Fifty Cents a Foot, 14,500 Buckets: Concrete Numbers and the Illusory Shells of Mexican Economy

Pendás, María González

doi:10.1162/grey_a_00240

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…While their labour is shown, and can indeed be comprehended as essential for the realisation of the building, they are portrayed as instruments devoid of individuality. 27 As González pointed out, the majority of workers were rural-to-urban migrants from select regions in Mexico, and therefore not urban residents -and certainly not white. Not only were these workers anonymised in the images, but, according to González, Candela never mentioned them in his lectures or texts.…”

Section: Questioning the Dominant Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While in the late 1950s a labourer received 9.6 pesos per day, by 1964 the minimum wage rose to 21.50 pesos, and in 1973 reached 41.43 pesos. 29 The steady rise in wages, plus additional contributions per employee, added to the building costs, making Candela's shells no longer competitive in the market. He left Mexico and took up an academic position in the US.…”

Section: Questioning the Dominant Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Latin American Architectural History: Reading Between the Lines, Opening Opportunities

Hernández

2023

Archit. hist.

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EDITORIAL NOTEThis review article marks a departure for the journal — the start of an occasional series looking at areas often given inadequate attention in the pages of Architectural History. While the United Kingdom, Europe, United States and (at least some of) the countries of the former British empire are generally well covered in the journal, other parts of the world are not, and of these Latin America is perhaps the most conspicuous. This is partly for historical linguistic reasons (most research on Latin America is written in either Spanish or Portuguese) and partly because, when English-language publication is considered, the overwhelming influence of the US in this region means that the magnet of American publication is almost irresistible. This has meant that both Architectural History and the broader discipline as it exists in the UK have missed out on an important area of architectural-historical research and debate. To address this — to bring the architecture of Latin America to the attention of our readers and, conversely, to bring our journal to the attention of researchers in the region — the editorial board invited the Colombian-born architect Felipe Hernández, associate professor at Cambridge and member of the editorial board of Architectural History, to introduce the fascinating work of this continent and the wider issues it raises for the discipline.

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Section: Questioning the Dominant Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Questioning the Dominant Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Latin American Architectural History: Reading Between the Lines, Opening Opportunities

Hernández

2023

Archit. hist.

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“…Often seen as the father of reinforced thin-shell concrete construction, Felix Candela gained international fame for his elegant structural forms. Although the monolithic structures still stand today, the question of unsafe labor practices and extraordinary use of lumber in the falsework made this building technique unsustainable (Pendas 2018). Thin-shell forms enable complex geometries to work more efficiently but require complex formwork.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FORM{less}

Bruce,

Clune,

Culligan

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA)

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FORM{less} 1 Thin-shell concrete cast using robotically thermoformed nested molds displays the range of potential geometries and orientations achievable through this process.Robotically Thermoformed Molds for Concrete Casting 1 ABSTR ACTForm{less} focuses on the creation of complex thin-shell concrete forms using robotically thermoformed plastic molds. Typically, similar molds would be created using the vacuum forming process, producing direct replications of the pattern. Creating molds with this process is not only time-and material-intensive but also costly if customization is involved. Thin-shell concrete forms often require a labor-intensive process of manually finishing the open-face surface. The devised process of thermoforming two nested molds allows the concrete to be cast in between, with finished surfaces on both sides. Molds made with polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) allow the formwork to be reused and recycled.The research and fabrication work include the development of heating elements and the creation of the robotic process for forming the PETG. The PETG is manipulated via a robotic arm, with a custom magnetic end effector. The integration of robotics not only enables precision for manufacturing but also allows for replicability with unrestricted threedimensional deformation. The repeatable process allows for rapid prototyping and geometric customization. Design options are then simulated computationally using SuperMatterTools, enabling further design exploration of this process without the need for extensive physical prototyping. This research aims to develop a process that allows for the creation of complex geometries while reducing the amount of material waste used for concrete casting. The novelty of the process created by dynamically forming PETG allows for quick production of formwork that is both customizable and replicable. This method of creating double-sided building components is simulated at various scales of implementation.

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“Anxious Desires”

Flaherty¹

2022

Social Text

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In 1961, the Mexican government launched the Programa Nacional Fronterizo (Pronaf) in partnership with the country's economic elites, a precursor to the state's more widely known border industrialization project. Pronaf was ostensibly an urban beautification program targeting nine cities at the Mexico-US border, led by former Ciudad Juárez mayor Antonio Bermúdez and with architecture supervised by Mexico City–based modernist Mario Pani. However, as this article argues, Pronaf sought to better integrate the borderlands to the national market and political structure at a moment of crisis. The state's capitalist modernization plan of import substitution industrialization, which produced the so-called Mexican Miracle in the 1940s, was showing signs of strain. Greater consumption of products made in Mexico, based on a more patriotic identification by citizens at the border, would buttress the “Miracle,” which had initially ignored these very citizens based on metropolitan perceptions of their lack of allegiance to Mexico and affinity for the US. Understanding spectacular architecture to have not only a didactic but an affective function, Pronaf deployed a network of soaring, Jet Age–inspired built environments. These parabolic hyperboloid environments, accompanied by a hyperbolic rhetoric from Bermúdez, sought to convince border residents of the “beauty” and “desirability” of national culture and the fluidity of the national market just as their socioeconomic mobility came under greater government scrutiny. Pronaf piloted an affective infrastructure that desired to channel border residents’ citizenship and consumption toward the reproduction of the political and economic status quo, eventually setting the stage for neoliberal transition.

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Fifty Cents a Foot, 14,500 Buckets: Concrete Numbers and the Illusory Shells of Mexican Economy

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Latin American Architectural History: Reading Between the Lines, Opening Opportunities

Latin American Architectural History: Reading Between the Lines, Opening Opportunities

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“Anxious Desires”

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