Architecture author, scholar Fernando Lara to visit Stuckeman School Jan. 23

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Fernando Lara, professor of architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, will visit the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at 5 p.m. Jan. 23 to discuss his latest book, “Spatial Theories for the Americas: Counterweights to Five Centuries of Eurocentrism.”   

The lecture, titled “How Canonical Architectural Histories Erased the Americas,” will be held in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and is cohosted by the Departments of Architecture and Art History.

In the first part of “Spatial Theories for the Americas,” which was published by University of Pittsburgh Press, Lara offers a critique of Eurocentrism in the discipline of architecture, problematizing its theoretical foundation in relation to the inseparability of modernization and colonization, according to the publisher’s website. In the second part of the book, he makes explicit the insufficiencies of a hegemonic Western tradition at the core of spatial theories by discussing a long list of authors who have thought about the Americas.

In the book, Lara 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,” according to a review by Felipe Hernandez, associate professor of architecture and urban studies at the University of Cambridge. Furthermore, the 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.”

Lara’s work focuses on theorizing spaces of the Americas with an emphasis on the dissemination of design ideas beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries. Framed by decolonial theories, he has written widely about issues that pertain to the built environment of our continent.  

He is the author of “The Rise of Popular Modernist Architecture in Brazil,” published by University Press of Florida in 2008, and co-author of “Street Matters: A Critical History of Twentieth-Century Urban Policy in Brazil and Modern Architecture in Latin America,” published in 2022 by University of Pittsburgh Press.

Lara is the editor of “Latin America: Thoughts,” a series published by Romano Guerra Editora, and he is a member of the editorial boards for “Platform Space,” “Revista DeArq” (Univesidad de los Andes, Colombia), “Revista Pós” (FAU USP, Brazil) and “Arquitecturas Del Sur” (Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chile).

Lara joined the Weitman School of Design in July 2023 following a 14-year tenure at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture from 2019 until his departure for UPenn.