The Beaux-Arts Poché and Modern Architecture in Latin America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26439/limaq2025.n016.7661Keywords:
academic tradition, Beaux-Arts, Latin America, modern architecture, pochéAbstract
Like many terms within the Beaux-Arts vocabulary, poché had a clear and straightforward definition: the drawing convention of darkening the masonry sectioned in a plan. However, it also comprised more opaque meanings. Modern architecture in Latin America was introduced by architects trained within this academic tradition. This paper aims to show that the poché was widely employed by these architects in various contexts—ranging from its use as a technique to integrate modern buildings into the urban fabric while preserving large interior spaces as regular figures, to its role in organizing functional components and enabling transparency. Alongside composition and character, the Beaux-Arts poché—with its multiple and perhaps slippery meanings—does not seem to have been entirely abandoned by architectural practices that embraced the free plan, free façade, pilotis, roof garden, and horizontal window: elements usually regarded as the hallmarks of modernity.
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