Research Catalog

Modernity for the masses : Antonio Bonet's dreams for Buenos Aires

Title: Modernity for the masses : Antonio Bonet's dreams for Buenos Aires / Ana María León.
Author: León, Ana María
Publication: Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JQF 22-898	Schwarzman Building - Art & Architecture Room 300

Details

Description

281 pages : illustrations, maps; 27 cm.

Summary

"Ana María León's manuscript studies how the discourse and practice of modern architecture was transformed by its encounter with large populations and volatile politics in midcentury Argentina. The country saw a shift in power from landowning elites to the working class beginning in the 1930s, and with that shift came large migrations from the countryside into Buenos Aires. The urgent need for housing that followed created both an opportunity and a set of challenges for architecture--practical challenges, certainly, but also political and philosophical ones. How close to the centers of power should potentially revolutionary populations live? How dense or dispersed should their housing be? As these questions suggest, this is ultimately a study of the place where, in the author's words, "the discourse of modern architecture met the mandates of totalitarian governments." A deeply interdisciplinary work, Modernity for the Masses accesses architecture, politics, and culture through the work of Catalan architect Antonio Bonet--and specifically, through the unbuilt housing projects of Bonet. (The "dreams" of the subtitle evoke the strong influence of surrealism and psychoanalysis on both Bonet and the culture more broadly.) The focus on unbuilt work not only allows a new perspective on Bonet (himself understudied), but it permits a crucial perspective on the shifting nature of political regimes in the postwar years. As León writes, "These were far from schematic or utopian projects--these housing schemes were sponsored by different authoritarian regimes and reached a high degree of design development before folding to different political and economic circumstances. As such, they stand in for a particular combination of ambition and frustration common to South American modern architecture--one in which the potential of the new was alternatively bolstered and discarded by different regimes.""--

Series Statement

Lateral exchanges : architecture, urban development, and transnational practices

Uniform Title

Lateral exchanges.

Subject

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- A wandering ship -- The machine in the pampas -- Thge Peronist Unconscious -- Eternal Returns -- Conclusion.

Call Number

JQF 22-898

ISBN

9781477321782
1477321780

LCCN

2020001529

OCLC

1143846253

Author

León, Ana María, author.

Title

Modernity for the masses : Antonio Bonet's dreams for Buenos Aires / Ana María León.

Publisher

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Lateral exchanges : architecture, urban development, and transnational practices

Lateral exchanges.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Form:

Online version: León, Ana María. Modernity for the masses. First edition Austin : University of Texas Press, 2020 9781477321799 (DLC) 2020001530

Research Call Number

JQF 22-898

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