. Francisco Salamone: Fascism and Monumental Architecture in the Pampa 84
30. 1936-c. Julio Vilamajó, School of Engineering 86
31. 1937. Wladimiro Acosta’s Vivienda y ciudad highlights the relationship between ecology, new forms of leisure, the house, and the city 88
32. 1937. Cine Gran Rex and Argentine Classicist Modernism 92
33. 1938. Characteristic of the growing reach of surrealism into architecture and Latin America, the Chilean architect-trained artist Matta publishes “Sensitive Mathematics— Architecture of Time” in Minotaure 94
34. 1938. Joaquín Torres-García, Monumento cósmico, Montevideo, Uruguay 99
35. 1939. The European diaspora brings architectural talents to Latin America on an unprecedented scale 100
36. 1939. The Brazilian pavilion at New York World’s Fair 105
37. 1941. Pampulha represents an encounter that would change the future of Brazil 108
38. 1942. Amancio Williams, Casa sobre el Arroyo 113
39. 1943-a. The Brazil Builds exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York highlights the architectural and political interests of U.S. relations with Brazil 115
40. 1943-b. Town Planning Associates (TPA) is commissioned to design a new Brazilian town around an airplane factory, Cidade dos Motores. This will be the beginning of TPA’s involvement with Latin America that will include not only plans for Chimbote, Peru, but also master plans for Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia, and Havana, Cuba 118
41. 1944. Henry Klumb moves to Puerto Rico and formalizes investigations of modern architecture in the tropics 123
42. 1945. Antoni Bonet, Punta Ballena, Uruguay 129
43. 1946. Affonso Reidy’s Popular Housing Blocks 131
44. 1947-a. Luis Barragán and Max Cetto, the émigré German architect, begin working on the design of the first houses in Mexico City’s Jardines del Pedregal subdivision 134
45. 1947-b. Seeking to symbolize postwar efficiency and organization, Latin American cities embrace the North American “architecture of bureaucracy.” 140
46. 1947-a. Oscar Niemeyer sketches the UN building in New York but takes no credit 144
47. 1947-b. Mario Pani—Multifamiliares 147
48. 1947-c. Agrupación Espacio 149
49. 1949. La ciudad frente al río is released, showing the transformations of Le Corbusier’s plan for Buenos Aires 151
50. 1950. Public housing reaches a monumental scale: Mario Pani, Carlos Raúl Villanueva, Affonso Reidy, Oscar Niemeyer 153
51. 1951-a. Carlos Raúl Villanueva, Villanueva Residence 158
52. 1951-b. PROA magazine publishes Arquitectura en Colombia, articulating an identity that survived the second half of the century 159
53. 1951-c. Lina Bo Bardi inaugurates her Casa de Vidro 160
54. 1952. The debates of plastic integration, modern architecture, and the development of new city forms come to the forefront in two major universities: the UNAM in Mexico City and the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela. The first exemplifies figurative, legible, and socially conscious art; the second, abstraction 162
55. 1952. Eladio Dieste, Iglesia de Cristo Obrero, Atlántida, Uruguay 170
56. 1953-a. Affonso Reidy: halfway between the Carioca school and the Paulista school 172
57. 1953-b. El Eco Experimental Museum in Mexico City opens its doors, advocating for an “emotional architecture.” 176
58. 1953-c. Max Bill’s critique of the São Paulo Biennial has a significant impact in Brazil: Oscar Niemeyer writes a “mea culpa,” Sérgio Bernardes invests in designing a technological utopia, and João Filgueiras Lima devotes his life to prefabrication 180
59. 1953-a. Félix Candela, Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Mexico City 184
60. 1953-b. Mario Roberto Álvarez, Teatro General San Martín, Buenos Aires 186
61. 1954. Le Corbusier, Curutchet House, La Plata, Argentina 188
62. 1955. Eladio Dieste—Tectonics driving the accidental architect 190
63. 1955-a. Fruto Vivas, Club Táchira 193
64. 1955-b. The Helicoide in Caracas: The Ultimate Parking and Shopping Center 195
65. 1955-c. Gio Ponti, Villa Planchart 197
66. 1956. Brasília: A modernist utopia? 199
67. 1957-a. Mies van der Rohe, Bacardí Buildings for Havana, Cuba, and Mexico City 206
68. 1957-b. Lina Bo Bardi, São Paulo Museum of Art 208
69. 1959. The appeal of Corbusian monumentality and béton brut: Clorindo Testa’s Government Building in La Pampa and, with SEPRA, the Bank of London and South America in Buenos Aires 210
70. 1961-a. Fidel Castro, in conversation with Ernesto “Che” Guevara, decides to convert a golf course into art schools in Cuba 214
71. 1961-b. João Batista Vilanova Artigas and Paulo Mendes da Rocha articulate the Paulista school: free ground plan, generous social spaces, and opaque envelopes 218
72. 1961. João Batista Vilanova Artigas, School of Architecture and Planning, University of São Paulo 221
73. 1962. Nelson Bayardo, Columbarium, Montevideo 223
74. 1963. In Bogotá, Rogelio Salmona takes old bricks to a new dimension in Torres del Parque 225
75. 1964-a. The military dictatorship ends Delfim Amorim and Acácio Gil Borsoi’s investigations into an architecture for the Brazilian northeast 227
76. 1964-b. Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City 229
77. 1964-c. Martín Correa and Gabriel Guarda, Las Condes Benedictine Monastery Chapel 231
78. 1965-a. Parque do Flamengo: Roberto Burle Marx redefines the Brazilian landscape by rediscovering the country’s own local species 233
79. 1965-b. The (re)invention of Curitiba: from the plan of Jorge Wilheim to the implementation by Jaime Lerner 237
80. 1965. Juan Borchers, Cooperativa Eléctrica de Chillán, Chile 240
81. 1966. United Nations as client and advocate: Emilio Duhart’s CEPAL Building in Santiago 242
82. 1967. Hélio Oiticica builds Tropicália, challenging the traditional boundaries between art, popular culture, construction, and architecture 246
83. 1967. Jesús Tenreiro-Degwitz—Venezuelan Postmodernism 250
84. 1968. The Olympic Games provide Mexico City with opportunities for new forms of national representation through architecture; deadly student protests highlight the contested use of public space 252
85. 1969-a. Inventing new educational paradigms, Alberto Cruz Covarrubias and Godofredo Iommi (poetically) found the Ciudad Abierta in Chile 257
86. 1969-b. PREVI: Two opposing governments in Peru bring in the best architects in the world to address squatter settlements 262
87. 1969. Francisco Bullrich publishes on Latin American architecture 265
88. 1971. Formalizing the legacy of the Madí (Movimiento de Arte de Invención) and utopian urban projects, Gyula Kosice proposes a hydrospatial city 267
89. 1971. National Theater, Guatemala 272
90. 1974. Teaching under duress: La Escuelita, dictatorship, and postmodernism in Argentina 274
91. 1975. Filgueiras Lima, Capela do Centro Administrativo da Bahia 278
92. 1976. Mexican postmodernism: Teodoro González de León’s Colegio de México expresses modern architecture’s new historicizing sensibilities 281
93. 1977-a. Éolo Maia, Capela de Santana ao Pé do Morro 287
94. 1977-b. Bruno Stagno House, Costa Rica 289
95. 1979. Pampulha magazine is launched in Minas Gerais, marking the beginning of Brazilian postmodernism 291
96. 1980. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded to Luis Barragán, and photography is at the center of the myth 295
97. 1983. Niemeyer returns to Rio de Janeiro to design the Sambódromo and the CIEPs: architecture gets closer to popular needs 300
98. 1983-a. Ramón Gutiérrez publishes Arquitectura y urbanismo en Iberoamérica 305
99. 1983-b. Severiano Porto, Balbina Environmental Protection Center, Brazil 306
100. 1985-a. In the midst of a “not-so-lost” decade... 308
101. 1985-b. Lina Bo Bardi and the SESC Pompéia inaugurate an interest in adapting existing structures 311
102. 1988. Brazilian Museum of Sculpture 315
103. 1990. Chilean postmodernism is challenged by José Cruz and Germán del Sol 318
104. 1991. Angelo Bucci and Alvaro Puntoni win the competition for the Brazilian pavilion at Seville Expo 1992, marking the end of the postmodern reign and the beginning of neomodernism 322
105. 1993. Pablo Beitia, Xul Solar Museum (Pan Klub Foundation) 326
106. 1994-a. Quae sera tamen: Architecture for the Favelas 329
107. 1994-b. As a model for internationalization, NAFTA becomes emblematic of the new character of late-twentieth-century Mexican architecture 333
108. 1997. Smiljan Radic, Charcoal Burner’s Hut 338
109. 2000. Colombian Renaissance: In Bogotá and Medellín, mayors and architects work together to create better cities 339
110. 2000. A lberto Kalach, GGG House, Mexico City 343
111. 2001. Solano Benítez’s Tomb for His Father, Paraguay 346
112. 2002. Rafael Iglesia, Pavilions at Parque Independencia 348
113. Provocations for a Conclusion: Islands no more 351
114. Notes 361
115. Bibliography 371
116. Illustration Credits 385
117. Index 391