| Fall 2006 Lecture Series |
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Lecture Series: LATIN AMERICA NOW
The lecture series LATIN AMERICA NOW is devoted to a new generation of Latin American architects whose work shows the same energy and inventiveness of the celebrated mid-century modernist Latin American architecture. The purpose of the series is not to offer a comprehensive panorama of individual countries, but to suggest the diversity of approaches present within a setting of contextual similarities and a common colonial past, but also striking cultural differences from country to country. While the emphases on abstraction and simplicity present elsewhere are also dominant in Latin America, the combined factors of a comparatively relaxed regulatory environment, cheap labor, readily available building materials, and upper classes dedicated to preserving their pre-eminence along with the progressive image conveyed by Modernism, confer on new South American architecture a particular sense of vitality and excitement. These factors and the often spectacular settings of the coastal mountains with raw landscapes and cosmopolitan centers in close proximity have produced architecture at once visually stunning and technologically sophisticated. The fusion of spectacle and tectonics is particularly evident in countries such as Mexico and Chile, where recent economic development has stimulated an appreciation of architecture as a marketing device, but there is also some new and equally interesting work being built in less prosperous countries. One of the major differences between contemporary Latin American architecture and that of mid-century Modernism is the present generation's focus on clients and buildings, rather than the heroic ideology of societal reform. At all levels of society, responsibility for the creation of new architecture has shifted from single large government bureaucracies to private companies and individuals, and from large-scale regional projects to smaller, more localized interventions. The new Latin American architecture has emerged in a context where once-daunting distances between population centers have been shortened by more and cheaper plane flights and previous isolation and remoteness from the rest of the world overcome with information technology. Equally important is the vitality of an cosmopolitan culture that, despite of the increasing presence of gated communities, persistent social disparities, economic segregation, and racism, remains an important generator of architectural and urban form. Although in some respects, Latin America remains on the periphery of social, cultural, and economic development, its architects, particularly its younger architects, have opportunities—to experiment, invent, and perhaps most importantly, to build—that are much more difficult to come by in places where materials and labor are prohibitively expensive, and the competition among increasing numbers of architects for a shrinking pool of commissions is fierce. As can readily be seen in the brilliant work of 2006 Pritzker Prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha, peripheral is in no way synonymous with marginal, and each Latin American country is at the center of its own world. The Architecture Lecture Series is sponsored by the William and Catherine Bauer Wurster Society Professional Members. SEPT 20 : BRAZIL │ ANGELO BUCCI
SEPT 27 : USA │ KEITH EGGENER OCT 4 : COLOMBIA │ GIANCARLO MAZZANTI
OCT 11 : MEXICO/USA │ ENRIQUE NORTEN OCT 18 : ARGENTINA│ RAFAEL IGLESIA & MARIEL SUÁREZ OCT 25 : USA│ CAROL REESE NOV 1 : CHILE │ ALEJANDRO AREVANA NOV 8 : PERU │ SANDRA BARCLAY & JEAN PIERRE CROUSSE NOV 15 : ARGENTINA/USA │ PABLO CASTRO & JENNIFER LEE NOV 29 : PARAGUAY │ SOLANO BENITEZ
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Image: Rafael Iglesia.
