The International Congress of Architectural Research is a recently established academic initiative. Its primary objective is to promote the convergence of architects, urban planners, and students from Latin American schools and faculties, united by a shared awareness of the current importance of research in addressing the challenges facing the discipline and their implications for the development of our countries. The call for papers for the second Congress focuses on research projects centered on the theme: "Built Habitat and Sustainability in the Latin American Territory."
Beyond the technical applicability of the concept of sustainability, this general theme allows us to approach the subject through questions such as: Should Latin America "locally process" the issue of sustainability in its habitat construction process? In other words, should it (Latin America) proceed as it has historically done with so many technical or cultural trends in architecture, urbanism, or land management: by systematically adapting and applying concepts and procedures imported from global centers of economic, cultural, and technological development? Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Latin America has willingly aligned its national processes with concepts and technologies framed as "progress," "development," "infrastructure," and "decentralization," among others—some of which carried implicit national (economic and social) roles induced by their creators and proponents.
In short, is sustainability in Latin America just another case of adopting external issues and their theoretical and procedural frameworks through local replicas or echoes? Or does the topic, on the contrary, represent a unique opportunity to move from operational adaptation to the alternative generation of knowledge and technology, based on an autonomous examination of our reality and a final understanding of what is truly relevant and necessary for us?
