EXTRACTIVE ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM IN LATIN AMERICA

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Upper-Level

Considering extractivism—from highly toxic practices such as mining to less maligned enterprises such as monoculture agriculture—this seminar explores the multiple ways in which architecture and urbanism have performed as instruments of extractive capitalism in Latin America, from the colonial search for El Dorado, to the neocolonial infrastructures of modern developmentalism, to the commodity boom and planetary urbanization of today. Engaging with critical theory and groundbreaking architectural history, students will interrogate the environmental and racialized social injustices supported by extractive architectures, as well as alternate forms of inhabiting the planet that have been left out of historical accounts. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: HART 608 .