Shaping Terrain

Showing how the physical landscape and local ecology have influenced human settlement and built form in Latin America since pre-Columbian times, this volume focuses on the ways existing topography has shaped post-colonial urbanism. Most urban centers and capitals of Latin American countries are situated on or near dramatically varied terrain, and this book explores the interplay between built works and their geographies in various cities including Bogotá, Caracas, Mendoza, México D. F., Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, and Valparaíso.
           
The multinational contributors have a broad range of professional experience as urbanists, historians, and architects. Many are globally renowned for their design work, and some are published here in English for the first time. They examine how humans negotiate with their existing surroundings and how built form expresses that relationship. Together, they suggest that settlement after the Spanish conquest was a continuation rather than an interruption of traditions of engagement with topography and the natural environment. Shaping Terrain is a wide-ranging representation of the unique legacy of Latin America’s urban heritage, which is a repository of possibilities for future cities.