Redefining the Técnico's task: Arquitectura Técnica and the Claim to Governance

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Albert José-Antonio López

Abstract

This essay offers context for the establishment of the discourses of tech- nical architecture (arquitectura técnica), integral planning (plani cación integral), the appearance and rise of the técnico, and mid-century Mexican architects’ jurisdictional claims in the realms of politics and governance. I show how certain architects working as planners during the 1920’s and a younger generation of socially conscious architects emerging in the 1930’s claimed that members of the profession had a duty to work in collaborative environments and to directly engage with the state not only as technical experts or specialists, but more importantly as general man- agerial gures as a means of advancing their professional prestige, so- cial agendas, and political aspirations. Furthermore, this work introduces the role of language in the expanding and at times divergent professional trends in Mexican architecture during the period. I explore the creation and use of neologisms and politicized terms such as plani cación as well as the word “técnico” in the professionalization of architecture and its in- tersections with Mexican political society and post-revolutionary state construction. I argue that the use of these words by certain members of the profession aided some in making claims to the responsibility and right to govern and eventually contributed to a collective mobility project that sought to ll political/administrative posts with architects/planners.

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How to Cite
López A. J.-A. (2018). Redefining the Técnico’s task: Arquitectura Técnica and the Claim to Governance. Academia XXII, 9(18), 136–158. https://doi.org/10.22201/fa.2007252Xp.2018.18.67949

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Author Biography

Albert José-Antonio López

Albert José Antonio López is currently a PhD candidate in the depart- ment for History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture at the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he is completing his disserta- tion titled: “The Integrated State: Architecture, Planning, and Politics in Mexico: 1938-1958.” He previously completed a MS in Critical, Curato- rial and Conceptual Practice at the GSAPP at Columbia University. He received a professional degree in Architecture from

the University of Southern California (USC).
In 2017-2018 Mr. López was a Fulbright García-Robles Scholar afiliated with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He is currently a fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy.