The Image of Development in the Administrative Headquarters of State Industries. Colombia, Argentina and Brazil as case studies

Abstract

Promoting industry in basic sectors (such as oil, steel, cellulose, among others) was one of the premises on which the governments of Latin American countries agreed during the decades of the 1950s and 1970s of the 20^th century to catch up with developed nations. The study selects three state-owned buildings that house the administrative activities of these types of industries and serve as headquarters for the companies in central cities. Through the review of literature, the buildings of Ecopetrol (Colombia, headquartered in Bogotá), SOMISA (Argentina, headquartered in Buenos Aires), and Petrobras (Brazil, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro) allow for reflection on the new demands that developmentalism as a political-economic model imposed on the design discipline. New modes of public work management such as competitions, the urban integration of headquarters buildings, industrialized construction, the promotion of certain materials, and new project forms are strained in the search to represent the new "business State", representative of nations that longed to be progressive, developed, and self-sufficient. It also allows for an investigation into the similarities and divergences, both formal and material, of the architectural typology of high-rise buildings within the study period, as well as illustrating how modernity was being established on the continent.