South American popular culture and aesthetics

Reading perspectives in John F. C. Turner’s view, 1963 – 1978

Abstract

In his recent book La ciudad latinoamericana, Adrián Gorelik reconstructs the ideas, figures, and institutions of the period between the 1940s and 1970s, in which thinking the city and specifically the issue of housing and marginality played a leading role in academic debates, state and international cooperation agendas and social movements. Based on that context, the purpose of this article is to explore the contributions of the British architect John F. C. Turner to the debate on popular culture and aesthetics. To this end, we will analyze some of his writings, starting with the issue organized for the journal Architectural Design (1963), going through the book Housing by People. Towards Autonomy in Building Environments (1976) up to the article “Housing in Three Dimensions: Terms of Reference for the Housing Question Redefined” (1978).