Design: Levan Kiladze
The Encounters Series: “Ibero-American Patterns”
Wednesday, November 11, 2026, 12:15–1:30 pm EST
Avery Hall 115 and online
Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral (IAA)
A response by Ziad Jamaleddine (Columbia)
Orientalizing patterns, building elements, and tropes have suffused Latin American architecture since the Early Modern period. Fernando Nespral’s comprehensive new study shows that these designs were primarily channelled through Spain, demonstrating how deeply this longstanding imperial legacy is imprinted on the hemisphere. Nespral will present his new book, A History of the Arab Component in Ibero-American Architecture, and Ziad Jamaleddine will provide a response.
Speakers' bios:
Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral is Professor of Architectural History at the School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism, University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA), where he directs the Instituto de Arte Americano "Mario J. Buschiazzo" (American Art and Aesthetic Studies Institute, IAA). His research has concentrated on the intersections between the Islamicate world and Ibero-America within the field of architecture.
Ziad Jamaleddine is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP and co-founder and partner of L.E.FT Architects, based in New York and Beirut. Jamaleddine is a practitioner and scholar with a particular research focus on architecture in the Middle East—rigorously interrogating topics such as religious architecture and religiosity in public space, urbanism and infrastructure in relation to water resources and scarcity, and the question of reconstruction in post-war cities.