Publisher: Birkhauser Architecture, ISBN: 9783764387693, Author: Felipe Hernandez, Format: Hardcover, 240 x 285 mm, 152pp

Latin Americia has been an important place for architecture for many decades. Master like Luis Barragan, Eladio Diesto or Oscar Niemyer pointed the way for architectural design all over the world, and their approach to colours, materials and walls had a deep and lasting influence on architectural modernism.

Since then, however – and especially in the last 15 years – architecture on the continent has continued to evolve, an a lively and extremely creative architecture scene has developed. The work of Latin American architects and city planners is often guided by social issues, for example, the approach to informal settlements on the outskirts of big cities, the scarcity of housing and public space, the availability of affordable transportation, and the important role of cultural infrastructure – such as schools, libraries and sports facilities – as a catalyst for neighbourhoods.

Within this context, the book considers numerous projects that have prompted discussion and provided fresh impetus all across Latin American.

Contemporary Latin American architecture responds to the masters of the past and the challenges of the future in outstanding projects like the Santo Domingo Library in Colombia by Giancarlo Mazzanti and the works of Alejandro Aravena in Chile showing that recent Latin American architecture can hold its own beside the works of the founders.