Mexican Architecture

Mexican architecture draws on more than three thousand years of building, from pre-Hispanic cities and colonial churches to one of the strongest traditions of modern and contemporary architecture in the world. Color, light, walls, patios and an intense relationship with landscape run through it. This page gathers the ArchEyes case studies of Mexican architecture, with photographs, plans and sections.

Key Buildings in Mexican Architecture

Casa Luis BarragánMexico City, 1948Casa Gilardi, Luis BarragánMexico City, 1976Cuadra San Cristóbal, Luis BarragánAtizapán, 1968Casa González Luna, Luis BarragánGuadalajara, 1929Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House-Studio, Juan O’GormanMexico City, 1932Vasconcelos Library, Alberto KalachMexico City, 2006Casa Wabi, Tadao AndoPuerto Escondido, 2014La Medalla Milagrosa, Félix CandelaMexico City, 1955

Understanding Mexican Architecture

The pre-Hispanic cities of Mesoamerica, among them Teotihuacan, Monte Albán and the Maya centers of the Yucatán, set out platforms, plazas and axes on a monumental scale. After the Spanish conquest, convents, cathedrals and haciendas introduced the courtyard, the thick masonry wall and an exuberant Baroque often carved by Indigenous craftsmen. Both traditions remain present in the plans and materials of Mexican buildings today. Courtyards, thick walls and deep shade, refined over centuries for the climate, still inform contemporary houses across the country.

Modern architecture arrived in the 1920s and 1930s with a strong social and national program. Juan O’Gorman’s house-studios for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in San Ángel were among the first functionalist buildings in Latin America. In the 1950s the campus of the National University (UNAM) joined modern architecture with large mural works, and Félix Candela’s thin concrete shells, as at the church of La Medalla Milagrosa, became internationally known. Agustín Hernández, Javier Senosiain and others explored sculptural, organic forms, as in the Amalia Hernández House and the Satellite House.

Luis Barragán gave the period its most influential voice. His own house in Tacubaya, the Casa Gilardi and Cuadra San Cristóbal use high colored walls, water and controlled light to create an architecture of emotion rooted in Mexican landscape and popular building. His early work in Guadalajara, such as the Casa González Luna, belongs to a regional school that later included Andrés Casillas and his Casa Brasilia.

Contemporary Mexican architecture is one of the most active scenes anywhere. Alberto Kalach’s Vasconcelos Library suspends its bookshelves in a vast concrete hall in Mexico City, and international architects such as Tadao Ando, with Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, have built in dialogue with the landscape. A new generation of studios across the country works with brick, concrete, stone and earth, drawing again on climate, courtyards and craft. See also our archive of architecture in Mexico City.

The Key Buildings above are chosen by significance; the full archive below follows publication date. Each case study includes technical information, drawings where available and links to related works.