ARCHITECTURAL WORLD

In the late 19th century, a powerful group of politicians and intellectuals known as “The Generation of the Eighties” incorporated Argentina into a world economy dominated by the British Empire. The early decades of the 20th century witnessed the transformation of the social and economic foundations of the country. Administrative and educational reforms were implemented during the modernization process. Immigration and the movement of the rural population to the city generated the rapid growth of metropolitan areas. Concurrently, an ideological break with the Spanish colonial past generated a cultural identification with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. As a result of a widespread cultural debate between what was understood as civilization and progress versus barbarism and savages, the larger cities of the country, particularly Buenos Aires, were transformed by boulevards, parks, avenues, and building following the Beaux-Arts tradition. In Argentina, modernization was implemented...

Architect, Iran and United States On his return to his native Iran from the United States in 1964, Nader Ardalan influenced contemporary architecture in the country through his modernist designs and his concern with Islamic and regional expressions. These concerns have remained with him throughout his career and are reflected clearly in his work. Ardalan has been influential not only in his native country but also in the Middle East as an architect, urban planner, and theoretician. Ardalan is a designer influenced by the internationalist agendas of the 1960s, although his interests are wide ranging. He was also among those who formulated the “Habitat Bill of Rights” presented to the United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver in 1971, where issues of inequity between East and West and those related to culture were considered. His architectural and planning work reflects particular attention to cultural and ecological considerations. In Iran, this was made evident through his underst...