Planning Practice in Latin America: The Legacy of the Traveling Urbanists and Other Vertical Dialogues

Abstract

During the first half of twentieth century, Europe was the world vanguard for urban planning ideas. European urbanists traveled to Latin America, participated in urban plans, influenced local professionals, and had their ideas replicated by secondary sources. This influence transformed not only Latin American cities but also their academic and professional practice of urbanism. First, two items contextualize the discussion: the third part discusses the reality of Latin American largest cities in early 1900s, and the fourth part identifies main traveling urbanists and their trajectories in Latin America. The last part presents a temporal reading of facts and urban trends. The fifth part discusses the legacy of old vertical dialogues and shifts in the relation between Latin America and central countries. Main conclusions are that (1) between Latin America and Europe existed a vertical and almost exclusive dialogue, and (2) recent shifts seem to impair the old model of central–peripheral transfer of urban planning ideas.