A historian, an architect and a house

The House of Daniel Cosío Villegas is at the same time architectural episode and key piece of twentieth century history. A simple dwelling made of brick became at the time, on the stage of various meetings that without planning, were important for both the intellectual and his family and friends. Here we share a piece of this home-flavored story.  

 

Few people know of a house located in the second closed border in San Angel. In a large venue with three fronts was built in 1944 the house of Daniel Cosío Villegas, pioneer in economic studies, founder of the Fund for Economic Culture and the College of Mexico. Teacher of generations, but above all, prolific historian who devoted a good part of his life to this discipline because, in his own words, it was this one that demanded more than any other in which he dabbled throughout his professional career.

For the years in which the house was built, Daniel was head of the Department of Economic Studies of the Bank of Mexico and according to account in his memoirs, was thanks to a loan from this institution that could buy the land in which he built the one that would be his house room D You have the rest of your life. According to the same testimony, at that time the square metre of land cost 6 pesos, thanks to which he had been able to acquire it without such a problem. Due to the various positions that held throughout his life, Don Daniel was forced to live outside Mexico for several seasons, but this House provided him a place of his own and fixed to work, hosted his library and lived in it a lot of anecdotes.

This House made two notable figures of the twentieth century cross their paths, as it was the martial architect Gutiérrez Camarena the person in charge of building it. Born in San Blas, Nayarit, this young architect and teacher of the National School of Architecture, coincided with Cosío Villegas in his interest in history and even studied the doctorate in history of Mexico in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters between 1946 and 1950. Unfortunately, the research that would become his PhD thesis, which by the way was directed by Ernesto de la Torre Villar, was truncated due to his death in 1954, however he was a well-known teacher and participant in the New Mexican forms To do architecture in the 1940s.

Student of characters such as José Villagrán García, Paul Dubois, Carlos Obregón Santacilia and Pablo Flores, Gutiérrez Camarena and his companions would play the academic renovation of the school of Architecture but also was one of the pioneers in imagining the Construction of a university city, which served as its undergraduate thesis in 1928. He worked in the office of Obregón Santacilia and already independent of his teachers, he mounted one with his companions Mauricio M. Campos and Enrique del Moral. Together, they built several houses and apartment buildings, but over time, the society would dissolve and from there, Gutierrez Camarena would work on his own.

Solo, he developed the headquarters of the Mexican rowing Club in 1934, which was also an amateur sport. He built his own house in the colony of the valley in 1943 but also participated in the construction of hospitals and educational buildings as the Forties were very prolific in terms of construction programs financed by the federal government. In this way, with his youth but ample experience, Gutierrez Camarena had to project the house of the notable intellectual, who apparently was very satisfied with the final result.

Several aspects characterized this construction, for example, that would have been a work designed especially for its inhabitants, without thinking about the visits or people who came to it eventually as it was common at the time. It was considered a house made to live it, to study and meditate without worries and that wanted those who pass through it, enjoy the same conditions as their owners. On the other hand, unlike other buildings and houses in which the materials of foreign origin were flaunted, the house of San Ángel was made with simple materials of Mexican origin, such as red brick and earthenware from San Miguel de Allende or pressed earthenware. s on other floors of the house.

In a review that was made of this House at the time it was built, stood out as notable points the chimney that gave a homely touch, as well as the austerity of its architecture softened by the sober but at the same time, warm furnished. Similarly it was mentioned that there were no curtains in the house because they were not necessary because the view of the surroundings was very pleasant because at that time there were no constructions that prevented the full enjoyment of the volcanoes and the landscape of the Valley of Mexico. The terrace also formed an important part of the ensemble and to say of several testimonies, it became a good space to socialize.

The House of Daniel Cosío Villegas was the scene of various meetings that without planning, were important for both the intellectual and his family and friends, and even was the "neutral terrain" in which he could solve certain problems when his criticism The abuse of power and authoritarianism of the rulers in turn began to charge bill. A notable meeting of this tone was that celebrated with the President Luis Echeverría Alvarez and his wife Maria Esther, when the leader in one of his attacks of anger during the first years of his government, lashed against Cosío Villegas by the tone in which was expressed and n his articles published in the newspaper Excelsior.

To file rough, don Daniel organized a meal in his house which also attended the Muñoz Ledo, Raúl Fournier, Carito Amor, Bernardo Sepúlveda and Ana Iturbe for the meeting to have a clear "social" and not become a political dispute that It'll make things worse. Apparently, the meeting was successful because Doña Maria Esther finally went to the house that long wanted to know, and Don Daniel decided to resume his participation in Excelsior, after the misunderstandings with the president had made him leave his column.

With this history we understand that an architectural space can go beyond its materiality and that a house is not only a cold and simple space made of cement and brick, becomes a more integral in the lives of those who inhabit it.

 

by Paulina Martínez Figueroa