Urban Fragments in América / the Americas

HIS 4532 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

From Buenos Aires to New York, the cities of the New World have been sites of speculation and experimentation, as heterotopias, techno-political dreams, or revolutionary enclaves. In this lecture, we discuss the main cultural, economic, and political discourses that shaped the modernity of the Americas and the spatial configurations they prompted in urban and architectural design. By comparing these responses as a series of case studies, the course assembles a modern hemispheric history of North, Central, Caribbean, and South American cities, public spaces, and buildings as a network of shared and reciprocal influences.

We begin by comparing the Law of Indies with the Jefferson grid, and the presence of Indigenous buildings and monuments in Cusco and Mexico City. We trace the influence of French urbanism in the National Mall in Washington DC and the Avenida 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires. The grand scale of these axes, their iconic obelisks, and relationship to state monuments speak to the politics embedded in these projects. We shift focus to the aerial view as trope for the distant gaze of the visitor—or the modern architect—and confront the technological determinism of planning with the contingencies of urban growth. We follow the conflicted role of modern urban design as it attempts to keep pace with city growth and think about the role of architecture and image-making in Brasilia, Caracas, and Havana. We problematize technology exchanges in housing solutions by examining Soviet panels in Havana del Este and Santiago, and the PREVI Housing project in Lima. The utopian communities of Open City in Valparaíso, Túpac Amaru in Jujuy, and Drop City in Colorado provide insights into the role of architecture in alternative lifestyles. Finally, we discuss fences and borders by comparing the proliferation of gated communities in South America, the many divisions between San Diego and Tijuana, and real and implied borders within US cities.

The course will combine general introductory lectures with more in-depth class conversations. Themes to be discussed include the relationship between cities and their historical layers, the imprint of oil dependency, developmentalism and governmentality, participation and pedagogy. Readings include primary sources such as Law of Indies extracts, Le Corbusier’s descriptions of South American cities, as well as recent scholarship by Greg Grandin, Fernando Luiz Lara, and Bruno Carvalho, among others. Evaluation is based on class participation, a class presentation, and a final paper.