Center 20: Latitudes, Architecture in the Americas vol. 2
Editor: Barbara Hoidn
ISBN 978-0-934951-21-0 UT A
UT Austin/Center for American Architecture and Design
With essays from Barbara Hoidn, Kevin Alter, Michael Benedikt
featuring
Kevin Alter and Fernando Lara, Austin Peter Cardew, Vancouver Adrian Moreno, Quito Pat Hanson, Toronto Alberto Mozo, Santiago de Chile Julie Snow, Minneapolis María Victoria Besonias, Buenos Aires José Cubilla, Asunción Monica Bertolino, Cordoba Wilfried Wang, Berlin Charles Renfro, New York City Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Concepcíon Victor Trahan, Baton Rouge Mauricio Rocha, Ciudad de México Coleman Coker, Austin Patricia Patkau, Vancouver Derek Dellenkamp, Ciudad de México Carla Juaçaba, Rio de Janeiro Carlos Jimßenez, Houston
Latitudes proposes that the careful examination of key examples of architecture from across the Americas will reveal those aspects of the field that are most compelling.
Looking deeply into the architecture of the Americas enables us to see our peculiar relationships with the enormous multiplicity of landscapes that are the result of different latitudes and attitudes; we see our differences as well as that which we share. Each building presented here abides in an authentic relationship with its place, and it is through this authenticity that each work is so compelling.
The qualities of immediacy and detail that define these buildings appear at first to exist in opposition, but might also be understood as parallel paths towards meaningful architecture.
The collection of work discussed here argues for reconciling the potency of raw material articulation with the intensity of sophisticated constructional aplomb in the quest to create meaning; to build something that matters.