ABSTRACTThe introdu tion of the definition of “other Mediterranean” to identify the Gulf of Mexico is a useful expedient to operate, in this area, an interpretation of architecture that uses both the cultural-religious factor, as well as the climatic and geographical ones, and which refers to the relationships between the vernacular and the modern, that on the other side of the world, in Europe, have generated debates and innovations in the architectural field.Mediterraneanity is conceived as the premise of modernity (Lejeun-Sabatino, 2010), and is used to re- read the formation of local modern architecture in countries that suffered from Spanish domination. Having established the historical-geographical and cultural characteristics that define the parallelism, it is possible to trace the various contributions referable to a transversal Mediterranean culture, which includes the Iberian Baroque as well as the North African traditions.The peculiarity of this middle area is identified in what we can define as a cultural graft, which also occurred with the spread of the Catholic religion and the introduction of colonial architecture on vernacular architecture, and which marked a transition from the elastic-wooden world, characterizing the pre-Hispanic production, to the plastic-masonry one, following the discovery of the Americas.While in the areas with a stone-wall character of southern Europe the formation of modern architecture passes through the use of massive and opaque forms, which enclose the space, in this geographical area, even if so, similar culturally, the main action that is asked to architecture is that of covering, not enclosing.This shift of priorities generates a series of results that we are interested in investigating.

Keywords: Mediterranean, Modern architecture, Vernacular architecture.