Semester:
Offered:
Patricio del Real
Architects in Latin America have engaged ideas on race developed by intellectuals and cultural actors in the 20th Century. What is the relationship between the notion of mestizaje debated by José Vasconcelos and Manuel Gámio, and Mexico’s architecture? How did the idea of racial harmony advanced by sociologist Gilberto Freyre contributed to Brazilian modernism? This graduate seminar examines how architecture in Mexico and Brazil was mobilized to imagine and construct modern mestizo nations. We will engage in a close analysis of key works to unravel architecture as a cultural and socio-political object that embodied and spatialized race. Our aim is to study the multiple sites and strategies of constructing racial imaginaries and their bearing on spatial practices in the Americas.