Identidad y reciclaje formal en Ciudad Universitaria

Abstract

This paper analyzes the assimilation of Mesoamerican elements into the architectural language of Mexico’s National University campus as it was originally built and also from a contemporary perspective, which entails breaking away from Modernity. The theoretical approach to formal recycling is based on Gadamer´s hermeneutics and Derrida´s deconstructive thinking. The interest of avant-garde artists of the twentieth century in Mesoamerican culture explains why Mexican architects sought to integrate its identity symbols into the Modern Movement. The incorporation of painting and sculpture into architecture is another issue that should be addressed, given the reinterpretation of Mesoamerican tradition and myth into large scale mural painting on university buildings. The historic and symbolic importance of the campus of México’s National University, an institution which embodies the national project of modernity, has turned it into a valuable example. Therefore its architectural solutions have become a model for the coveted synthesis between history and modernity. A contemporary scrutiny of the architectural language of Mexico’s National University campus and its implications shall disclose continuity and discontinuity, reality and fiction, which will be of use to architects in the future, from a critical as well as from a professional standpoint.