Shared Structures, Intimate Space - by Fernanda Canales (Paperback)

About the Book

The geographic, social, and economic diversity of Mexico constitute a prime example of the challenges inherent to meeting individual needs in an increasingly crowded world. The drawings and essays comprise new ways of looking at theories and buildings in order to redefine the connection between housing and the city. This research is centered in drawings of 70 housing projects, creating a common language highlighting different attempts at reinventing the house not as isolated battles but as part of a strategy for reimagining how we want to live. This book showcases the pivotal voices that have shaped major cities through housing projects and explores how policies and ideas transform into built form, and how in turn buildings shape societies.

Book Synopsis

A case study that analyzes the relationship between ideas and houses, this book focuses on 100 years of housing projects in Mexico: from the space that lies between bedrooms to that of streets and of society itself; from the space that first appears as a graphic representation to its ultimate role in defining our cities.

This book questions the common tools used to conceive and represent housing projects. It attempts to collate the discourses of different authors in order to trace the meaning of privacy within shared structures. The global phenomenon of massive urbanization that originated in Latin America manifested itself in Mexico at an unseen scale and has since been a testing ground for novel housing and urban solutions. The geographic, social, and economic diversity of Mexico constitute a prime example of the challenges inherent to meeting individual needs in an increasingly crowded world. The drawings and essays comprise new ways of looking at theories and buildings in order to redefine the connection between housing and the city.

This research is centered in drawings of 70 housing projects, creating a common language highlighting different attempts at reinventing the house not as isolated battles but as part of a strategy for reimagining how we want to live. This book showcases the pivotal voices that have shaped major cities through housing projects and explores how policies and ideas transform into built form, and how in turn buildings shape societies.

This book showcases projects and theories from authors such as Luis Barragán, Juan O´Gorman, Mario Pani, Tatiana Bilbao, Alberto Kalach and Mauricio Rocha. It also includes works from Christofer Alexander and Alejandro Aravena.

Review Quotes

"A seminal case study that analyzes the relationship between ideas and houses, "Shared Structures, Intimate Space: Housing in Mexico" has a specific focus on the last 100 years of housing projects in Mexico and ranges from the space that lies between bedrooms, to that of streets and of society itself, and from the space that first appears as a graphic representation, to its ultimate role in defining a city. An invaluable work of meticulous and detailed scholarship in the field of architecture and architectural history, "Shared Structures, Intimate Space: Housing in Mexico" is specifically and unreservedly recommended for professional, college and university library Residential Architecture History and Urban Design Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists." --Midwest Book Review

"The book does a great job of consolidating an impressive selection of buildings, and includes many projects that offer even the connoisseur something new. " --Architectural Record