This article seeks to analyze Carlos Martinez's doctoral dissertation, Contribution à une étude d'urbanisation de Bogotá, Colombie. To do so, it proposes a critical reading of the document that incorporates its epistemological bases and its methodology. The article is divided in three parts. First, it studies the main characteristics of Martinez's argument, emphasizing on its narrative structure and the main objectives of the document. Further on it observes the epistemological perspective on the notion of history in the urbanism discipline and it highlights the theoretical tension generated between Poëte's and Le Corbusier's proposals. At last, the article places Martinez and his proposal in the local professional and historical context in Bogotá.