Mathias Goeritz (1915–1990), the German-born Mexican artist, sculptor, and architect, was a leading voice advocating for an architecture grounded not merely in function or aesthetics but in emotional experience. His manifesto for “Emotional Architecture” urged designers to seek spaces that could provoke introspection, awe, and spiritual engagement.
Eco Museum Technical Information
- Architects1-2: Mathias Goeritz
- Location: Sullivan Street 43, Colonia San Rafael, Mexico City, Mexico
- Client / Patron: Daniel Mont (art collector and entrepreneur)
- Area: 1,500 m2 | 16,145 Sq. Ft.
- Project Year: 1952 – 1954
- Photographs: © Roberto Ortiz de Landazuri, ArchEyes
I do not believe in functional architecture, but in emotional architecture. I want to create spaces that provoke an emotional reaction in the visitor.
– Mathias Goeritz 3
Eco Museum Photographs
Form, Materiality, and Spatial Strategies
The Eco Museum (El Eco), conceived in 1953 and inaugurated in 1954, is one of Goeritz’s most radical architectural works. More than a museum, El Eco was envisioned as a gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art where architecture, sculpture, and experience would blend into a unified emotional field. Commissioned by Daniel Mont, a visionary patron of the arts, the project aimed to create an alternative to the increasingly rigid norms of modernist exhibition spaces. In an era when Mexico was redefining its cultural identity through architecture and the arts, the Eco Museum emerged as a deeply experimental, almost subversive proposal.
Rejecting the neutral, modular spaces characteristic of the International Style, Goeritz envisioned the Eco Museum as an emotional journey. Its formal composition consists of an orchestrated sequence of compressed corridors, intimate patios, and dramatic voids. The layout fosters constant shifts in scale and orientation, evoking sensations of tension, wonder, and release.
Materiality plays a critical role in reinforcing this psychological terrain. The building’s surfaces, rough stucco walls, exposed brick, and poured concrete eschew ornament in favor of rawness. Light and shadow become dynamic protagonists within these surfaces, transforming the perception of space throughout the day. Unlike the uniform lighting conditions of conventional galleries, El Eco celebrates unpredictability, welcoming the interplay of natural phenomena with architecture.
Spatially, Goeritz employed a calculated use of restriction and expansion. Narrow passages suddenly open onto wider courtyards; low ceilings give way to soaring volumes. Visitors are not passive viewers but participants whose bodily movements are constantly negotiated and challenged. In place of clarity, Goeritz offered an architecture of ambiguity, spaces that must be felt as much as seen.
The design was profoundly shaped by Goeritz’s European influences, particularly Expressionism and the Bauhaus ethos of synthesis between arts. Yet El Eco is unmistakably rooted in Mexican sensibilities: its introspective courtyards, material textures, and ritualistic spatial progressions resonate with the architecture of pre-Hispanic ceremonial centers.
Cultural and Urban Context: Mexico City in the 1950s
The Eco Museum was conceived during a transformative period for Mexico City. Post-revolutionary Mexico sought to project a modern identity through monumental public works and cultural institutions. Architects like Luis Barragán and Mario Pani embodied different facets of this project: Barragán with his poetic modernism and Pani with his rationalist urban planning. Within this landscape, Goeritz carved a distinct path, offering a counterproposal to functionalist orthodoxy.
Unlike many civic buildings of the time that asserted their presence in the urban grid, El Eco turns inward. Its fortress-like exterior, devoid of windows to the street, shields a private world within, a conscious resistance to the city’s burgeoning chaos. In doing so, it creates an autonomous zone where the art of architecture and the architecture of art intertwine.
The museum also intersected with socio-political ambitions. It presented a rare space for avant-garde artistic expression at a time when nationalism heavily influenced cultural production. Goeritz’s vision stood apart: he sought universality through emotion rather than through iconography.
Eco Museum Contemporary Relevance
El Eco’s influence extends far beyond its modest physical scale. As one of the earliest museums to prioritize the visitor’s emotional and spatial experience over the display of objects, it anticipated shifts in museography and exhibition design that would only become mainstream decades later. Architects working within the phenomenological tradition, such as Peter Zumthor and Tadao Ando, share a lineage with Goeritz’s prioritization of atmosphere and sensory engagement.
The museum’s life has not been without challenges. Neglect and subsequent alterations threatened the integrity of Goeritz’s vision. However, recent restoration efforts, especially since the museum was revived by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in the early 2000s, have sought to preserve its original ethos. Careful attention has been paid to maintaining the tactile materiality and the nuanced play of light and space that define El Eco.
Eco Museum Plans
Eco Museum Image Gallery
About Mathias Goeritz
Mathias Goeritz (1915–1990) was a German-born Mexican artist, sculptor, and architect known for pioneering the concept of “Emotional Architecture,” advocating for spaces that evoke spiritual and emotional responses rather than serving purely functional purposes. Blending European avant-garde influences with Mexican cultural sensibilities, Goeritz’s work, including iconic projects such as the Eco-Museum and the Torres de Satélite with Luis Barragan, bridged art, and architecture to create unified experiential environments.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Lead Designer: Mathias Goeritz
- Collaborators: Jesús Reyes Ferreira (conceptual art advisor), German Cueto (sculptural works)
- Mathias Goeritz: Modernist Art and Architecture in Cold War Mexico by Jennifer Josten
