El proyecto monumental

Overview & Synopsis

This book studies the history of the urban space formed by the Legislative Palace, its surroundings, and the final layout of Agraciada Avenue in the city of Montevideo (currently Avenida del Libertador Brigadier General Juan Antonio Lavalleja), up to its intersection with 18 de Julio Avenue, between the years 1887 and 1945. This ensemble condenses a series of projects and debates about how to “make a city” in Uruguay between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on this significant object, Tosoni reconstructs and examines the convergence of representational aspects linked to the republican ideals of the nation-state, the dialogues and coexistence between the Beaux-Arts academic logic and the modern logic of the CIAM, and the development of professional practices and their relational networks. These three lines of inquiry form a horizon of meaning that gives rise to multiple connections with the protagonists, the productions and ideas of the Americas and Europe, and the historiographical corpus.