Teaching Architectural History in Latin America: The Elusive Unifying Architectural

Discourse
Author(s): Susana Torre
Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 549558
Published by: Society of Architectural Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/991875
Accessed: 03/04/2010 14:26
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sah.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Society of Architectural Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

http://www.jstor.org

Teaching
The

Elusive

SUSANA

TORRE

Architectural

Unifying

Latin

America:
Architectural Discourse

History

in

New York,New York

Introduction

a long-deferredprojectto constructa unifyingculturaldiscourseaboutarchitectureandits historiclegacyin the region.

Specificreferencesto countriesandschools aremadewithin
a contextof informedgeneralizations.

"LatinAmerica"is an imaginarycountry of vastly varied

geographies,climates,resources,and histories.But because
nineteen of its countries share the Spanish language and
Spanishcolonial heritage,and becausethe Portugueseheritage of the twentieth and largestcountry,Brazil,is closely
Institutional Contexts
parallel,Latin Americanintellectualshave tended to imagine themselves as part of a single community, with com- The teaching of architecturaldesign and history in Latin
mon foes and destiny. This is one reason we find similar Americaduring the nineteenth centuryand more than the
approaches to teaching architecturalhistory throughout firsthalfof the twentiethreproducedthe schismbetweenthe
the region.' Another is that architects in most of these methodologiesof the FrenchEcole des Beaux-Artsand the
countries face similarchallenges.One of them is the client Ecole Polytechniquethathadexistedsincethe lateeighteenth
base. Everywherebut in socialist Cuba, the gulf between century.The firstschoolof architecturein LatinAmericawas
the urban middle classes and the rural poor in terms of
the RealAcademiade San Carlosde la Nueva Espafia,estaband
lished
in Mexico City in 1781.It was modeledon the Acaderesources
remains
and
mass
extreme,
opportunities
to
the
cities
has
done
less
to
mia
de
urbanize
San Fernandoin Madrid,2which had been createdin
the
migration
poor
than to ruralizeenormous areas of the cities. The skewed 1742 basedon the ParisianAcademieRoyaled'Architecture
distribution of resources means there is little privately and programsestablishedby FrangoisBlondel and Claude
sponsored development of modest homes or public build- Perrault.Accordingto the Frenchsystem,architecture,paintings, such as clinics, hospitals, or schools, of the sort that ing, andsculpturerequireda sharedfoundation:drawing.The
support many architecturalpracticesin the United States explosive growth of Mexico's silver-miningtowns, where
and other countries. The architect'spotential clients tend moneywasplentifulandthe demandfor luxuryobjects,ornato be either the very rich, or foreign corporations,or-for
mental paraphernalia,
churches,and other civic and private
the exceptional large public project-the national or buildingswasveryhigh, supportedthe trainingof localarchitectsandartists.3The RealAcademiade SanCarlosandother
provincialgovernment.
Anotherchallengeis the legacyof the past.From Santo schoolsfoundedon the samemodel continueduntil the midDomingo to Santiago, settlement patterns established in twentieth centuryto follow the pedagogy of the Ecole des
Spanish colonial times continue to demand acknowledg- Beaux-Arts,as it was developed and codified by Julien
ment from contemporaryplannersand architects,whether Guadet.4Similarly,in Brazil,the firstarchitecturecoursewas
becausechunksof the old street grid remainin use or sim- establishedin 1826, basedon the programat the Academia
ply as an appealto nationalidentity.
Imperialde BelasArtes.
The followingessayis organizedin two parts.The first
In the decadesafter they obtainedindependencefrom
contextualizesthe teachingof architecturalhistory by pro- Spain, the new republican governments founded other
viding an overviewof the institutionalframeworksand their schools thatwere influencedmore by the positivistidealsof
history.The second,longerportiondealsspecificallywith the the Ecole Polytechnique. These included the Mexican
teachingof architecturalhistory.Its introduction-a descrip- Escuelade Arquitecturae IngenieriaCivil (openedin 1856),
tion of methodologiesandresources-is followedby two sec- the School of Engineering and Architecture(1900) at the
tions,the firston the teachingof the historicalsurveyandthe Universidadde La Habana, and the school affiliatedwith
second on the teaching and researchingof the history of the Argentineannational Facultadde Ciencias Exactasin
Latin Americanarchitecture.In the conclusion,I speculate Buenos Aires (1901).5Their
programsintroduced a techaboutthe role of informationtechnologyin the fulfillmentof nological orientationand the rigorousstructuraland
typoTEACHING

THE HISTORY

OF ARCHITECTURE

549

Figure 1 The Real Academia de San Carlosde la Nueva Espana in

Mexico Citywas the first school of architecturein the Americas,
founded in 1781.

logical studies contained in the teachings and treatises of

J. N. L. Durand and Auguste Choisy.
Beginning in the mid-1940s and continuing throughout
the 1960s, schools of architecture in Latin America began
extricating themselves from both their Beaux-Arts and engineering school traditions. Autonomous schools of architecture, which in most countries include courses in urban
planning in addition to building design, have in recent times
become the academic home for other programs such as
graphic, digital, industrial, and clothing design.6
The oldest and most established schools of architecture in Latin America reside within the national, public universities, which collect only nominal fees for supplies. Since
the 1970s, except in Cuba, private universities have proliferated throughout Latin America.7 The drive toward privatization of government holdings and industries during the
1980s and '90s spurred the creation of private universities,
most of which focus on business programs, which can operate on relatively small budgets, instead of scientific ones,
which require labs and equipment, or visual and performing
arts, which need studio space. Today there are far more private universities than public ones in Latin America,
550

JSAH

/ 61:4,

DECEMBER

2002

although the majority of students attend the state-sponsored schools.8Among the privateuniversities,schools of
architecturereside primarilyin those established by the
Catholic Church,whose involvementin educationand the
constructionof politicaland culturaldiscoursein the region
dates to the seventeenth century.9 In some countries,
Catholic universities include religious studies within the
professional curriculum;these take various forms, from
requiredcoursesin Christianityor Christianethics in professionalpractice,to electivepilgrimagesin which students
sharefaith-affirmingritualswith local populations.10
The numberof architectureschoolsvariesgreatlyfrom
country to country. Smaller, poorer nations in Central
America-Costa Rica, Guatemala,Honduras, Nicaragua,
Panama,and Salvador-may have a single programin the
national university.By contrast, the Dominican Republic
has ten programs,reflectingthe recentprosperityandurban
growthbasedon cash remittancesfrom Dominicansin the
United States.Mexico,with half the populationof the U.S.,
has approximatelyas manyarchitectureschools as the U.S.
and Canadacombined. Enrollment also varies. Typically,
the figure for each school is in the hundreds. However,
enrollments in programs in public universities in the
region's most populous cities are huge: the oldest and
largestMexicanschool, basedin the UniversidadNacional
Aut6nomade M6xico(UNAM) in Mexico City,has approximately5,000 students,and the architectureprogramat the
Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina has
8,700.11In such places, all coursesare taught by teams led
by the profesortitular, who is in charge of lecturing, and by

a group of assistantinstructorscoordinated by a head of

practicaland theoreticalassignments.
In the majorityof LatinAmericanschools,architecture
programsleadingto a professionaldegreearefiveyearslong
(ten semesters)and follow twelve or thirteen years of primary and secondary education.12Most countries require
studentsto take an examin severalscientificand humanist
subjects to gain admission to any university program.In
addition,architectureprogramsmayhavetheir own admissions exam,emphasizingfreehanddrawingandgraphicrepresentation. The Argentinean UBA program has open
admissions,with a BasicCycle of coursesas the test of students' resolve to pursue an architecturedegree. In some
universities,the durationof studiesis a yearlonger thanten
semestersbecausea thesisor finalprojectis alsorequiredfor
a degree.In Mexico,studentsmustservea six-month"social
service"internshipwith a governmentorganization.
Programaccreditationacrossthe regionis usuallypartof
the generalprocessof universityaccreditation,whichis governed by the nationalMinistryof Educationor its equiva-

lent. In the pastdecade,some countrieshaveestablishedsep- public program"Architectureup to Date,"which has been

arateprocessesfor the accreditationof professionalprograms. run by a Chilean school for the past decade. In it, recent
The most establishedChileanschools may be the only ones buildings are presented and discussed twice a month by
in LatinAmericato haveobtained,startingin the 1980s,pro- their architectsand an invited critic,with audienceparticifessional accreditationfrom the Royal Institute of British pation, including academicsand professionals.17
Architects.13Many specializationsare availablebeyond the
In additionto the usualslide-illustratedlectures,some
architecturediploma, in the form of master'sdegrees that schools-notably in Chile and Uruguay-encourage site
include,among many options, architecturalhistory(usually visits and more extendedstudy travel.The school of archiof LatinAmerica)andhistoricpreservation.14
Europeanuni- tecture of the Universidadde la Repuiblicain Montevideo,
versitiesare also beginning to create and subsidizeconsor- Uruguay,has a unique traditionof a year-long worldwide
tiums of architectureschools integrating Latin American study trip for the entire graduatingclass,financedby a rafcountriesin new "global"programsofferingmaster'sdegrees; fle where the prizes are houses designed by the students.'8
a recent example includes schools in Argentina, Belgium,
Brazil,the Netherlands,Scotland,and Spain.15
Teachingthe Historical Survey
There are between five and seven required one-semester
Teaching the History of Architecture
architecturalhistory and theory coursesin Latin American
the
not
art
historians
with
architecture
Throughout
region, architects,
schools, with most schools offering additional
doctoratesand specializationsin architecturalhistory,teach electives in both areas.The backboneis the chronological
the historyof architecture.Some countries,like Argentina, survey, which extends across three semesters. In some
are beginning to require an advanceddegree in architec- places,it startswith Europeanprehistoryand in otherswith
tural history or historic preservation as a condition of
the establishmentof the first known cities, and continues
employment. Consequently,severalprogramsare offering up to the present.An exceptionis the New School of Archidegrees with summer-onlyor flexible schedules to accom- tecture at the Universidad Politecnica in Puerto Rico,
modateprofessorsof long standingwho arealso requiredto where the entire surveyis taughtin a single course as a hiscomply with the new rules. The fact that the architectural tory of spatial types.19
The survey'spoint of view remainsWestern and Eurohistory faculty is made up of architects,not art historians,
resultsin few assignmentsfor researchpapersand an instru- centric,not global.This is to be expectedgiven the
region's
mentalemphasison theoryin relationto design.Most com- history of colonization by Spain and
Portugal for almost
mon are student assignments consisting of 2-D and 3-D
three centuries; its attachment to the urban cultures of
analyticaland typological exercises and brief design pro- Paris,London, andNew Yorksince the nineteenthcentury;
jects, in which they must demonstratein a synthetic form and the influence of the European and Americanschools
their commandof compositionalprinciplesand elementsof where its architects complete
postgraduatestudies. Most
style in different historicalperiods. Assignmentsare typi- schools try to follow more or less sequentiallythe canonic
cally supplementedby quizzes and exams.16
European and American styles, buildings, and architects,
The programsdistinguishbetween the discoursesand even if sometimes this means
departingfrom the chronopurposesof history,theory,and criticism.Theory is gener- logical approach.Asian civilizations, if studied at all, are
ally found in the curriculum as a required introductory placed beforethe study of ancient Greece and Rome,
course about the ideas that have informed Western archi- together with pre-Columbian
civilizations, the better to
tecture,or as electivecoursesaboutarchitecturaltreatisesor establish an unbroken European narrative through the
twentieth-centuryand contemporarytexts and manifestos. twentieth century;Africa and Australiaare excluded,with
In general, theory is taught within a historicalframework, the exception of ancient
Egypt and North AfricanRoman
and it remains confined to architecturaltexts; forays into
sites; and the U.S. appearsfirst through the work of Frank
theoretical intertextuality are few and far between. The
Lloyd Wright, who is considereda precursorof European
occasionalexceptionmay be the inclusion of anthropolog- modern architecture rather than an American architect
ical and philosophicaltexts in those courseswhere issues of
engaged in a search for a national culturalidentity,similar
culturalidentity or social habitationcannot be adequately to those undertaken Latin Americanartistsand writers
by
addressedby the architecturaldisciplinealone. Few schools who were
Wright'scontemporaries.20
have formalprogramswhere students experiencecriticism
This is not to say that the surveyis taught uncritically.
as an ongoing culturalactivity;one successfulexampleis the In some
schools, it is preceded by an introductorycourse
TEACHING

THE HISTORY

OF ARCHITECTURE

551

Figure 2 Two examples of student work created for the course "The Historyof ArchitecturalSpace," at the New School of Architecture,
UniversidadPolitecnicade Puerto Rico, in which they are asked to design and buildan object of contemporaryappearance based on ideas
discussed in class. Left:Ana Collazo,candelabraderived from an interpretationof the Baroque;right:MariaCarrion,cut-and-foldedcard
describingthe historicaldevelopment of Caribbeancities

on criticalanalysisand methodology,in others by a course

on historiography,and in still others it is intermingledwith
abundantlocal and Latin Americanexamples,following a
methodologythat tends to emphasizethe processesof mestizaje,which undermines the survey'sEurocentric inherited ideology (see n. 26). In the schools that include
programs in graphic, industrial, and clothing design in
addition to architecture and urban planning, it is more
common to find a surveythat dealswith the range of environmental design practices,and the faculty tends to refocus it on the history of human habitation,rather than on
the history of specific design practices.While the result is
a lackof specificitywith regardto the disciplines-because
each is seen as operating on a different level of environmental design-the inclusion of all environmental phenomena allows for a comparisonof scales, methodologies,
and typologies not possible in a conventionalarchitectural
history course. There is a very unusualschool at the Universidad de Valparaiso,Chile, that includes no architectural history courses in its curriculum. Since 1964, the
school'sprogramhas been based on the continuing design
and construction of Amereida, also known as The Open
City. "Cultureof the Body,"a sequence of seven courses,
develops the students'physicaland mental abilityto build
their own designs.21 An extreme relativizationof the survey'smasternarrativeis takingplace in the unique institutional practiceof the UBA, with a verticalstructureof nine
parallel series of history courses, much like the vertical
design studios that students can select to follow throughout their course of studies. However, the nine approaches
552

JSAH

/ 61:4,

DECEMBER

2002

are subsumed within two broad trends: one emphasizes

European architecture, landmarks, and buildings as
objects;the other includesregionaland local architectures,
unique and vernacular buildings, and a typological
approach within the urban context. Although some
schools continue to use textbooks by BannisterFletcher,
John Summerson,Nikolaus Pevsner,LeonardoBenevolo,
Bruno Zevi, and Manfredo Tafuri, the present trend is
towardthe compilationof readerswith essaysthat present
critical perspectives on the historical materials.22The
Cuban schools rely on textbooks written by their architecturalhistory instructorsfor a differentviewpoint based
on the analysisof buildingsas manifestationsof social and
economic relationships.No other school of architecture
faculty in Latin America has invested as much effort in
rewritingthe historicalsurvey.23
Teachingand Researchingthe History of Latin American
Architecture
The importanceof the historicalsurveyin the architectural
history curriculumis counterbalancedby the inclusion of
courses on the history of local and Latin Americanarchitecture.Most schools requireat least one courseon one of
these subjectsand have postgraduateprogramspreparing
competent facultyto teach them.24In the 1920s, duringa
cycle of interestin preservation,the need to teach the local
and regional histories in architectureschools was recognized. But many of the courses on the history of Latin
Americanarchitecturewere not establisheduntil the 1970s,

when interest in the preservation of cultural patrimony

resurfacedin the architectureschools.25The issue was initially discussed in the first Pan-American Congress of
Architects in 1924, and it was officially identified as an
urgent regional concern in the proceedings of the Fourth
Congress, convened in Rio de Janeiro six years later.2
Nationalist identity issues inspired the Congress'srecommendationson this topic. They had takenshapein relation
to the 1929 InternationalFairin Seville,with its underlying
theme of nationalidentities emerging from a sharedcolonial heritage. Claiming that "there is no incompatibility
between regionalismand the modern spirit,"the Congress
called for the creation of courses in the history of each
country'sart and in the decorativearts,focusing on indigenous floraand fauna,in orderto betterinformthe design of
pavilionsfor projectedworlds fairs.27These recommendations were not immediatelyimplemented,but the meeting
of LatinAmericanarchitecturalhistoriansand architectsthe MexicanManuelToussaintand the ArgentineansMario
J. Buschiazzoand Martin Noel-with the SpaniardDiego
Angulo Iiiguez, authorof the firsthistoryof Hispaniccolonial art and the firstcompilationof HispanicAmericancity
plansin Seville'sArchivesof the Indies,resultedin the foundation of university-basedresearchinstitutes in the mid1930s in Mexico City and BuenosAires,which sparkedthe
establishmentof similarinstitutionsin other countriesand
created the context for investigationsof IberianAmerican
art and architecture,particularlyof the colonial heritage.28
How, when, and where were research and pedagogy
firstconnected?Establishingwith precisionthe dateswhen
courseson local and regional architecturewere first taught
in each countryis beyond the scope of this essay.However,
the renewed interest in introducing local history into the
architecturecurriculumthat began in the mid-1970s was
directlyrelatedto the desire to preservethe historicalpatrimony,as landmarkbuildingsand sites were being identified by national and internationalentities.29In Argentina
and Colombia, among other countries, preservation
activists,including architecturescholars, faculty,and students, were politicallyactive in fighting the destructionof
landmarkbuildings in the historic city centers and their
plannedreplacementby hotels, office buildings,and shopping centersbuilt by internationalconglomeratesto generic
designs and specifications.
Throughout the 1980s, there was a considerable
increase in research on and in the number of congresses
about architecturaland urbanpatrimonyin the region, and
in the establishmentof links between nationalidentity and
historic preservationthrough publicationsand exhibitions,
many of which were the result of collaborativeinvestiga-

tions.30Several countries created national landmarkand

monument commissions, and a few universities implemented new coursesand postgraduateprogramson historic
preservation and Latin American architectural history.
Some countriesalso sponsorednew archivesfor the preservation and study of original documents relating to local
architecture. Among them are the Centro de Documentaci6n de la ArquitecturaLatinoamericana(CEDODAL) in Buenos Aires, the most important of its kind,
notablefor the breadthanddepthof its LatinAmericancollections;the Archivosde Arquitecturay Construcci6nde la
Universidadde Puerto Rico (AACUPR),importantfor the
quantity and quality of its scholarly publications;and the
Centro de Informaci6ny Documentaci6n de la ArquitecturaLatinoamericanade la PontificiaUniversidadCatolica
de Chile, whose singulardedicationto trackingand acquiring relevant archives worldwide and to participating in
internationalexhibitionshas been outstanding.31Many of
these initiativeswere funded or sponsoredby the Spanish
government as part of the quincentennial celebration of
Columbus'sdiscoveryof Spain'sfuturecolonies.32The most
active countries were Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, and
Peru. Through its periodical, Documentosde Arquitectura
NacionalyAmericana(DANA), the Instituto Argentino de
Historia de la Arquitecturay el Urbanismo (IAHAU) in
Resistencia,Argentina,dramatizedthe issues by bestowing
its ironic Atila (as in Attila the Hun) awardto "those who
have made a conspicuouscontributionto the promotion of
our culturalheritage,even if they have done so by destroying [one of its materialmanifestations],an originalmethod
for calling attention to its existence."33
The importance given to architecturalhistory in the
curriculumduring the 1980s may also be seen as a corrective measureto its retrenchmentin the 1960sand early'70s,
when modern architecturehad been codified in the design
studios in the form of Le Corbusier'sFive Principles,leaving architecturalhistoryto become a generalcourseon culture. During this period of politicalturmoilin much of the
region, Argentinean schools suffered budget cutbacks,
resultingin the closing of researchinstitutesand the establishment of "integrated"or "total"design studios,in which
all theoretical, historical, technical, and structuralsubject
matter was selected to fit the requirementsof the specific
projectbeing taught.In Cuba,the emphasisduringthe first
period of the revolutionwas almost exclusivelyon building
technology as the means for implementingsocial programs
in housing, health, and education, with design and history/theoryin a subordinate,instrumentalrole.
The architectureof certainperiods-notably the nineteenth century-simply disappearedfrom the architectural
TEACHING

THE HISTORY

OF ARCHITECTURE

553

buildings, sites, and society that we learned about in the

architecturalhistoryclasses.
Today,schools'positionson courseson LatinAmerican
andlocal architecturalhistoriesvarya greatdeal:a few teach
local historybefore the Westernhistoricalsurveyand others teachit after;some makeregionalhistorya requirement
while others offer it as an elective. Many faculty,in agreement with the influentialBrazilianeducatorPaulo Freire's
pedagogy of "conscientizafao," or "making aware," consider

Figure 3 The journalDocumentos de ArquitecturaNacionaly

Americana(DANA)is published in Argentina.This issue, no. 39/40,
1998, is dedicated to MarinaWaisman, whose photo is on the cover.

history curriculum as a casualty of design approaches dominated by reductive modernism and the huge influence of
Nikolaus Pevsner's Pioneers of Modern Design, whose first
Spanish edition was published in 1958.34With it, the origins
of Latin American modernization in the late nineteenth
century as part of the process of independent nation building also disappeared. The reliance on texts by Europeans
such as Pevsner and Zevi and the American Henry-Russell
Hitchcock similarly obscured the origins of modern architecture in Latin America, for the region was either not
included in their books or isolated examples were presented
as locally flavored versions of the International Style. For
many students, the suppression of history in the studio often
led them to vigorously pursue its teachings. As an architecture student in Argentina during this period, I witnessed
this backlash: the absence of analytical questioning in the
dogmatic emulation of Le Corbusier's or Mies van der
Rohe's work made us crave the connections between ideas,
554

JSAH

/ 61:4,

DECEMBER

2002

that the students'experienceof their own lives andcontexts

constitutes the best point of departurefor their understandingof the world.35Hence, delvinginto local architectural history is seen as a critique of the universalizing
tendencyrepresentedby the Westernsurvey.The objective
is to dismantlethe exclusionaryhistoricalframeworksand
to refashionthem with new information.While the survey
may be taught accordingto an eclectic methodology,with
buildings described in terms of style, typology, or the
authority of the designer, depending on the historical
period,local and regionalhistoryis generallystructuredin
terms of urbanhistory.
MarinaWaisman(1920-1997),a greatlyadmiredArgentineanarchitectural
historian,wasone of the most important
advocatesof teachingthe historyof buildingsas partof the
history of cities. She devised the analyticalframeworkof
typologicalseriesto engagethat relationship.This methodology helped studentsdevelopcriteriafor the assessmentof
a building'svaluethroughthe identificationof the best examples within each series, in addition to considering social,
political,cultural,andtechnologicalinformation.For example, a buildingviewed as innovativein the structuraltypologicalseriesmayhavelesserimportancein the functionalor
aestheticseries,or viceversa.36
Waisman,who wasalsoa prolific writerand editoras well as a protagonistof memorable
debatesat regionaland internationalconferences,formeda
cadreof discipleswho perpetuatethis approach.
Among the many organizations and gatherings that
emergedwith the renewedinterestin architecturalhistory
and preservationduringthe 1970s and '80s, none has been
more influentialthan the Seminariosde ArquitecturaLatinoamericana(SAL). Originating at a gathering of Latin
Americanarchitectsand theoreticianson the occasion of
the firstBienalde Arquitecturain BuenosAiresin 1985, the
seminarshavecontinuedto be held everytwo years,in locations that alternate between North/Central and South
America.One of the SAL'ssignaturecharacteristicsis the
inclusionof historians,theoreticians,critics,and designers
in the constructionof a Latin Americanarchitecturaldiscoursethat has been focused,since the earlygatherings,on
issues of culturalidentity.The SAL is not a formalorgani-

zation. It has no officers, staff, or dues-paying members. Its

core group of organizers comprises some of the most active,
prolific, and distinguished Latin American historians, critics, and practitioners and their former students.37
The last meeting, organized with the cooperation of the
Colegio de Arquitectos and the two schools of architecture in
Puerto Rico in 2001, brought the SAL into its closest contact
with the U.S.; indeed, one of the topics for the free-ranging
"reflective meetings" was the cultural and technological tutelage of the U.S. in the Americas.38The conference included
several exhibitions-among them the Bienal de Arquitectura
in Puerto Rico and a major retrospective of Eladio Dieste's
work-and the publication of the first catalogue of all the
architecture journals published in Latin American countries
since 1900 by the New School of Architecture at the Universidad Polit6cnica de Puerto Rico. The school's library has
recently acquired the most extensive collection of such periodicals to have been amassed in North and Central America,
thus turning it into a major research destination for scholars
of Latin American architecture.
SAL participants have theorized abundantly about
modernity in Latin America for the past twenty years, and
these theories have generally coalesced around the concept
of a "modernidadapropiada,"meaning a modernity that is at
once appropriate to the Latin American social and economic contexts, and culturally appropriated through
regionally based construction and typologies. Adherents
briefly engaged critical regionalism in their debates during
the early 1990s, but came to reject the concept as prescriptive of passively resistive and marginal design practices.39
Because the SAL does not have an ongoing journal, the
work emerging from or discussed at the gatherings is found
in various publications.40 Some contributors have focused
on theoretical issues and others on monographs of architects whose practices and buildings are representative of an
appropriated modernity. Deliberately or not, these publications have created a kind of Latin American modern
canon of the late twentieth century, formed by the work of
architects such as the Argentineans Claudio Caveri and
Togo Diaz, the Chilean Cristian Groote, the Colombian
Rogelio Salmona, the Mexican Carlos Mijares, the PeruvianJuvenal Baracco, and the Uruguayans Dieste and Mariano Arana, among others.41 These architects, most of
whom are now in their early seventies, do not constitute a
group, nor do their oeuvres define a style. Nonetheless,
in a modernist idiom-show a
their projects-although
shared understanding of the city as a historical continuity
and are built in readily available materials such as reinforced
concrete and exposed brick.
Expectations that these works and ideas could perme-

Figure 4 An example of modernidadapropiada:Togo Diaz, Calicanto

apartmentbuilding,Cordoba,Argentina,1984

ate the teaching of architectural design in the region were

not fulfilled. This outcome was due to a combination of factors: the students' greater familiarity with the work of
American, European, and Japanese design, which is due to
the fact that school libraries subscribe to the international
magazines but not the regional ones; the increased coverage
of American and European projects by local Internet journals; the influence of younger faculty with postgraduate
degrees from American and European universities that
teach theory and design; and study tours that continue to
be focused on Europe and the U.S., rather than Latin
America, a phenomenon that contributes to the lack of firsthand familiarity with architecture in the region. The exception is the work of architects like Luis Barragin and Oscar
Niemeyer, which is included in international journals. Not
surprisingly, the contributions of women and present-day
indigenous peoples to the built environment and to the history of modernity remain to be documented and inscribed
within the cultural discourse.
TEACHING

THE HISTORY

OF ARCHITECTURE

555

Conclusion

Appendix
Hitchcock noted in his introductoryessay to LatinAmeri- I thankmy LatinAmericancolleagueslistedbelow;I couldnot have
writtenthis essaywithouttheircollaboration.
canArchitecturesince 1945 that Latin American countries
were better connected to Europe and the U.S. than to each The countriescoveredin this studyareArgentina,Brazil,Chile, Cuba,
DominicanRepublic,Mexico,PuertoRico, andUruguay.
other, and speculatedthat inter-Americancommunication
could finally be achievedin the era of air transportation.42
Respondents
However, air travelhas not been accessibleand affordable Argentina
enough to create fluid exchanges between architects and Prof. LauraAmarilla,Facultadde Arquitectura,UniversidadNacionalde
C6rdoba
architecturalhistorians,theoreticiansand critics,thatwould
FreddyGuidi,President,ArgentineanCommittee,ICOMOS, C6rdoba
increasethe flow of informationwithin the region that now Ram6n
Gutierrez,Director,CEDODAL, BuenosAires
occurs thanksto the the biannualSAL meetings.
Prof. RafaelIglesia,Director,postgraduateprogramin architectural
history,Facultadde Arquitecturay Disefio Urbano,Universidadde
Ram6nGutierrez,authorof the landmarkArquitectura
BuenosAires
urbanismo
en
the
first
and
so
far
Iberoamerica,
y
only com- Prof. EmeritusAlbertoNicolini, Facultadde Arquitecturay Urbanismo,
prehensivehistory of Latin Americanarchitecture,thinks
UniversidadNacionalde Tucuman
that in Latin America today, the discoursesof design and Prof.Jorge Ramos,Facultadde Arquitecturay Urbanismo,Universidadde
BuenosAires,and Facultadde Arquitecturay Urbanismo,Universidad
theory are not sufficiently connected.43Using the cenNacionalde Mar del Plata
ter/peripherymodel, which remains a frame of reference Prof.AdrianaTrecco,Facultadde Arquitectura,UniversidadNacionalde
for Latin American architects, most design practices are
C6rdoba
Dr. GracielaVifiuales,Director,CentroBarro,BuenosAires,Deputy
whereas
SAL-affiliated
theoreticians
and
hiscenter-tropic,
Director,CEDODAL, BuenosAires,andProfessor,Facultadde
torians(anda few designers)think of their practicesas defiArquitecturay Urbanismo,UniversidadNacionalde Mar del Plata
antly "peripheric."Information technology plays a large
role in the schism, because on the Web, to paraphrasea Brazil
famousNew Yorkercartoon, "nobodyknows you are Latin Prof. GustavoPeixoto,Faculdadede Arquiteturae Urbanismo,
UniversidadeFederaldo Rio deJaneiro
American,"and designers can create virtual architectures Prof. RobertoSegre,Coordinator,urbandesignprogram(PROURB),
UniversidadeFederaldo Rio deJaneiro
regardlessof locale. For manyarchitects,the lackof opportunities to design and build in their own countriesis a further incentive to produce for the global Internet Chile
Prof. HoracioTorrent,Escuelade Arquitectura,PontificiaUniversidad
environment.Theorists and historians,instead,continue to
Cat6licade Chile, Santiago
promotea discourseinterestedin questionsof culturalidentity defined by local and regional specificities and in pro- Cuba
Prof. ElianaCirdenas,Facultadde Arquitecturade La Habana,Instituto
jects that exemplifythese conditions. During the past two
SuperiorPolitecnicoJose AntonioEcheverria(ISPJAE)
decades,historicalresearchon LatinAmericanarchitecture
of all periodshas reacheda criticalmass,andit is now await- DominicanRepublic
Luis Delmonte, Dean, Facultadde Arquitecturay Artes,Universidad
ing wider dissemination.Internet-basedand -linked sites JoseNacional
PedroHenriquezUrefia,SantoDomingo
may offer the best possibilityfor bringing Latin American Prof. RisorisSilvestre,Facultadde Arquitectura,Universidad
architecture to a worldwide audience; for expanding the
SantoDomingo
Iberoamericana,
framesof referencefor a region that remainsinsufficiently
connected to cities and areasaroundthe globe with similar Mexico
Dr. LouiseNoelle, Researcher,Colegio de Investigadores,Institutode
experiences of urban development and cultural colonizaInvestigacionesEsteticasde la UniversidadNacionalAut6nomade
Mexico,Mexico City
tion; and for providing the connective tissue between historicaldocumentation,theoreticalwork,and designthat the Dr. Luis PorterGaletar,Divisi6nde Artesy Ciencias,Universidad
Aut6nomaMetropolitana,UnidadXochimilco,Mexico City
region needs to make its built environmentintelligible.
PuertoRico
Jorge Rigau,Dean, Nueva Escuelade Arquitectura,Universidad
Politecnicade PuertoRico, SanJuan
Uruguay
Prof.JuanPedroCravotto,Facultadde Arquitectura,Universidadde la
Republica,Montevideo

556

JSAH

/ 61:4,

DECEMBER

2002

Notes
1. In additionto bibliographicresearchand informationprovidedby the
colleagues mentioned in the Appendix,I have consulted numerousWeb
sites for Latin Americanschools of architecture.Two good sites with links
to Latin American schools are www.arquitectos.org.mx/vinculos/escuelas.htmand www.unam.mx/udual/UDUAL/historia/historico.htm.
2. Ram6n Gutierrez, Arquitecturay urbanismoen Iberoamerica
(Madrid,
1983),237. The RealAcademiade SanCarloswas foundedon 4 Nov. 1781,
the saint day of King CharlesIII, under whose patronagethe school was
established.The Academiade San Carlos de Valenciawas anotherprecedent. See also Roberto Segre, "FAU 1960-1975: Los 'afiosde fuego' de la
culturaarquitect6nicacubana,"unpublishedpaper,1.
3. For a detailedhistoryof Mexicanarchitectureschools, see ErnestoAlva
Martinez,"Laensefianzade la arquitecturaen Mexico en el siglo XX," La
prdcticade la arquitectura
y su ensenanzaen Mexico26-27, Cuadernos de
Conservaci6n
del Patrimonio Artistico (Mexico, 1983),
Arquitecturay
47-112.
4. See the influentialtreatisebyJulien Guadet,Elements et theorie del'architecture,Librairiede la ConstructionModere (Paris,n.d.).
5. Some countriesadheredtenaciouslyto the Beaux-Artscurriculum,such
as Chile, where the firstarchitecturecoursewas establishedin the Universidadde Chile in 1851 following that model.
6. Unlike schools in the U.S., these programsare not called Product and
Fashion Design, indicating a lesser identification with the training of
designersfor work in commercialindustries.
7. Privateuniversitiesin Latin Americaalso flourishedduringthe repression of political resistanceto conservativegovernmentsthat began in the
late 1960s. In Argentina,for example,public universitieswere considered
foci of politicalsubversionby the militarygovernments,and new Catholic
universitieswere establishedto providea "subversion-free,"
selective educationalenvironmentfor those who could affordthe tuition.To undermine
the intellectualprestigeof the publicuniversities,militaryinterventores
conductedfacultypurgesandhirednew professorswhose ideologywasnot suspect; many professorswere restoredto their positionswith the returnof a
democraticgovernmentin 1983.
8. I have been unable to obtain precisestatisticaldataas of the date of this
essay,but reliablesourcesindicatethat at leastin Mexico, the proportionof
architecturestudentsattendingpublicuniversitiesto those enrolledin private universitiesis approximately70 to 30.
9. In Chile, the oldestschool of architecturewithina Catholicuniversityhas
existed since 1894. There are many privateuniversitiesthat are not sponsored by the Catholic Church,such as AmericanUniversityin Nicaragua,
or those foundedby wealthyfamiliesthroughoutthe region.
10. A samplingof schools of architecturethat featurereligious content in
their courses includes the EcuadorianUniversidadCat6lica Santiago de
Guayaquilandthe PontificiaUniversidadCat6licade Ecuador,whose offerings range from "Theology I" to "SacredArchitecture [of the Catholic
Church]."In SouthAmerica,the School of Architectureof the Universidad
Cat6lica de Valparaisohas a theology professorin charge of trainingstudentswho voluntarilyparticipatein a religious"mission,"which consistsof
a yearlypilgrimageto a ruralcommunity,where they partakeof religious
ritualsand offer a collectivelydesignedgift.
11. I obtainedthis datafrom a questionnaireI sent to LatinAmericancolleagueslistedin the Appendix.Otherresponsesincludedarchitectureschool
enrollmentsof 732 studentsin the PontificiaUniversidadde Chile; 316 in
the Universidadde La Habana,Cuba;and 300 studentsin the Universidad
Nacional Pedro HenriquezUrefia,Dominican Republic.
12. Schools in the Caribbeantend to follow a system based on trimesters
ratherthan semesters.

13. These schools claimthat Europeanaccreditationenablestheir students

to qualifyas futureglobal practitionersand facilitatespracticaltrainingin
Europe.
14. An intensivemaster'sdegree in IberianAmericanarchitecturalhistory
has recentlybeen establishedat the UniversidadPablo de Olavide,Seville,
Spain, under the direction of Ram6n Gutierrez. See www.upo.esfor the
curriculum.
15. Hosting universitiesin the consortiumare those of Sint-LucasBrussels-Gent,Belgium;Eindhoven,the Netherlands;Seville,Spain;andStrathclyde, Scotland; participating Latin American universities are the
UniversidadeFederaldo Rio deJaneiro,Brazil,andthe Universidadde Belgrano, Argentina.One objective of the consortiumis to organize shared
"global"curriculafor a M.Arch.degree.
16. At the New School of Architectureof the UniversidadPolitecnicade
Puerto Rico, the main assignmentin the sophomore-levelcourse"History
of CaribbeanArchitecture"consists of formulatinga substantialresearch
question,which may be "eightto ten pageslong"and subsequentlyinform
the developmentof the student'sdesign thesis. See "Clioin the Caribbean:
History as Embracedand Challengedwithin a New ArchitectureCurriculum,"unpublishedpaperby Jorge Rigau, Dean, New School of Architecture, UniversidadPolitecnicade Puerto Rico. The papermay be obtained
by e-mailingjrigau@pupr.edu.
17. This is a programof the School of Architectureof the PontificiaUniversidadCat6licade Chile.
18. The study travel programand the raffle that financesit are national
events. They have grown to involve more than two hundredstudentsand
have been imitatedby other professionalschools in Uruguay.
19. The freshmanthree-month-longcourseis called"TheHistoryof ArchitecturalSpace."See Rigau,"Clio in the Caribbean,"5.
20. This approachis due to the lingeringinfluenceof the Spanishedition
of BrunoZevi'sSapervederel'architettura
(Rome, 1948),in which he develops an oppositionbetween"organic"and "rationalist"architectures,favoring Wright'sapproach.
21. Followingis my translationof the coursedescriptionfor "Cultureof the
Body," published on the school's Web site, www.arquitecturaucv.cl/
"Whendoes artoccur?When thereis an artist.
pags/abie/abie_cuer_01.html:
Artstill appearsto manythroughthe hand,eye, andsoul of whomevertakes
the riskto makethe workpassfromnot beinginto being.In orderto do this,
one must be present,with a body that is ready,willing, and able to engage
whatthe project'svisionmayrequire.Everytime the bodymustbe built,and
cultivated,withoutevasions."
22. The trend was initiatedin 1968 by MarinaWaisman,whose series of
readerlikebooklets, CuadernosSummaNueva Visi6n, disseminatedcutting-edge ideas within a criticalframework.Each cuadernowas devoted to
a single topic, such as Archigram,the Metabolists,architecturaleducation,
or low-cost housing, and included,in additionto Waisman'scriticalintroduction, two to four translationsof essays alreadypublished in internationallydistributedmagazines,andspeciallycommissionedcommentaryby
LatinAmericancritics.This collectionwas Waisman'sattemptto promote
broad disseminationof importantcontemporaryideas in Spanishand to
counteract the uncriticalconsumption of visual images by students who
could not readthe magazinesin their originallanguages.
23. The textbookshavebeen writtenand compiledby a handfulof authors,
includingElianaCardenas,Mario Coyula,FernandoSalinas,and Roberto
Segre.In the 1970s, Segre,who is currentlybasedat the UniversidadeFederaldo Rio deJaneiro,was the firstto proposea franklyMarxistanalysisof
the built environmentin LatinAmerica,which informedhis workthrough
the early1990s.He alsopioneeredthe introductionof LatinAmericansub-

TEACHING

THE HISTORY

OF ARCHITECTURE

557

missedthe ironyof the

jects in the architecturalhistorycurriculumin Cuba, establishinga line of
expanda churchstartedin the 1930s.Localnewspapers
researchcontinuedby Cardenasin her recent writing on architectureand
award,and it becamefront-pagenews that Paraguayanarchitectshad been
culturalidentity.
honoredby anArgentineanpublication.In the sameissue,anotherawardwas
24. Possibly the first degree programof this kind was the Mastersin Hisgivento the Uruguayanministerof educationfor de-landmarking
fifty-seven
toric Preservation established by Marina Waisman at the Universidad
educationalbuildingsthathadpreviouslybeen designatedas belongingto the
Nacional de C6rdoba,Argentina,in 1978, with a focus on the history of
historicpatrimony.
LatinAmericanarchitectureand urbanism.
34. NikolausPevsner,Pioneros
deldisenomoderno
(BuenosAires,1958)(origi25. In 1978, for instance,the Institutode Investigacionde la Historiade la
nal Englished., 1936).
35. See PauloFreire,Pedagogy
hisArquitectura
y el Urbanismowasestablishedat a congressof architectural
(New York,1971).
oftheOppressed
toriansconvenedin MardelPlata,Argentina,whosemissionincludedthe "sys36. See MarinaWaisman,La estructura
historicadel entorno(BuenosAires,
tematicdocumentationof the architectural
andurbanisticnationalpatrimony" 1985).
andthe studyof vernaculararchitecture,
37. The SAL'skey organizersandparticipantshaveincludedMarianoArana,
accordingto a brochurepublishedby
the instituteandprovidedby its firstpresident,Prof.AlbertoNicolini.
SilviaArango,EnriqueBrowne,HumbertoEliash,Cristiin FernandezCox,
26. AngelGuido,anArgentineanarchitectandpioneeringscholaron issuesof
Ram6nGutierrez,AntonioToca,GracielaVinuales,andMarinaWaisman.
nationalidentityandHispanic/indigenous
in architecture,firstpro38. The conference"HispanicTraditionsin AmericanArchitecture,"
whichI
mestizaje
local
and
architectural
posed teaching
regional
historyat the 1924 congress. organizedat ColumbiaUniversityin 1986,wasthe firstto bringtogetherSALSee Ram6nGutierrez,"Lahistoriografiade la arquitectura
americana.Entre
affiliatedscholarsandtheircolleaguesin the U.S. The English-Spanishtravel desconciertoy la dependenciacultural(1870-1985),"SUMMA (Buenos
andurbanism
elingexhibitionof the samename,documentingthe architecture
of the Americanborderlandregions,is archivedat AveryLibrary,Columbia
Aires)215-16 (Aug.1985),46.
27. SeeJorgeRamos,ElsistemadeArtDeco.Centroyperiferia,
CuadernosEscala University,andCEDODAL.
18 (Bogota)(Aug. 1991).
39. See MarinaWaisman,"Un proyectode modernidad,"in SilviaArango,
28. The institutesfoundedbyToussaintandBuschiazzowere,respectively,
the
enAmericaLatina:Estadodeldebate(Bogoti,
ed., Modernidady
postmodernidad
Institutode InvestigacionesEsteticasde la UniversidadNacionalde M6xico
1991).
40. See the referenceto Colecci6nSomoSurin n. 41. Otherpublishingvenues
(MexicoCity,1936)andthe Institutode ArteAmericano(BuenosAires,1937,
now calledInstitutode ArteAmericanoe InvestigacionesEsteticas"MarioJ. for the debatehaveincludedthe CuadernosEscalaseries(Bogoti) editedby
Otherinstitutesfollowedin Peru,Uruguay,andVenezuela.For
MarinaWaisman,and DesignBookReview's"OtherAm6ricas"specialissue,
Buschiazzo").
a detaileddiscussionof the historiography
of architecture
in LatinAmerica,see
editedbyJohn Loomis(spring-summer1994).
40-59.
41. The workof theseandotherarchitectsis documentedin a seriesof monoGutierrez,"Lahistoriografia,"
29. In additionto the influenceof the historicpreservationmovement,some
graphspublishedin Spanishas Colecci6nSomoSurby the Universidadde los
historiansalsocreditthe impactof AldoRossiandthe circleof criticsandhisAndes,Bogota,Colombia,and Universityof Miami,Fla. The firstvolume,
toriansaroundManfredoTafuriin the renewalof interestin viewingarchiEladioDieste.La estructura
cerdmica,
appearedin 1987.
tecturein the contextof urbanhistoryduringthe early1980s.
42. See Henry-RussellHitchcock,LatinAmerican
Architecture
since1945(New
30. An importantexampleof collaborativeresearchis MarinaWaisman,ed.
York,1955), 11-12.
Documentos
43. Accordingto Gutierrez(conversation
with the author,Apr.2002),the lack
paraunahistoriadela arquitectura
argentina(BuenosAires,1980).
31. The Centro de Documentaci6nde la ArquitecturaLatinoamericana of connectionbetweentheoryand designin LatinAmericanarchitectureis
(CEDODAL)was establishedin BuenosAiresin 1995 by Ram6nGutierrez, promotedby inadequatelystockedlibrariesin the architectureschoolsin prithe center'sdirector,andGracielaVinuales,its deputydirector.Amongits colvate universities,which may subscribeto a handfulof internationalmagazines but do not offer substantialbibliographicalresources, particularly
lections, which include books, maps, photographs,postcards,and special
archivesdevotedto the work of individualarchitects,is the most important regardinglocal and regionalarchitecturalhistory.
extantcollectionof journalson architectureandurbanismin LatinAmerica.
The centermaybe contactedat cedodal@interserver.com.ar.
Illustration Credits
32. In particular,
theJuntade Andalucia,or autonomousregionalgovernment Figure 1. From La prdcticade la arquitecturay su ensenanzaen Mexico,
of Andalusia,was the most activesponsorof publicationsand exhibitionson
Cuadernosde Arquitecturay Conservaci6ndel PatrimonioArtffstico26-27
LatinAmericanarchitectureduringthis period.
(Mexico, 1983)
33. The Atilaawardswere given to those who destroyedhistoricpatrimony Figure 2. CourtesyNueva Escuela de Arquitectura,UniversidadPolitecnica de Puerto Rico
throughoutLatin America;the first recipientswere announcedin 1977 in
DANA 11.The firstHonorAwardwasbestowedupon the Paraguayan
archiFigure 3. CourtesyCEDODAL, BuenosAires
tects,engineer,andCatholicmonsignorwho were responsiblefor the demoFigure 4. From Togo Diaz, TogoDiaz: El arquitecto
y su ciudad,Colecci6n
lition of the historicchurchof Caacupe,Paraguay,in orderto completeand
SomoSur 13 (Bogota, 1993)

558

JSAH

/ 61:4,

DECEMBER

2002