The pre-Columbian world in Bullrich's lectures at Yale. The seminar on Latin American Architecture (1966)

Abstract

Between September and December 1966, Francisco Bullrich (1929-2011) gave a seminar on Latin American Architecture at Yale University School of Architecture. The importance of the specific study of the problems of the region was one of the educational policies of the university since the second postwar period. Invited by Richard Morse and George Kubler, the approach proposed by Bullrich questioned the existence of a homogeneous "Latin American" condition. A review of the manuscripts of those classes —partly unpublished — that were the basis of his book New Directions in Latin American Architecture (1969) allows us to recognize the keys of a look that invites, even today, to critically rethink the relationships between the importance of pre-Columbian culture, the imprint of colonization and Latin American architecture, from a global perspective.