2011 - Abalos - Latin American Archicture Today

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Harvard Design Magazine

Iñaki Ábalos

latin americanarchitecture today

Modernist Latin American architecture had a heroic and

identity-based dimension that followed four principal

vectors:

. Latin America’s territorial specificities and its

pre-Columbian heritage;

. its present, with its cultural ties to Europe

and the Americas;

3. vernacular techniques and a specific natural

and climactic environment; and

4. a social milieu that aspired to become more

visible to the outside world.

Each of these lines had produced distinct and frequently

contradictory results. While the first line would dominate

in those neo-monumental architectures, frequently using

concrete to realize a certain repertory of form and scale,

the second line privileged validation from European and

American cultural centers, giving form to somewhat

autistic and elitist proposals. More than one designer’s

professional biography would glide from one extreme to

another, baring the scars and difficulties of this spatio-

temporal dialectic. At the same time, a focus on localclimactic and technical characteristics led to populist and

local positions, while attention to the social dimension

concluded in a privileging of urban planning and

frequently just political rhetoric.

I don’t want to linger on this synthetic list that rather

simply attempts to describe in broad strokes a complex

and multinational reality.1Instead I’d like to underline

how these four vectors were largely understood as

mutually contradictory, in large part because they were

eagerly conceived as dogmatic constructs in, it’s fair to

say, a very familiar Modernist and avant-garde spirit.

What is interesting in now seeing the architecture

produced in the last decade in cities like Medellín,

Santiago, Lima, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, México City,

and so many others in Latin America is not only that these

vectors have decisively contributed to the creation of

magnificent architecture, but also that today they are all

appearing on the same playing field. We might say that

they have at last addressed themselves to the same

problem, that of capital-A Architecture, seen as being

able to transform multiple needs, contradictions, and

aspirations into a poetic, reliable, and mature expression.

It is as if we were witnessing the passage from a difficult

adolescence to a state of grace and plenitude that, to be

sure, corresponds to another increasingly dominant

impression—that this state of plenitude is becoming

visible also in the economic, social, and political optim-ism of a large part of the continent, despite the fact that

the enormous problems it still faces make many see this

optimism as ingenuous when in fact its vocation is more

provocational.2

José Cruz Ovalle, Adolfo Ibáñez University UndergraduateCenter , Peñalolén, Chile, 2005. Photo: Juan Purcell;

courtesy José Cruz Ovalle and Associates© 2011bythePresidentand

FellowsofHarvardCollege.Allrightsreserved.



Harvard Design Magazine 4

What we have to emphasize is that it is precisely the

arrival at the synthetic expression of these theoretically

differentiated demands that seems to have given a new

dimension to the architecture being produced today. It is

at once multifaceted and universal, complex and simple,

capable of producing works and projects that are inter-esting as genuine expressions of what architecture can

produce in contemporary culture. For this reason it will be

interesting to analyze a few landmarks that portray this

excellence, achieved in exemplary ways that transcended

local attributions.

recent architectures in

latin america have at last

addressed themselves to

capital-a architecture,

able to transform multiple

needs, contradictions,

and aspirations into poetic,

reliable, and mature

expressions.Without a doubt, the José de Vasconcelos Library,

which Alberto Kalach erected in México City at the end of

the presidency of Vicente Fox, is a remarkable example.

The typical traits of Mexican monumentalism of the pre-

vious generation are in evidence, to be sure. From outside

one can immediately read, in the powerful section and

materiality, clear connotations of pre-Columbian inspira-

tion that are nonetheless doubly disrupted by an astonish-

ing interior. This interior is half science fiction, transport-

ing us to the spatiality of The Matrix , and half single-nave

cathedral, where the baroque scheme of hanging shelves

from the sky is the main gesture of the central space, while

the lateral chapels house readers and scholars in more

intimate niches that have an air of the resolution of the

idea of the library arrived at by Louis Kahn, among others.

All this is complemented by elevated gardens closed off

from the street, which expand space and provide climactic

and acoustic protection. The building has no air condition-

ing, just extreme attention to solar protection and ventil-

ation, and this makes possible an enviable degree of

material nakedness and immediacy, as well as publicaccessibility. Others would read this remarkable work

differently, but I can’t help seeing in it the simultaneous

presence of all the previously described tensions resolved

synthetically and magisterially, and at the same time

a consistent proposal about the meaning of the library in

contemporary society—which I have not seen in other,

much better known European examples.

Similarly, a visit to Adolfo Ibáñez University at the foot

of the Andes in Santiago, Chile, designed by José Cruz

Ovalle—another building dedicated to knowledge—pro-

vides an incomparable experience. In its formal character-

istics we can see a certain empathy with some of the great-

est works of Catalan architecture and some similarities

with the work of Steven Holl. The phenomenological roots

of Ovalle’s approach are evident, as is the interest in this

methodological path shared by several Chilean architec-

tural schools of thought—not just the Valparaiso School—

and by Ovalle. Ovalle of course enters a dialogue with the

local and international culture of the campus project type

but above all shows great mastery in managing the scale

of the complex in relationship with the imposing landscape

it inserts itself into, as well as in the measured fragment-

ation of the exterior spaces—a series of concatenated

patios that open and close to the views—and of the interior

spaces, where he achieves an estimable profusion of

social spaces with a more than notable degree of reserve

and of visual, acoustic, and sensory intimacy. Add to all

this a geometric and technical virtuosity that gives the

complex symphonic and choreographed characteristics

and you have a university space where socialization, study,

and respect for the landscape become the true architec-

tural subjects. Once again we find here an exemplary

solution to one of the most delicate architectural problems,

the university campus, so often resolved without integ-

rated attention to the complex mechanisms of education.

There is no formal or technological display here, no const-

ruction detail that you remember after leaving. It’s not that

they aren’t there; rather, it’s that the integration of archi-

tectural themes dominates and organizes them coherently

into a whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

Taller de Arquitetura (TAX), José Vasconcelos Library ,

México City, Mexico, 2006. Photo: Tomás Casademunt © 2

0 1 1 b y t h e P r e s i d e n t a n d F e l l o w s o f H a r v a r d C o l l e g e .

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Latin American Architecture TodayHarvard Design Magazine

it is as if we were witnessing

the passage from a difficult

adolescence to a state of

grace and plenitude also

visible in economic, social,

and political optimism.

We find a similar integrative effort in the holistic work of

Bruno Stagno in Costa Rica—this time predominantly

focused on the definition of architecture thr ough thermo-

dynamic concepts adapted to the vernacular technologies

and the warm, humid climate of the tropics. I call Stagno’swork “holistic” because its greatest merit is perh aps the

multiplicity of its gestures. Stagno is at once interested in

generating disciplinary knowledge—through the Institute

of Tropical Architecture, which he directs and which is

focused on local climactic conditions but also those of a

great part of the population of the metropolises of the st

century (50% of the world’s population, 70% of its forests,

and 50% of its biodiversity is found in tropical countries—

I cite his own words from a 00 lecture) in transmitting

that knowledge beyond academic media and in develop-

ing a coherent professional practice. That practice seeks

out practical solutions to contemporary and global prob -

lems of sustainability (a term abused by excessive

technical rhetoric), focusing on the common root of the

words economy-ecology and their social implications,

and using replicable architectural principles that

emphasize the primacy of design over technology. What is

unique in his work is that, faced with discourses of

identity, he proposes a new synthesis of local and global

problems and a universalist vision that leads to a new

cultural strategy, emphasizing commonalities in

east/west latitudes instead of the typical models of

North/South domination inherited from modernity (but

without ignoring these either).

Stagno’s attention to the natural landscape in the

urban environment is part of a thermodynamic conception

that allows for novel and extrapolatable approaches to

public space like those planned for the city of San José.

Giancarlo Mazzanti, España Library , Medellín,

Colombia, 2007. Photo: Quilian Riano



Harvard Design Magazine 4, Spring/Summer 20116

With these he denounces the aporias of the concepts and

programs of sustainable design promoted by the culture

of colder climes, which is still incapable of evaluating the

behavior of the natural environment as it interacts with

architecture at the architectural and urban scale—when

in fact its positive effects are an indivisible part of theenvironmental culture of a large part of the inhabited

territory where climate change demands such strategies

most urgently. His attention to local climate and technical

data, instead of leading to regressive and localist postur-

ing, produces integrative positions whose relevance is

both universal and timely.

My last and well known example—the great collective,

successful transformation of the city of Medellín after the

arrest of drug lord Pablo Escobar—is precisely about the

triumphal creation of public space. The combination of

a mayoralty aware of the value of architecture and infra-

structure and a good culture of architectural and urban

design, maintained with determination by the local

schools of architecture (the Universdad Pontificia

Bolivariana, oriented toward building design, and the

Universidad Nacional, oriented toward urban design),

has made possible in just a few years the birth of a city in

which we can begin to see at last that the problems of the

periphery that devastate the cities of Latin American are

neither intractable nor solvable without a commitment

to quality.

An extraordinary example of this commitment is the

triple intervention in one of Medellín’s biggest suburbs,

based on the incorporation of the Metrocable, producing

amenities like the Parque España Library designed by

Mazzanti Arquitectos—again a cultural amenity—and the

simultaneous development of the public axes that give

structure to the weak spatial organization of the immense

colonized hill. These strategic elements have been

enough to give way to an extremely rapid transformation

of what was until recently an impenetrable shantytown

and is today visited even by tourists, with shops, bars,

and restaurants sprouting every day along with the

optimism that comes from the sight of children coming

home from school. It’s not yet an idyllic outcome, but it is

consistent, and the decisive factor of design quality is

visible in each element: the beautiful Metrocable, the

impressive mass of the Library , and the careful simplicity

of the elements of urban development. I don’t think it’s

been highlighted before now how much the Bilbao Effect

(really the combination of a new public transportation

infrastructure designed by Foster and Partners and

Gehry’s work on the waterfront, along with development

there), has a correlate adapted to another economic and

social context in Medellín, which has now been replicated

in Caracas and Rio de Janeiro, and which is more interest-

ing than so many inconsistent attempts carried out in

other latitudes. Similarly, the degree of excellence of

another piece, the Orquideorama, designed by Camilo

Restrepo (JPRCR Architects) and plan:b, will mean theculmination, this time in a central area of the city,

of Medellín’s efforts to rehabilitate its public spaces.

The Orquideorama is a giant canopy that offers a new

social space in the city, open to the landscape and the

botanical garden that surrounds it. We could almost call it

gratuitous, given its limited functionality, but it is in fact

the best example of the influence of high quality on the

way people inhabit and socialize in public space. While

some of us might be instantly reminded of the Brussels

Expo pavilion by Corrales and Molezún, now located in

Madrid’s Casa de Campo park, it is surely more closely

tied to the biomorphic and autogenerative forms germi-

nated in contemporary digital culture. In any case, we’re

talking not about an object but a space that acts as an

interface between nature and architecture, a frame made

from filters and shades where anything can happen. This

is due exclusively to its beauty: The composition of scale,

proportion, aesthetics, and environmental comfort makes

protagonists out of those who stroll beneath it, enriched

by their somatic experience. It synthesizes the three lines

of work—urban design, architecture, and infrastructure—

that the city has put to work together, returning to

citizens, to the individual and collective experience of

the public, the role of active participants that deceit and

corruption had stolen from them.

I conclude here, knowing that there are many more

examples distributed over the continent and gestating

in the minds of a new generation of architects trained

by public and private schools of architecture with the

ambition of taking part in the culture that will give shape

to the Latin American city.3The integration of the vectors

that gave rise to conflicting discourses in earlier times is

without doubt the key to the success to come, because

it is a necessity that transcends the field of architecture,

integrating it into a wider and more decisive field: the

role of culture in the development of global society and

of Latin American society in particular. Perhaps this very

brief trajectory could be described as a shift “from ideo-

logy to knowledge” and “from rhetorical postulates to an

updated and syncretic concept of quality” in its cultural

(not only material) sense. What we can affirm is that in

light of this evolution of attitudes and accomplishments,

no one would be surprised by the announcement that the

present, not just the future, is Latin America’s moment. © 2

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2011 - Abalos - Latin American Archicture Today