Joseph Bouvard in South America

Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

This paper discusses some aspects of the movement of technicians between Europe and South America in the first decades of the 20th Century, considering that French architectural and urban culture was then taken as an exportation product to emerging nations and was useful for the expansion capitalist entrepreneurship on a grand scale in that continent. The role of those technicians, architects as well as engineers, is highlighted as they can be seen as agents of a renewed colonial politics. This paper shows the specific case of Joseph-Antoine Bouvard, who worked in Argentina and Brasil, comparing the plans he proposed for Buenos Aires (1907-1910), Rosario (1910) and São Paulo (1911).