Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980, at the Museum of Modern Art from March 29 to July 19, 2015.

 “This was a huge gap in our collective understanding — we treat Latin America as a colony, rather than as one of the great powerhouses,” said Mr. Bergdoll, who returned to full-time responsibilities in Columbia University’s art history department in 2013 after serving as MoMA’s chief architecture curator for six years. “In this show, we try to recalibrate our history of 20th-century architecture and to reintegrate Latin America into the trans-Atlantic dialogue that is Modernism.”

PANEL DISCUSSIONS & SYMPOSIA: Learning from/in Latin America: Part One

In conjunction with the exhibition Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980, organized by The Museum of Modern Art, Learning from/in Latin America will expand on the exhibition’s curatorial framework and further explore key positions, debates, and architectural activity arising from Mexico to Cuba and the Southern Cone over three decades of development between 1955 and the early 1980s. Practitioners, planners, architecture and urban design historians, humanities scholars, curators and critics will contribute to a polyphonic conversation about architecture in Latin America, its social and political implications, and the persistent legacies of modernization.

Learning from/in Latin America is jointly organized by The Museum of Modern Art and the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities at Princeton University.

Part One: Roundtable
This roundtable conversation brings together contemporary architects from Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia to reflect on their current activity in relation to the quarter-century of architectural and urban development featured in the exhibition. Participants include Angelo Bucci, SPBR Arquitetos, São Paulo, Brazil; Tatiana Bilbao, Tatiana Bilbao SC, Mexico City, Mexico; and Felipe Mesa, Planb: Arquitectos, Medellín, Colombia. Barry Bergdoll, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA introduces the roundtable program and Fabrizio Gallanti, Princeton-Mellon Initiative, Princeton University moderates.

Ticket reservation is required for each of the two parts of this program. Please go to Learning from/in Latin America: Part Twoto purchase tickets for Part Two

Part Two: SymposiumEstablished and emerging scholars of architecture and urbanism will convene for a day-long symposium to discuss ideas central to the formulation of the exhibition: campuses as urban laboratories, the image and imaginary of the city, and the concept of the informal city.

Welcome and Introduction: Stan Allen, School of Architecture, Princeton University Bruno Carvalho, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures, Princeton University

Session One: The Campus as a Laboratory for the Ideal City

  • Moderator: Carlos Eduardo Comas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • Respondent: Anita Berrizbeitia, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  • Panelists:
  1. Eduardo Luis Rodríguez, independent scholar, Havana, Cuba
  2. Sylvia Ficher, University of Brasilia, Brazil
  3. Cristina López Uribe, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City
  4. Fernando Pérez-Oyarzun, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago

Session Two: Urban Imaginaries

  • Moderator: Patricio del Real, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA
  • Respondent: Diana Agrest, Cooper Union
  • Panelists:
  1. Guillermo Barrios, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas
  2. Luis Castañeda, Syracuse University
  3. Beatriz Jaguaribe, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Session Three: The Form of the Informal

  • Moderator: Jorge Francisco Liernur, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Respondent: Helen Gyger, Columbia University
  • Panelists:
  1. Sharif S. Kahatt, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, Lima
  2. Felipe Correa, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  3. Gabriel Duarte, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, PUC-Rio, Brazil

Additional program information for this event, including ticket sales, can be found at http://soa.princeton.edu/learning-from-in-latin-america. Ticket reservation is required for each of the two parts of this program. Please go to the program page forLearning from/in Latin America: Part One to purchase tickets for Part One.

LECTURES & GALLERY TALKS  |  GALLERY SESSIONS: Dreams and Visions in Latin American Architecture

Peruvian architect Miguel Rodrigo Mazuré's visionary design for a hotel in Machu Picchu embodies many key issues in contemporary architecture and urbanism. Hovering over the Andes Mountains like a space station from Star Trek, this unbuilt project begs a discussion of the economic benefits of expanded tourism versus the pressing need for environmental sustainability and historic site conservation.

LECTURES & GALLERY TALKS  |  GALLERY SESSIONS: Latin Lab: The Informal City

The proliferation of slums, favelas, and ad-hoc housing on the outskirts of many Latin American cities today amounts to a humanitarian crisis, and is one of the most pressing challenges faced by contemporary architects, planners, and activists. Join a conversation about the origins, meanings, and possible solutions to informal cities. Latin Lab sessions offer an in-depth discussion on issues related to the exhibition Latin American in Construction. Gallery stools are provided.

State-led development in Latin America aimed to order and control resource-rich interior territories and their populations. Critics suggested a poetic reading of territory that ignored national borders and embraced nature. What can we learn from these competing visions? Explore how these tensions are reflected in the design and planning of diverse cities in Latin America.

Spectacular urbanization, state-led development, expanding economies, and political upheaval throughout Latin America generated enormous diversity and innovation in housing architecture. Join a conversation that explores iconic modern masterpieces, progressive public housing projects, and experimental self-build typologies.