22.3.07

touring the bush (7) : buenos aires, projects 3



5. mellow modernists : i don't get this latinoamerican fixation on old-school modernism. sometimes i think it might be a sort of rejection to the tropical modernisms of the 50s-60s authoritarian developmentalism (desarrollismo). the thing is, instead of rejecting the modernist part, contemporary architects are rejecting the tropical. houses outside of santiago, in guadalajara, in rio are leaving behind the ondulating, sinous curves or the bright pink walls for more standard, straight-lined, minimalist, boxy building types. even when this usually dissapoints, some of these recent projects aren't half bad, and some even try to work their way out of boring bourgeois. more than ennui, in a city that easily tends to barroque, contemporary modernist architecture in buenos aires acts as a pleasing sedative (click pics for details)









next stop : brasilia vs. curitiba, failed and future utopias

1 comment:

Carla said...

I have been noticing a minimalist style in buildings of BA too. I don´t know, maybe that is not modernist, but postmodernist, and this is the era of just a few stones in the entrance, a few plants and that is it. I had a Buenos Aires temporary rent a few months ago and I realized I prefer building entrances with nothing on them. The less they have, the better, nothing bothering you when you go in and out and nothing to distract your children if you have some. The one I stayed in was minimalist and it worked just fine!