User:CWReider/Architecture of Mexico

Upon the Spanish Empire’s arrival in Mexico during the 16th century, there was a rapid construction of numerous religious structures to expand the Catholic Church into the New World. However, the construction and establishment of these new communities promptly asserted Spain’s colonial dominance over the indigenous populace. The native population was quickly mobilized by Spanish forces as the labor force to construct new examples of religious architecture. The implementation of architectural forms, such as the ribbed vault, had never been seen before my the native population. Because the indigenous construction skill set was a stark contrast to Spanish building methodologies, the exchange of building information was achieved through pragmatic tactile developments. These included the late-gothic European method of applied geometry construction versus the indigenous masonry techniques. This integration of the preexisting native construction methodologies with newly introduced Spanish strategies thus was the catalyst to begin the rapid construction of monastic compounds throughout Mexico, further establishing the Spanish Empire’s swift colonial acquisitions throughout the country and bringing an end to the pre-colonial period of the nation. These achievements in religious architecture have now come to characterize the early colonial period of Mexico.

As modernism emerged in Mexican cities, architecture beyond buildings began to shift as well. Individualism, a modern ideology, sparked a shift in the usage of outdoor public spaces. Prior to the Modern movement, public spaces in metropolises throughout Mexico served as a nexus where a diverse range of people can see, meet, speak, and play with one another in a safe environment in the city. However, once individualism was introduced, many parks and other areas within the public realm were privatized. This privatization of the public realm restricted economic resources for park development and maintenance, only circulating within wealthy communities. In turn, this cut off access to those without economic or social means, limiting or eliminating their participation in these spaces. As a result, access to safe and public open spaces were no longer equitable leaving many free public spaces in low-income neighborhoods to decay causing a decrease in health and safety. For instance, there is a growing concern for women's safety in ill maintained public spaces in neighborhoods such as those found in Cuidad Juárez. However, with the turn of the 21st century, architects, planners, and community organizers made efforts to reclaim the public realm as a safe, productive, and fun environment accessible to everyone. This public space revitalization occurred in various locations including Fundidora Park in Monterrey and Parque Bicentenario  in Mexico City and is a current initiative in creating an equitable post-modern Mexican city design.

The architecture of Mexico, specifically homes, has historically relied on strong, natural, and durable materials made from the earth. The typical home in Mexico was made using adobe construction with a thatch or palm roofing. In the 19th century, concrete was introduced to Mexican vernacular and became a very natural transition for Mexican architecture designs. It became known as a stronger and more durable material that acted in a similar matter as previously used traditional construction techniques, like adobe. The concrete block houses are built in a similar manner to some adobe homes in how blocks of adobe are placed with a person's hand. The concrete block residences are designed to allow the homes to be constructed easily and still maintained the opportunity to use thermal mass as a cooling strategy - similar to vernacular strategies in dry climates in Mexico.

Modern and Contemporary Architecture
In the mid-twentieth century, the architecture of Mexico City was affected by rapid economic and urban development, new construction techniques, demographic changes and politics. Mario Pani, José Villagrán García, Juan O'gorman and Luis Barragán designed major new works, played key roles and strongly influenced the industry. Since the 1920s, public customers have been the most significant clients of modern buildings, and these buildings often meet people's needs for better education, housing and healthcare. This period also witnessed the rise of modern suburbs, the evolution of single-family houses and the creation of cultural institutions, especially museums.

As in the past a few decades, architects use non-architectural art, especially painting, to distinguish their works. The legacy of the Mexican mural movement is most obviously reflected in the facades of the main buildings of the new University City, and the influence of the principles of international modernist planning is also very significant. In 1968, Mexico City hosted the Olympic Games. Architects, planners and designers created a network of buildings and images. These buildings and images are interdependent, showing Mexico's internationalization and history rooted in local history. In the 1970s, as the capital was occupied by buildings designed by non-architects, urban expansion and pollution both increased.

Colonial Period
In the first two decades of the 20th century, the nature of Mexican architecture and culture was at the core of a complex and rich dialogue of Mexican colonial architecture, with many of the best minds in this country paying attention to it. To various degrees, Baxter, Acevedo, Mariscals, García, and other intellectuals tried hard to organize the history of Mexican architecture, better define the whole industry, reform architectural teaching, preserve colonial architecture, and expand the understanding of the extraordinary architectural history of Mexico. These scholars and architects blended architectural history with beliefs about the ethnic cultural conditions, diversity and integration, the contributions of indigenous Mexicans to colonial architecture, and deep participation in the visual effects of Churrigueresque and Baroque architecture surfaces and facades. These are the roots of the development of modern architecture in Mexico.

Colonial Revival Style
Colonial buildings in Mexico were recalled in the first 25 years of the 20th century, such as the renovation and extension of the City Hall (1906). Over the next 30 years, architects transformed the buildings around the square, thus created a more visually coherent and immortal city center. By 1940, almost all Zócalo buildings were either true colonial buildings or their evocations.

Federico Mariscal was the first architect to use colonial revival forms in new buildings near the city center. In 1917, he took the charge of designing the Sostres y Dosal building, a department store located on the corner of Correo Mayor, which is called Venustiano Carranza now. The volume and striking rounded corners of this five-story building are reminiscent of the Porfirian shopping palace in Art Nouveau style. Its rustic and classical western entrance echoes the Renaissance architecture. But Mariscal used 18th century architecture when dealing with the facade surface. He used the H-shaped window frame commonly seen in Baroque palaces, and set up a mixed linear retaining wall on the top of the building. Between the third and fourth floors, blue and white tiles are arranged in a zigzag pattern. In the uppermost story, Mariscal placed three colonial revival windows, with the central one shaped like a six-pointed star. Apart from this, Angel Torres Torija used the facade of the Gaona Apartment Building in 1922, which might be one of the most fascinating and earliest purpose-built apartments in the capital, to commemorate the colonial architecture. Different from his counterparts, he used the form of a historian and explicit pictorial references to refer to the country’s political history. The Gaona Building was built outside the historic center, close to the most fashionable residences in Mexico City.

In the years after the Mexican Revolution, the main leaders of the Mexican government borrowed their ideas from architects and historians before the war and promoted the colonial revival style in various ways. The government of President Venustiano Carranza (1917-20) granted federal tax exemptions to those who built houses in the colonial-revival style. Many officials have sponsored the renovation of the historic center, the most famous of which is the Minister of Education José Vasconcelos who oversaw the design and construction of several major buildings.