House in Lima, ca.

1959, probably
unbuilt.
India Ink with accents in watercolour
and coloured pencils on vellum, 24x36”
with missing parts

Maurer & Ballon beach houses,1958,

Santa Maria del Mar, modified. Pencil
and watercolour on tracing paper,
11x17”

Fernandini beach house, 1958, Santa

Maria del Mar, Iconic view from the
seawall, 1959, 12x16”

Rizo Patron beach house, 1957, Santa

Maria del Mar, demolished. Bird’s eye
view, from 35mm negative, 1959
ar c h i v e s
do c ume n t s
h i s tor y
recover y
l ati n amer ic a

all i mag e s co u r te s y o f th e We be rh o f e r A rch i v e , L i m a , P e r u

THE MODERN MOVEMENT |

P E R U ’ S WA LT E R W E B E R H O F E R
t h e f or g ot t e n a r t
BY
HECTOR ABARCA
of architectural drawings a l l i m a ge s c ou r t e s y of t he We b e r hofe r A r c hi v e , Lim a , Pe r u

The representation of coded factual information, even if carefully
laid out, is what stops architectural drawings from being
considered art work; however, major art galleries today have
recently added historical architectural drawings to their collections,
even if they were not meant to be exhibited in museums but in
boardrooms and on construction sites as guidance tools for
builders throughout the construction process. For many, they are
mere documents that after building occupancy should end up in
storage or in city hall archives.
But, is not the aim of an architectural drawing to make feasible
an idea? Might this be the reason why artists have lirted with
architecture and vice versa? After centuries of trial and error,
the arrival of Masolino allowed linear perspective to shape the
44
Renaissance. The architecture of Raphael’s School of Athens
used Bramante’s early designs of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as
the illusionary meeting point for philosophers. Giovanni Battista
Piranesi made a name with his hyper-realistic antic Rome veduti and
Bernardo Belloto, nephew of Giovanni Antonio Canal – better known
as Canaletto, two centuries after his death surprisingly helped,
with his accurate cityscape renderings, to rebuild Warsaw after the
destruction of World War II. From antiquity to baroque times, any
review of a difference between architecture and art would have been
considered irrelevant as all ine arts were completely interwoven.
In their capacity to visually communicate how to build, architectural
drawings have the power to present impossible but verisimilar
photography
In contrast, architectural drawings display, on tracing paper, a
dream. While most drawings expect to come to fruition with
ribbon-cutting ceremonies and applause; others remain as
thoughts, as unconsummated ideas. The latter are more common
in developing societies where long-awaited projects remain unbuilt,
postponed, waiting, until the country inishes dealing with un-
budgetted, unplanned but not unexpected emergencies that come
after, or might precede, more crises. If projects do materialise
in lesser-developed countries, they are often awaited with so
much anxiety and hope that they become iconic symbols, a heavy
responsibility for the practitioner. In many regions and especially
in Latin America, architecture is still practiced in the intimacy of
a sunny atelier with lengthy coffee breaks, academic debate and
tertulia. Perhaps, because architecture and the arts have struggled
45
to settle an identity, every design exercise is read as a manifesto,
and its success or acceptance only will come after conversation and
exchange.
The leading architectural forces in the region, Brazil, and later
Chile, were able to reconcile their modernity with tradition in
the process of building up a national identity, embracing new
technologies but also adapting them to their own terms and needs.
Recently Peru has joined the club of booming economies with
current living standards repeating the those of Peruvian success
Alvarez Calderon, beach house, 1959, in the mid-twentieth century. In those days Peruvian professionals
Santa Maria del Mar, unbuit.
Main floor; construction set, scale1:50.
looking for a new architecture that would satisfy both local
Ozalid copy of pencil on vellum original idiosyncrasies and the needs of modern society were certainly

mapping
worlds that we believe could exist and be built, even if they escape Fernandini beach house, 1959 inluenced by the Brazilian experience. However, their project
Santa Maria del Mar, built.
the limits of reality. Piranesi, M C Escher, Antonio Sant’ Elia Entrance elevation; construction set,
stalled amid economic and social collapse, with decades lost to
and Hugh Ferriss showed us futuristic, fantastic, ethereal, dark scale1:50. Ozalid copy of original in political violence and economic turmoil. Today, under a new wave
pencil on vellum, original set used on site,

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and sometimes impossible imaginary explorations of abstract 24x36” of regional development, young design professionals respond

photography
architectures. With the advent of the twenty-irst century, as quickly and individually, but afraid of seeming naïve in the face
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Fernandini beach house, 1959

construction technology becomes more complex, building Santa Maria del Mar, built. of new global societal standards, they are seduced by the lash of
m apping

Second Floor; construction set, scale1:50

regulations more sophisticated, professional roles more speciic, Ozalid copy of originals in pencil on
globalised ‘sweeteners’ – effective, and shallow, solutions.
liability mandatory, and expenditure more tightly controlled, vellum, original set used on site, 24x36”
architecture faces many more constraints and variables than ever Detail, 1957 to 1959

On Site review 31
Santa Maria del Mar.
On Site review 31

before; the computer iles of today travel the world back and forth
Typical balcony parapet & handrail detail.
with exactitude and the soulless precision of anonymity. Ozalid copy of original pencil on vellum,
part of a 24x36” sheet
 Carmen Apartment building, Ancon Atlas Insurance Headquarters, ca. 1953-
(north of Lima), built. 55, Lima downtown, built.
India ink on Canson card stock, 24 x36” India Ink with accents in watercolour on
Canson card stock, 24x36”
Atacocha mixed use building, ca. 1954,
downtown Lima, unbuilt. Canziani country house,1964, outside
Photocopy of original india ink drawing Lima, unbuilt.
on glossy cardstock, 24 x36” Watercolour on tracing paper, 12x18”

Tauro Building & Cinema, 1956-58, Alter House, 1956, Lima, demolished.
downtown Lima, derelict. Photocopy of original India Ink on
Black and white photograph of the vellum, 24x36”
rendering, 1959
Las Sirenas apartment building ,
Las Sirenas apartment building , 1959, Santa Maria del Mar, partially
1959, Santa Maria del Mar, partially demolished.
demolished. Studio black and white photograph of
Studio black and white photograph of india ink drawing on gloss cardstock,
india ink drawing over gloss cardstock, 8x12”
8 x12”

all i mag e s co u r te s y o f th e We be rh o f e r A rch i v e , L i m a , P e r u

Looking back to yesterday is sometimes a painful exercise illed

with unbuilt broken dreams blighted with memories of naïveté and
wasted time, written or drafted on ine decaying paper, as if taken
from an old noir iction novel or Eduardo Galeano’s 1973 classic,
Open Veins of Latin America.

a l l i m a ge s c ou r t e s y of t he We b e rho fe r Ar chiv e , Lim a , Pe r u

Literature might be considered closer to architecture than any
other classical art, for its compositional structure, magnitude
and temporal narrative. A careful selection of chapters and pages
can bring forward a comprehensive account of the piece, but it is Weberhofer is one of the few Peruvian architects with a body of
mainly in the verisimilitude that iction becomes tangible, where work of regional importance, and up to now the only Peruvian
the project becomes alive and by simple observation we can make architect who has exhibited his work in the United States, invited
the author’s experiences our own. By admiring the silent beauty of by an oficial mission of Canadian and American housing experts
46 architectural drawings, the support of material acquires another that toured South America in 1958.1 They were impressed by Santa 47
dimension beyond its informative task. This is how we choose the Maria del Mar, a modernistic beach resort where Weberhofer was
precise chapter where the recent past of our magic realist journey the exclusive architect – a community of bold, extrovert summer
can be found. houses and apartment buildings crimped into the coastal desert
dunes, 50km south of Lima. Between 1953 and 2002 Weberhofer
One leading, but quiet, igure of Peruvian modern architecture carefully catalogued and organised his own archives; today the
was Walter Weberhofer (1923-2002). In his seminal projects Weberhofer archives contain almost 800 original projects, most
Weberhofer condensed the broad universality of the modern of them built of exceptional handmade working drawings and
movement with the tectonics of pre-Columbian architecture, and renderings done in different techniques, vintage negatives and
the American-Spanish baroque heritage of dense adobe walls. He photographs of models, site work and inal occupancy. They are
achieved this mix through decision, conviction, enthusiasm and kept in a basement, ready to be rediscovered, waiting to see the
three pencil grades highlighted with watercolours, or in ink with light again to show us the way back to the fearless heroic years of
applications of tempera or coloured pencil, writing down the new Latin American modernism. c
photography

Latin American spirit set by Brazil when postwar South America

mapping
was living a moment of fast change, the promise of a utopia and
long-awaited development.

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photography
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m apping

1 At the 1959 Annual Meeting of the

On Site review 31
On Site review 31

National Association of Home Builders

held in Chicago, and then at their
Housing Centre in Washington, DC.