Rompiendo fronteras. Hacia una modernidad transatlántica. Breaking barriers. Towards a transatlantic modernity.

This chapter examines the transatlantic circulation of architectural ideas, professional networks, and cultural exchanges that reshaped the understanding of modernity between Europe and Latin America during the twentieth century. Moving beyond conventional narratives that interpret modern architecture as a one-way transfer of European models, it argues that modernity emerged through reciprocal processes of intellectual exchange, cultural mediation, and local reinterpretation. The study adopts a transnational perspective, highlighting the interconnected trajectories of architects, artists, critics, and institutions that contributed to the formation of a shared yet heterogeneous architectural culture across both sides of the Atlantic. The chapter takes Le Corbusier’s 1929 journey to South America as a pivotal moment in this process. Drawing upon travel writings, correspondence, archival documents, and architectural projects, it demonstrates how the encounter with the landscapes, vernacular traditions, and territorial scale of Argentina and the broader South American continent profoundly influenced the architect’s understanding of the relationship between architecture, nature, and urbanism. Rather than representing a failed or marginal episode, the journey is interpreted as a turning point that reshaped Le Corbusier’s later urban theories while simultaneously stimulating the development of architectural modernity in Latin America. The chapter further reconstructs the dense network of exchanges that developed from the 1930s onwards, involving European architects working in Latin America and Latin American professionals trained or professionally active in Europe. Through figures such as Charlotte Perriand, Lina Bo Bardi, Josep Lluís Sert, Amancio Williams, and numerous members of the Argentine Modern Movement, the study reveals the emergence of transatlantic networks that challenged national historiographies and fostered hybrid forms of architectural production. Particular attention is devoted to the role of institutions, exhibitions, the CIAM, and archival collections in facilitating the circulation of ideas and redefining Latin America's position within the international discourse of modern architecture. By proposing a reinterpretation of modernity as a multidirectional and culturally negotiated process, the chapter contributes to recent historiographical debates that emphasize mobility, knowledge transfer, and the reciprocal construction of architectural cultures. It ultimately argues that the architectural heritage generated through these exchanges constitutes a fundamental resource for understanding modernity as a shared transatlantic experience rather than a unilateral European export.