Helena Bender is a doctoral candidate at the Postgraduate Program in Architecture of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil), and a visiting student at the Institute of Art History of the University of Zurich. Bender completed her studies in architecture and urban planning at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, where she also obtained a master degree with a thesis on the urban scale projects devised by Antonio Bonet Castellana in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bender is a member of the research group Studies in Latin American Modern Architecture (2011-), and works in the projects “Abstraction and Figuration: Studies in Latin American Modern Architecture” (2015-), “Modern Architecture in Latin America: Studies on Primitivism as a Modern Problem” (2011-), and “Modern Architecture in Latin America: Case Studies in the South Area, 1945-1980” (2010-).
Areas of Research Interest
History of Latin American Modern Architecture; History of the City of Modern Architecture; Parallels between Latin American Modern Architecture and Modern Art.
Publications
- “Uses of Primitivism: Stone, Clay and Modern Architecture.” Pós. Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da FAUUSP 24, no. 43 (2017): 80-97 (with Prof. Dr. Cláudia Costa Cabral).
- “Antonio Bonet Castellana y su Buenos Aires: relaciones entre los proyectos Casa Amarilla, Bajo Belgrano y Barrio Sur, 1943-1956.” In Arquitectura importada y exportada en España y Portugal (1925-1975), edited by José Manuel Pozo, 149-156. Pamplona: T6 Ediciones, 2016.
- “Buenos Aires and the Modern City through Antonio Bonet Castellana’s Urban Proposal: The Plan for Barrio Sur, 1956.” Planning Perspectives 30, no. 3 (2015): 447-62.
- “Relações entre dois pedaços de Buenos Aires moderna: os planos não construídos de Antonio Bonet Castellana para Bajo Belgrano (1948-49) e para Barrio Sur (1956).” Paranoá: Cadernos de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, no. 13 (2014): 101–9.
- “A cidade sobre a cidade: o plano de Antonio Bonet para a área sul de Buenos Aires, 1956.” Revista eletrônica do centro interdisciplinar de estudos sobre a cidade 6, no. 8 (2014): 494–513.
Conferences
- “Interpretações sobre o espaço aberto na cidade da arquitetura moderna: José Luis Sert, Antonio Bonet Castellana e os planos para Chimbote (1948) e Barrio Sur (1956),” XVI SHCU, São Carlos, Brazil, 2016.
- “Antonio Bonet Castellana y su Buenos Aires: relaciones entre los proyectos Casa Amarilla, Bajo Belgrano y Barrio Sur, 1943-1956,” X Congreso Internacional - Historia de la Arquitectura Moderna Española, Pamplona, Spain, 2016.
- “SAH-Getty International Program Oral Presentation,” SAH Annual Conference, Pasadena, USA, 2016.
- “Buenos Aires and the Modern City through Antonio Bonet Castellana’s Urban Proposal: The Plan for Barrio Sur, 1956,” 16th IPHS Conference, Saint Augustine, USA, 2014.
- “Relações entre dois pedaços de Buenos Aires moderna: os planos não construídos de Antonio Bonet Castellana para Bajo Belgrano (1948-1949) e Barrio Sur (1956),” XIII SHCU, Brasília, Brazil, 2014.
- “A cidade sobre a cidade: o plano de Antonio Bonet Castellana para a área sul de Buenos Aires, 1956,” III Congresso Internacional de História Urbana, Brasília, Brazil, 2013.
Teaching
- 2015-2016: Assistant Professor, Design Studio V and VI, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Univates University.
- 2013-2015: Assistant Lecturer at the chair of Prof. Dr. Cláudia Costa Cabral, Design Studio III, Department of Architecture, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
Awards and Grants
- 2017: Visiting Student Scholarship at the University of Zurich, The CAPES Foundation, Brazilian Government.
- 2016: SAH-Getty International Program Grant, Society of Architectural Historians, The Getty Foundation.
- 2015: Doctoral Scholarship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, The CAPES Foundation, Brazilian Government.
- 2014: Best Postgraduate Planning History Paper, 16th IPHS Conference, International Planning History Society.
- 2014: Distinguished Research Paper, XIII SHCU.
- 2012: Master Scholarship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, The CAPES Foundation, Brazilian Government.
- 2012: Academic Honor Mention, Engineering Society of Rio Grande do Sul.
- 2012: Honor mention, José Miguel Aroztegui International Architectural Competition for Undergraduate Students, Arquisur and Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.
- 2012: First Prize, Undergraduate Architectural Competition for the Educational Center of Balneário Pinhal, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Balneário Pinhal Municipality.
