José Villagrán García (22 September 1901 – 10 June 1982) was a Mexican

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Career

He is known for having developed several theories of

Modernist architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

, and for designing the master plan for the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He studied architecture from 1918 to 1922 at the Academy of San Carlos before it became part of the National Autonomous University, where he eventually chaired the Faculty of Architecture. Villagán García was one of many young architects employed during the presidency of Alvaro Obregón (1920–24), following the Mexican Revolution 1910–1920. Obregón's Minister of Public Education

José Vasconcelos José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities ...

, who insisted that Mexican architecture carry meaning. Villagrán García designed the huge National Stadium in Mexico City as a neo-Colonial structure, with a seating capacity of least 30,000. Given the size, it needed to be of concrete. However, the concrete also contained stone and volcanic ''tezontle'', in a revival of the eighteenth-century style.Patrice Elizabeth Olsen, ''Artifacts of Revolution: Architecture, Society, and Politics in Mexico City, 1920-1940''. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2008, pp. 10-11. He received the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in 1968, and the National Prize of Architecture in 1980.

Publications

*''Panorama de 50 Años de Arquitectura Mexicana Contemporánea'' Mexico City: INBA/SEP 1952. *''Teoría de la Arquitectura''. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 1989.

References

Modernist architects from Mexico 1901 births 1982 deaths Architecture firms of Mexico Architects from Mexico City Members of El Colegio Nacional (Mexico) National Autonomous University of Mexico faculty 20th-century Mexican architects {{Mexico-architect-stub

Career

Publications

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References