Informative data
| Title | Modern Architecture and Heritage: Gilberto Gatto Sobral's Urban Development Plan Today (1947-2026) |
|---|---|
| Investigation Group | Architecture Research Group |
| Year | 2026 |
Executive Summary
This proposal expands the project “Modern Architecture and Heritage. Gilberto Gatto Sobral’s Urban Development Plan today (1947-2024)”, moving from the analysis of key buildings —Municipal Palace and House of Culture— to the comprehensive urban scale of Cuenca.
Gilberto Gatto Sobral, a pioneer of Ecuadorian modernism, designed a plan in 1947 that regulated the established city center and projected growth toward outlying areas like El Ejido. His historic plans represent a vital part of the national modern heritage, essential to the collective memory.
The approach highlights the plan's modern urban values: technical rigor, geometric precision, and universality, viewing it not as an obsolete map, but as a historical vision of form and order. It contrasts these principles with the Cuenca 2025 project, demonstrating the modern project's capacity to build a city, countering simplistic notions of failure. It will make a substantial contribution to the Digital Twins project that the University of Azuay is developing with UNESCO.