American Project

Notes on a definition of project models in a geo-cultural context

Abstract

When speaking of the history of architecture in America, there is a persistence of a historiographic duality between “dependendists” (of diverse replications or irregular copies of supposed “central” productions) and “essentialists” (with an almost autistic autonomy). On the one hand, it brings up the need to think of the history of historiography —or the positions that concern the history of American architecture and even cultural, political and ideological positions— and, on the other hand, the need to become aware of a route of the diverse historical steps that superimpose to give account of that history. This essay, from such second point of view, visits seven stages of a possible history of American architecture from its proper geo/cultural, anthropological and political specificity.