Office and Factory Buildings, Cali, Colombia, 1945: Plot plan (1" =50') 1945

Curator: Here we have "Office and Factory Buildings, Cali, Colombia, 1945: Plot plan (1" =50')" attributed to M.O.E. It's a detailed architectural blueprint. Editor: My first impression is a feeling of meticulous order, yet somehow tinged with the starkness of utilitarian purpose. Curator: Absolutely. It reflects, I think, the mid-century push for modernization, particularly in a rapidly developing urban context like Cali at that time. You can almost hear the machines humming already. Editor: And perhaps, even more subtly, echoes of socio-economic divides inherent in such industrial expansion, visible in the very planning of space, function, and who gets what. Curator: Yes, the drawing’s very precision begs questions about progress and at whose expense it's achieved. It's a deceptively simple-seeming document. Editor: Right, something to contemplate. It's like gazing into the skeleton of a future, wondering about the flesh that it will hold. Curator: And how that flesh will be shaped, no doubt.