While human beings have inhabited the lands of the Americas for some thirty thousand years, why is it that people act like only the last three hundred matter? Author Lara explores this oversight in Spatial Theories for the Americas. Recommended. All readers. * Choice * In Spatial Theories for the Americas, Fernando Luiz Lara passionately advocates for a revision of the history of the Americas, emphasizing the need to address the absences and omissions that have distorted our understanding, and the development, of architecture as a field. Lara weaves together numerous theories and scholarly positions with compelling historical evidence to argue that pre-Colombian American knowledge played a crucial role in shaping European modern thought. At the same time, he calls for a thorough re-evaluation of how architecture has been, and continues to be, taught, practiced, and historicized in the Americas. As such, this book makes a significant contribution to the growing stream of architectural studies known as decolonial theory, positioning itself as a pivotal text within the rapidly evolving landscape of architectural academia. -- Felipe Hernandez, University of Cambridge In this lucid and brilliantly provocative book, Fernando Luiz Lara asks us to embark on a journey to unlearn the very foundations of modern architecture. Opening up design thinking to knowledge systems marginalized for five centuries, it is an invitation to reshuffle myths of land, building, and history and bring back to the drawing board relational processes indigenous to the Americas. -- Swati Chattopadhyay, University of California, Santa Barbara Fernando Luiz Lara has offered us a road map to a fundamentally new way of understanding the history of architecture. He carefully and painstakingly delinks this history from European master narratives, creating a space from which to tell new stories. -- Joseph Heathcott, The New School Fernando Luiz Lara offers a bracing challenge to those of us steeped in Eurocentric urban and architectural histories. In a sweeping set of essays, spanning Amazonian cosmology to postmodern design, about places as diverse as Tenochtitlan, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro, Lara offers a powerful decolonial critique of dominant architectural theories and practices, calling attention to narrative erasures and offering compelling alternatives. -- Thomas J. Sugrue, New York University This book is an indispensable read for scholars and practitioners invested in the evolution of architectural theory and discourse across the Americas. It challenges, disrupts, and ultimately transforms how we engage with architecture in the region, offering a road map for a more inclusive and representative architectural future. * Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians * Spatial Theories for the Americas represents a fertile ground for new questions on contemporary space-making and on how to counteract the unjust materiality and sociability of neoliberal cities across the continents. * Journal of Urban Affairs * The impact of Laras book on how architecture around the globe is taught and the need for decolonization cannot be understated. There is much to unlearn. This book is an important resource for those wanting to learn about and advocate for a reciprocal, reflective, relational, relevant, respectful and responsible approach to design. * Arizona Journal for Hispanic Studies *
