The conference discusses the historical development of architecture in the overall context of systemic interactions within the built environment. The connections between architectural and territorial standards are re-read, as well as the connections between architecture and infrastructure. Given the complexity of the approach, it is advisable to use in-depth case studies that examine the factors of both the material and cultural construction of the built environment. In this sense, international comparative considerations are of fundamental importance. The geographic and cultural focus is used to this end. The conference therefore focuses on Latin America. Since the colonial development of Latin America at the latest, different territorial strategies have emerged there. In the beginning, the focus was on the planned establishment of open cities and settlements as nodes of a territorial system for political security as well as for scientific recording and economic development. In later phases of enlightenment and mercantilism, alternative strategies were developed in which, in addition to the urban system, architecture and the technical infrastructures developed their own significance in the construction of the territory. 

In this international conference, organized by KIT in cooperation with the Carl Justi Association, we will focus to the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and landscape in Latin America since 1800. The goal is to use selected case studies to make the broadest possible range of topics visible and to link the operational, semantic and constructive interactions within the overall system in terms of an environmental history of architecture. Topics, especially interdisciplinary considerations in the border area of architecture to historical geography, engineering, history of technology and art history are welcome.