Over the last decades visual thinking has been increasingly incorporated into the production and dissemination of knowledge. In the field of urbanism and spatial research, diverse software, satellite cartography and other languages have transformed how the built environment is perceived, analyzed, and understood. The colloquium Visualizing, Representing, and Interrogating Latin American Urbanism: Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Mexico City convenes scholars who use distinct media such as text, iconography, and audiovisual to study the historical evolution and growth of Latin American cities.
This is a two-day event. Click here to view the program for Day 1, and see below for Day 2.
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Panel 1: Urbanization in Buenos Aires and São Paulo
The first two papers in this Panel propose to explore formal and informal instances of the transformations of Buenos Aires across different chronological periods, with an emphasis on cartographic representation supported by hypotheses from local historiography. The subsequent two papers focus particularly on the verticalization history of São Paulo and Buenos Aires, featuring original video clips of the built patrimony, outlining the successive renovations inherent in urbanization processes and illuminating the “hidden hands” involved in the construction sites. The rapid processes of metamorphosis have led to the progressive loss of layers of historical significance and put architectural heritage at risk. The changing phases of Buenos Aires’ skyline during a time when the city aspired to become an international metropolis, demonstrate the potential of research using diverse media to show how history can be told through images.
Speakers:
Graciela Favelukes, Professor, FADU, Universidad de Buenos Aires / CONICET
Alicia Novick (online), Professor, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento / CONICET
Beatriz Picollotto Siqueira Bueno, Associate Professor, FAU, University of São Paulo / CNPq
Virginia Bonicatto, Associate Professor, FAU, Universidad Nacional de La Plata / HiTePAC, CONICET
Moderated by Ana María León, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Panel 2: “Ways Of Seeing”: Local And Transnational Representations In Urban Studies
Topics around transnationality of references and search of rationalization of the cities by projects are part of the ideals of representative planners – cases of Luiz de Anhaia Mello in São Paulo and Carlos della Paolera in Buenos Aires – including images of the intellectual debate that represents issues discussed around the constitution and internationalization of the urbanism of interwar period. The seen and unseen in Latin American cities, its imaginaries and environmental representations suggest that we must articulate the past and the present to understand the loss of urbanity we live today. Visual media can though express concepts in circulation, cracks in the city, and appropriations that will be interrogated according to contexts of each of the three largest metropoles – São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City –, opening a comprehensive field of comparative studies.
Speakers:
Bruno Carvalho, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University; Co-Director, HMUI; Affiliated Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard GSD
Heliana Angotti-Salgueiro, Associate Researcher, GRUPEBRAF-IEA, University of São Paulo; Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar (2021–2022), DRCLAS, Harvard University
Alicia Novick (online), Professor, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento / CONICET
Diane E. Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Pablo Martínez-Zárate, Professor, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City; Documentary Filmmaker and Media Artist
Moderated by Patricio del Real, Associate Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University; Curator of MoMA’s mid-century architecture exhibitions on Latin America
5:15pm – 6:15 pm
Final Roundtable
Open conversation with all the panelists, moderated by Diane E. Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism, Harvard Graduate School of Design