Axes of projection: Poetics of urbanisation and globalisation in the Americas

Modernist architecture in Latin America was originally intended to propel the region into the 'developed First World'. Meanwhile, modernist architecture in Anglo-America has often served to consolidate the political-economic power of the 'First World', especially in the age of globalisation. This essay examines the First/Third World divide through two historical 'moments' of modernism, beginning in Brazil and ending in California. Brazilian modernism reached its apex with the construction of Brasilia (1955-1960), designed principally by two undisputed masters of Brazilian modernism, Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. The politico-economic ambitions of Brazil's modernist architecture, however, appear to have ended in failure. Rather than curing underdevelopment, modernism (and modernisation) may have exacerbated it. Yet for all modernism's failures, we should not assume that history has somehow left Brazil behind, as if Brazilian architecture were caught in some historical time-lag. In this essay I will test this notion by considering Richard Meier's Getty Center complex in Los Angeles. In projecting an 'imperial' power of globalisation onto Los Angeles, the Getty Center strives to create new meaning for its urban milieu. Yet in doing so it may be repeating problems manifest in Brasilia.