Before establishing itself as a recognized language, modern architecture took shape through progressive shifts in ideas, experimentation, and critical revisions that traversed diverse cultural and geographical contexts. Rather than a linear process of diffusion, it is a field in transformation, where references are appropriated, reinterpreted, and modified according to the specific conditions of each context.
In Brazil, the historiography of modern architecture has frequently highlighted the centrality of specific production hubs, which served as the foundation for the movement's primary interpretations. However, as critical readings of Latin American historiography—particularly the reflections of Marina Waisman—indicate, this narrative tends to replicate a model in which modern architecture originates in European centers and spreads to other contexts to be assimilated. Challenging this perspective, Waisman proposes shifting the focus to what she terms the "interior of history," understanding Latin American production not as passive reception, but as an active process of interpretation in which external references are absorbed, transformed, and resignified based on unique cultural, technical, and historical conditions.
