Modern Architecture

Through the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth

century, neoclassical architecture predominated in much of
Spanish America. In Europe, modernist architecture began to
develop after the Industrial Revolution. This new style, with
its focus on economy and practicality, found a receptive
audience in Spanish American countries, even though their
industrialization occurred later. In particular, the Swiss
architect Le Corbusier (1887–1965), who developed
modernist functionalist ideas and first traveled to Brazil in
1929, gained many collaborators and disciples in the region.
Elaborating on this modernist perspective, Spanish American
architects added their local traditions, native materials, and
unique concepts as the twentieth century progressed.

PERU
In the early twentieth century, modern
architecture appeared in Peru with the arrival of the first
foreign financial companies and the construction of their
headquarters in the historic downtown district of Lima.
These buildings include the Bank of Peru and London (J. E.
Lattini, 1905), designed with iron structures and colored
glass, and the Transatlantic German Bank (Claudio Sahut,
1914), which used reinforced concrete for the first time. The
typology of the institutional building became very important
in the development of Peruvian architecture in the twentieth
century.
Although modernity made its mark in the early twentieth
century through the use of new materials and structural
systems that were innovative for the period, these
institutional buildings retained a relationship with
nineteenth-century designs, and so the composite systems
of the École des Beaux Arts of Paris were what really defined
this architecture. Thus, academicism was the predominant
tendency of this period through the 1920s, and the
culmination was its adoption in a series of buildings that
marked the development of the city of Lima. The Rimac
Building (1919), the Pantheon of the Founding Fathers
(1924), Archbishop Loayza Hospital (1924), the Palace of
Justice (1926–1938), the National Club (1928), and the
Reserve Bank (1929) are examples of this architecture of
classical and monumental style.
However, indigenist and Hispanist movements also emerged
in 1920s, and they spawned the three most important
architectural trends of the first half of the twentieth century.
Neocolonial, neo-Inca, and neo-Peruvian architecture are all
based on the use of an architectural repertoire from the pre-
Hispanic or colonial past.
The neo-Inca and neo-Peruvian styles were not widely used
in Peru because knowledge of the pre-Hispanic period was
still incipient at the time. Their applications were limited to
the design of the façades of new projects. The National
Museum of Archeology (1924), Peru's Pavilion in the Paris
International Exposition (Roberto Haaker and Alberto
Jochamowitz, 1937) and the Museum of Anthropology
(Hector Velarde, 1940) are examples of this nationalist
architectural style. Examples of the neo-Peruvian style can
be seen in works such as the Peruvian Pavilion at the Sevilla
International Exposition (Manuel Piqueras Cotolí, 1929).
Neocolonialism had an influence in Latin America and
became the dominant architectural current based on the
reinterpretation of colonial elements adapted to academicist
composition. The neocolonial style had more influence in
Peru than in other Latin American countries (except Mexico).
This was due primarily to the broad tradition of colonial
architecture in Peru, which made it possible for both formal
and theoretical aspects to be present in the works of
neocolonialism's primary representatives: the Peruvian
architects Emilio Harth-Terré (1899–1983), Héctor Velarde
(1898–1989), José Álvarez Calderón, and Rafael Marquina
(1884–1964); the Polish architect Ricardo Malachowski
(1887–1972); and the French architect Claudio Sahut. This
style used colonial elements such as balconies and portals
but organized them around an academicist composition, in
buildings such as the Archbishop's Palace (Malachowski,
1916), the Hotel Bolívar (Marquina, 1924), the lateral facade
of the Palace of Government (Sahut, 1924–1930), and the
Boza and South America Building (Harth-Terré and Álvarez
Calderón, 1938). The common characteristic of these
buildings was the reinterpretation of colonial elements based
on an eminently academic composition.
The art deco and "buque" styles also made their way into
the country during this decade. Both styles were linked to
the international repertoire and were used either
independently or in combination, with the buque style
predominant. Buildings that combine the styles include La
Casa Ulloa and the Baths of Miraflores (both by Velarde,
1937 and 1938, respectively). The Aurich Building and the
Aldabas-Merlchormalo Building (both by Augusto Guzmán,
1933) are examples of the independent use of the art
deco style, and the Raffo Building is an example of the
buque style (R. Vargas Prada and Guillermo Payet, 1938).
In the mid-1940s, specifically in 1947, the Agrupación
Espacio (Space Partnership) was formed with the primary
objective of disseminating the principles of modern
architecture. The Casa Miró Quesada house (Luis Miró, 1947)
is emblematic of the principles of modernity, marking the
beginning of the influence of Le Corbusier on Peruvian
architecture. Buildings such as the Apartments of Calle
Roma (Teodoro Cron), the Central Office of the Lima Yacht
Club (Valega), the Casa Truel (Roberto Wakeham), and the
Mater Admirabilis Clinic (Paul Linder) also show this
influence.
A new period began in the 1950s that incorporated new
elements of modernity, such as the use of the curtain wall in
Miró Quesada's El Sol Radio Building (1954); the Hotel Savoy
(1957) by Bianco; and Cron's Swiss-Peruvian building; as well
as some elements of Brazilian architecture in the Atlas
buildings (1954) of José Álvarez Calderón and Walter
Weberhofer and the El Pacífico building (1957) of Fernando
de Osma.
Modern architecture came to Peru in this way during the
1940s. However, its consolidation occurred a few years later,
when the military government made it the official
architecture. With the military coup of 1968, a process of
association began between modern and military
architecture, producing an architectural image of unity and
homogeneity that the military government wanted to
project. The Cartagena Agreement Junta, the Petro-Peru
building, the Ministry of Fisheries (today the Museum of the
Nation), the Housing Bank, the PIP Operations Center, and
several ministry buildings are examples of this style
associated with statism and control; it is also associated with
nakedness, aggressive materials, and exposed systems.
Modernism remained strong through the rest of the
twentieth century, but greater experimentation shaped
building and home designs. At the Third International
Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (1978), the Peruvian
College of Architecture gave the Peruvian Central Reserve
Bank in Lima (Luis Tapia and Manuel Llanos) its top award,
the Golden Hexagon. This building was the culmination of a
series of institutional projects designed throughout the
1970s in a style known as brutalism.
Previously, the College of Architecture had given the Golden
Hexagon to Emilio Soyer's Casa Velarde (First Biennial, 1970)
and to the Iquitos Peruvian Armed Forces Villa by Victor
Ramírez (Second Biennial, 1972), both designs with strong
contextual components. The first project was linked to the
search for what is truly Peruvian, without rejecting modern
lines, and the second used context by taking into account
the climate conditions of the Peruvian jungle where it was
located and by using appropriate technology and materials.
In 1978, however, works of a new type began to appear. The
Arenales and Higuereta Shopping Centers, for example, were
linked fundamentally to the commercial environment and
generated some alternatives, albeit timid ones, within the
Peruvian architectural spectrum. At the same time, the
Ramírez and Smirnoff Continental Bank building was an
urban landmark whose prophetic location and modern
design incorporated a material that was new to the
institutional repertoire: the fair-face (caravista) brick, which
was later adopted for use in various types of buildings,
including housing.
The transition from military government to democracy
began in Peru in 1978 with the Constituent Assembly, and
came to an end with the second election of Fernando
Belaúnde Terry as Peru's president in 1980. This turning
point in the democratic order began a period of
rediscovering architecture, shaped by the possibility of
accessing information and new designs developed around
the world. In this period, architecture once again became
socially significant. The government promoted various
competitions, such as the ones for the San Borja Towers and
the Limatambo Housing Complex. Designs for use in the
National Housing Plan became a big challenge for the new
government, but El Niño storms had repercussions on the
national economy and, therefore, on architecture.
In these years, something called Gremco architecture (Grupo
de Empresas Constructoras) appeared in housing projects.
Through various designs, this style expressed an alternative
to the designs of José García Bryce (b. 1928), such as the
Chabuca Granda Housing Complex in the Rimac district
(1984–1985). The former had an explicitly commercial
interest, whereas the latter was interested in recovering and
revaluing historic places such as the traditional
neighborhood of Rimac, and in using the architectural
repertoire of the place, including the colonial vestibule,
patio, and balcony, but with a contemporary language.
Beginning in 1985 Ramírez-Smirnoff made significant
modifications to historic downtown Lima, and color was
incorporated, especially in public spaces such as the San
Martín Plaza and the University campus during the municipal
administration of Alfonso Barrantes. At the same time, in the
peripheral areas of the city, the government directed the
development of places such as the Villa El
Salvador Community, which became an example of urban
organization and had a subsequent impact on the
restoration of Huaycán.