THE TEACHING OF THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN

COLOMBIA

VALENTINA BELEÑO MENGUAL

DOCENTE: CRISTIAN GUZMAN
CURSO: LEVEL 7
GRUPO: Z5
CODIGO:31810029

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DEL CARIBE

18/11/2020
 Abstract

The present article deals with the process involve in teaching the History
of Architecture in Colombia. This lack of discussion is seen through three
different architectural schools and three episodes related to the history
of architecture and its dissemination process. The article concludes
declaring the necessity of bringing together new approaches based on
the existing pedagogical traditions and in the promotion of a sense of the
past. It stands on the idea that this academic practice is formed by 3
reciprocal dimensions: the disciplinary, the historiographical and the
pedagogical - didactical. The work argues that there is not enough
discussion placed in the third dimension
THE TEACHING OF THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN
COLOMBIA

It was sought that the works responded more to the function than the
form, or better, that the form was the result of the function for which they
were designed. Modern architecture, the closest reference in time and
space that we have today, can be used as a pretext to start a discussion
about possible new values, points of view, ways of studying, and ways
of intervening in real estate considered as modern. The historian and
architect Silvia Arango spoke on her book History of Architecture in
Colombia "the criteria that summarize the recognition of a real estate of
these characteristics: Functional Rationality, Formal Abstraction, Simple
Geometry and Constructive Efficiency." these concepts could find strong
architectural elements for the recognition of new real estate that could
be considered as heritage assets of the modern movement.

In the decades from 1930 to 1940, profound changes occurred that

responded to the idea of modernization, associated with “rationalist
architecture”, liberal governments and ideas from the United States. In
this climate, the work of the Faculty of architecture of the UN (1936) and
it is the time in which such a significant work is built as it is precisely, the
university city. Silvia Arango says about it: “In the middleDuring the
1940s, interesting transformations were going to take place in the
Colombian architectural ideology, led by a new generation of architects,
mostly born amidst 1910 and 1925. If the objective of the previous
generation was to create the social and professional image of the
architect, the aim of this was to catch up absorbing all international flows.

Modern architecture in general is not born as a response or hypothesis

to a practical or functional requirement, but as a search for reduction of
a series of formal variants to a common structure. It was sought that the
works responded more to the function than the form, or better, that the
form was the result of the function for which they were designed. Silvia
Arango, Patricia Gómez, Germán Tellez, Fernando Vivisects, among
others, carried out works, many of them of the great design quality and
excellent workmanship - with the modern idea of functionality and
efficiency, as well as the spatial, volumetric, formal and constructive
repertoire. The process of assessing modern architecture must consider
a series of aspects such as context, social and cultural memory and
collectives, among others, to show appropriate criteria that are directed
towards the creation of a consistent critique of the history of modern
architecture in Colombia. The association and the citizens realize that
more than some materials and forms, what they want to preserve is what
is significant for the community and the nation; the values that are
deposited in the architectural and urban works.

Virtually simultaneously, Silvia Arango publishes the book History of

Architecture inColombia.18 An investigation that resulted in a book and
an exhibition that was taken to numerous countries. Arango establishes
in this work the canonical periods of history,It also includes a series of
works and authors, which makes it a mandatory reference in the studies
that have been done since then. The text establishes the use of the brick
as the axis thematic throughout the work: as the material and the
construction technique characteristic of the architecture in Colombia.
Despite this dominant bias, Arango's work is a history of the most
understandable architecture written so far.

It seeks to identify, in the most adequate detailed way possible, the set
of urban components that can be considered as constituting the
Immovable Cultural Heritage. The preservation policies and the actions
that, consequently, must be carried out for the conservation of these
valuable things or heritage assets (Mendoza, unpublished, 2006)The
heritage of modern architecture in Colombia is continually modified and
destroyed. The interventions and effects, such as demolitions and
transformations, of a selection of important buildings, urban complexes
and neighborhoods, the materials and forms of the buildings, but the
values deposited in them, from which it is substantiated, were recorded
and described. Our memory and our sense of personal, family and social
identity.
The loss of modern tradition occurs because state agencies, owners or
the community must make efforts and spend resources to conserve
buildings, components of cities or even entire neighborhoods because
the loss of this identity makes us forget our values and our past, because
they are unaware of the documentary, aesthetic and historical values
that keep these traces in the city.

conclusion

By way of closing, we would like to say once again that the teaching of
the history of architecture involves aspects that are referred to the three
established dimensions: Disciplinary, historiography and pedagogical -
didactic. These aspects imply a definition Architecture, History as well as
a relationship with the ways of assuming approaches in the
dissemination process. That is, it allows us to understand the principles
and resources that have Made possible the reproduction and
transmission of architectural culture in an area Determined local:
condition that in the sample examined and in the case of Colombia
confirms that there is an imbalance regarding the treatment received by
the aspects Pedagogical - didactic in teaching work.

Bibliography
See: Silvia Arango. "The evolution of architectural thought in Colombia
1936 - 1984". 13th Yearbook of Architecture in Colombia. Colombian
Society of Architects. Bogota (1984): 18
Rugeles bathrobe, Cristina. Rogelio Salmona, an architect in the face
of history. Master's Thesis
Universidad de los Andes (unpublished document). Bogotá (2011).
Arango Cardinal, Silvia. "The evolution of architectural thought in
Colombia: 1934 - 1984". In: Fiftieth anniversary of the Colombian
Society of Architects 1934 - 1984. 13th Yearbook of Architecture in
Colombia. Bogota (1984)
Arango Cardinal, Silvia. History of Architecture in Colombia. National
university of Colombia. Bogota (1990)
Arango Cardinal, Silvia. Architecture of the first modernity in Bogotá:
modernity seminar in Latin America. Culture Promotion Fund. Bogota
(1996)