The charms of the past
Less abundant than that of its neighbors, Uruguay's colonial heritage is nonetheless very interesting. Classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site, the historic heart of Colonia del Sacramento is a perfect example of Iberian influences mixed with a resolutely local identity. Unlike most colonial cities of the time, Colonia del Sacramento does not have a checkerboard plan, but a free plan adapted to the topography of the place. In the heart of this city with its picturesque alleys paved with large irregular stones, such as the famous Calle de los Suspiros, with its lively squares and plazas, you can see a human-sized architecture. The one-story houses dominate and only the lighthouse and the church tower stand out in this coherent whole, where the apparent austerity of the long stone walls is mitigated by the elegant tiled roofs and the wooden lattices animating the openings in the facade.
Other towns have retained this picturesque charm with their squares often housing the most beautiful buildings (churches, town halls...), their cobbled streets and their houses with colorful facades. Carmelo and Salto are among the prettiest. And let's not forget Montevideo which is the only one to have preserved "military" vestiges from the Conquistadores' era. Don't miss the Puerta de la Ciudadela in the heart of the Ciudad Veja, an old Spanish stronghold originally surrounded by fortifications and ramparts.
More recent, but just as picturesque, the delightfully old-fashioned charm of the ranches in the heart of the large estancias is a must-see in Uruguay. These large farms are organized around the ranch. Initially made of adobe and thatched roofs, the ranch has progressively become the equivalent of a mansion with its elegant patios planted with trees and refreshed by elegantly sculpted and decorated fountains, its paved courtyards, its often colorful tiled roofs and its abundant gardens. It is not surprising that many have been transformed into hotels and luxury residences. But to discover the lifestyle of the authentic gauchos, go to the Pueblo Gaucho in the department of Maldonado. Everything has been recreated to immerse you in the life of this mythical South American figure!
Swirling 19th century
The nineteenth century marked the beginning of a period of modernization that was reflected in the realization of major urban works. Salto was the first city to benefit from a real urban plan that emphasized streets laid out in a straight line, the creation of a large square (Plaza Trenta-y-Tres), and above all the search for architectural coherence through the homogenization of the size of buildings and their construction materials. In Montevideo, the transformation is even more symbolic since the fortifications are destroyed so that the Ciudad Nueva can express all its splendor inspired by the most beautiful districts of Paris. The French landscape architect Charles Thays was responsible for the design of the Independence Square. Salto and Montevideo share another common point: an architecture with resolutely Italian resonances (the population from the peninsula is, at that time, extremely important). Carlo Zucchi offered Montevideo some of his most beautiful creations: the Teatro Solis with its elliptical hall, its marble corridor and its colonnades inspired by La Scala in Milan and the beautiful Central Cemetery of the city with its superb tombs and its tree-lined paths. The Estevez Palace with its Doric columns and symmetry is another beautiful representative of this neoclassical wave. In Salto, don't miss the Larranaga Theater with its Ionic portico; the Alteneo, which combines classical rigor with a rich baroque decor; or the Cordoba Palace with its elegant classical symmetry. The nineteenth century also marked the beginning of tourism, which gave pride of place to the opulent Belle Époque style, drawing on both the sources of the neo styles and the novelties made possible by the industrial revolution.
Founded by Francisco Piria, Piriapolis is the oldest seaside resort in the country. And if the city gives you a feeling of déjà vu, it's simply because its urban planning and architecture are largely inspired by Biarritz! Look at its vast seafront promenade, the imposing Hotel Argentino and above all the improbable Piria Castle made of brick and crenellated towers. Between technical constructions, Victorian eclecticism and social reflections, the architecture of the industrial revolution has particularly marked Uruguay, which preserves astonishing examples today classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. The industrial landscape of Fray Bentos allows us to discover how the meat industry revolutionized the country. We can discover the technical aspects (vast cold stores, high brick chimneys, large workshops with saw-tooth roofs), social aspects (workers' housing with modern comforts, community services) and urban aspects (importance of green spaces linking the agricultural, industrial and port areas).
The Peñarol neighborhood in Montevideo illustrates how much the railway infrastructure that came from Europe revolutionized the country. The typical architecture of the brick workshops and sawtooth roofs can be seen there, as well as the Victorian styles of the executive housing, reminiscent of the rustic English cottages with their brick silhouettes and plaster decorations; the sober and functional workers' housing, most often organized around a central courtyard allowing for constant ventilation; and above all the typical urban planning of a factory town with a hygienic and social vocation where the neighborhoods are arranged harmoniously around squares and tree-lined spaces. Finally, among the jewels of industrial architecture, don't miss the Puento Giratorio of the city of Carmelo. The first "swing bridge" of its kind in Uruguay and one of the only manually operated ones, it was designed in Germany and then transported and rebuilt on site. It is a source of pride for the inhabitants of the city who nicknamed it La Obra (The Work)!
A wind of modernity
Carried by a wind of prosperity and optimism, the years 1920-1930 saw the birth of the first impulses of modernity. In Montevideo, all eyes turn to the Rambla. More than just a simple maritime promenade, this clever interlacing of squares, gardens and beaches was inseparable from the renewal of urban and social policies that wanted to offer all workers access to a healthier life and a better connection with nature. The large boulevards and elegant avenues connecting La Rambla to the city were filled with beautiful villas and mansions, as well as hotels. The leading style of the time was Art Deco. Polished marble, hand-painted tiles, stucco reliefs, tinted or engraved glass decorations, ceramics, elegantly worked ironwork, play on curves and geometric patterns, echoes of the local culture. Uruguayan Art Deco is protean and draws its inspiration from the biomorphic lines of the French as well as from the sober and geometric lines of the Streamline Moderne, symbol of the industrial revolution.
Julio Vilamajo is one of the great figures of the time and is particularly interested in the potential of concrete. He patented a system of mass-produced concrete pieces to meet the growing demand for housing. His major work is the School of Engineering of the University of Montevideo, whose play on articulations and different spatial sequences attracted the attention of the famous architect Richard Neutra, who saw in it the work of an authentic master of concrete. In Vilamajo's work, concrete is far from being an austere material; on the contrary, it becomes the canvas on which the architect reveals Iberian or even Arab influences. Painted or sculpted details, the importance given to furniture designed specifically for each building, bursts of color...: nothing is left to chance. With its glazed ceramic facade, its painted Medusa and its superb custom-made lighting fixtures, Casa Vilamajo is the most beautiful example. For the record, Julio Vilamajo was one of the architects who worked on the project for the new UN headquarters in New York, along with Le Corbusier, who visited the country many times and influenced many Uruguayan architects.
The other leading figure of the time was Mauricio Cravotto, considered one of the founders of Uruguayan urbanism thanks to his first "Regulatory Plan of Montevideo", and to whom we owe an astonishing architecture where the extreme sobriety of the German modern avant-garde and resolutely classical influences can be guessed. Between a classical temple surrounded by colonnades and a modern skyscraper with bands of monotonous windows, the Montevideo City Hall is the most perfect example of this syncretism. A mixture of genres that can be found in many other achievements of the time. How can we not mention the incredible Palacio Salvo by Mario Palanti, which is the twin of the no less famous Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires? Dominating Montevideo from its 95 m height, it reveals a high white facade typically Art Deco, but also a profusion of balconies and turrets all in curves resolutely baroque and decorations inspired by fauna and flora very Art Nouveau. Other great buildings from this period include: the Edifio El Indio, with its white walls punctuated by an astonishing openwork fresco; the Edificio Tapié, with its curved facade featuring jazz motifs; and the Palacio New-York, inspired by American skyscrapers. Finally, let's end this overview with an unclassifiable: El Águila by Juan Torres. Its name comes from the amazing stone eagle head that the architect added above the living spaces. Astonishing!
Contemporary period
The 1950s marked the debut of Eladio Dieste, whose work is at the intersection of architecture and engineering. His company Dieste y Montanez is famous for having invented and developed reinforced ceramics, as well as brick construction techniques that allow for the creation of Gaussian vaults (bell-shaped curves), self-supporting vaults, and raised vaults with regular undulations, extending over long spans. His brick structures, based on a reasoned use of materials, made it possible to build quickly and cheaply. The architect is most famous for his large industrial warehouses and grain silos. The master's greatest achievement is the Parroquia Cristo Obrero (Christ the Worker) in Atlantida, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which reveals its structure in the form of a large, double-curved shell made entirely of brick using mobile formwork systems. Its light and undulating forms, its play of light and shadow, and the textural effects of its materials left raw create an atmosphere conducive to meditation. Started in 1958, it took artist Carlos Paez Vilaro 36 years to complete his life's work: Casapueblo. Influenced by the whiteness of the Cycladic architecture and the ingenuity of the hornero's nest, the artist imagined an inhabitable sculpture with organic forms in whitewashed cement and stucco, extending over 13 floors and multiplying the terraces... and all this without any previous plan!
Another treasure of the country: the Susana Soca Chapel by Antoni Bonet i Castellana. Made of concrete and colored glass, the building combines triangular shapes of different sizes offering superb light effects. Rafael Vinoly, the (often controversial!) architect of famous buildings such as the Walkie-Talkie tower in London or the International Forum in Tokyo, has built very little in his native country... His works are therefore all the more remarkable there. Don't miss the Carrasco International Airport with its 365 m long slightly curved roof, and the Laguna Garzón Bridge. A 202-meter long circular structure supported by 16 concrete pillars, the latter was designed to force motorists to reduce their speed and enjoy the view of the lagoon. This desire to blend into the landscape is found in many contemporary projects, such as the Sacromonte Landscape Hotel Shelters with its prefabricated and modular metal structures and green roofs that seem to blend into the vines. Not to be missed: the chapel of the place with its two flat surfaces of laminated wood and metal that come together without touching. The vineyards are a true source of inspiration for contemporary architects, as evidenced by the Bodega Garzon winery with its structures on stilts, its huge vegetated roofs and its cantilevered volumes defying the laws of gravity.
Montevideo is also full of amazing contemporary creations, such as the Antel Arena. Inspired by a container, this large geometric structure is adorned with amazing coverings, some of which are translucent. Don't miss Friendship Park, a mix of urbanism and landscape architecture with curves that guide walkers to the hemispherical planetarium, the cylindrical observatory, the landscaped gardens and the colorful games. José Ignacio has also become a must-see destination for architecture enthusiasts thanks to Playa Vik, the incredible project by designers Carrie and Alex Vik in collaboration with renowned Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott. This seaside jewel is composed of a central building conceived as a sculpture, which is entered through a monumental bronze door inspired by the doors of the Baptistery of Florence and integrated here into an amazing curved glass façade. The rooms are decorated by the greatest artists and architects such as James Turrell and Zaha Hadid. After this success, the Viks also imagined the Bahia Vik complex with its wood, glass and titanium bungalows hidden in the dunes. A sobriety far removed from the exuberance of the over-concrete Punta del Este!
Other famous international architects are also preparing to leave their mark in the country. In partnership with the Uruguayan firm Ponce de Leon Arquitectos, Foster + Partners has unveiled its project called The Edge, a residential building with ecological properties overlooking the coastal landscape of Montevideo. As for the municipality of Paysandu, Rem Koolhaas' firm Oma has been awarded the project to transform its waterfront. Uruguay has not finished surprising us!
