Schools: The project tradition in public architecture in Argentina

Abstract

School architecture, its problems and its formulas, function as a constant of public architecture in modern Argentina, and have formed a kind of project tradition that is reedited in each new project. A first founding moment is recognized to have occurred at end of the nineteenth century, in which criteria and procedures established the core value and instrumental role of state-produced architecture. A second moment took place at the end of the twentieth century, which altered the cultural and technical conditions of professional practice based on the structure of the state, and diversified the ways of creating architectural projects. One of the objectives of this research is to identify the contemporary tensions that the project tradition has taken on, which associate school architecture and public policies, located in explanatory and interpretative frameworks that take into account the fabric of history.