AHST 6320 Other Modernisms: The Avant-Garde in The Tropics

AHST 6320 Other Modernisms: The Avant-Garde in The Tropics
Other Modernisms: The Avant-Garde in The Tropics
This seminar is an introduction to the field of Latin American modern architecture and will introduce students to projects that range from newly constructed cities like Brasilia to avant-garde experimental projects like Mathias Georitz's El Eco in Mexico City. Focusing on various themes (nationalism, internationalism, tropicalism, utopianism, etc.), the seminar introduces key terms and examples in the built environment. Latin American modern architecture presents alternative examples - other modernisms - to the mainstream modern projects of the United States and Europe. The notion of the avant-garde in the tropics suggests a critique of how the tropics has often been treated as a synechdoche, as a representation of all of Latin America. A critical reconsideration of the tropics will occur as we study modern Latin American architecture's specific thematic currents.
credit hours: 3