Absent strangers: children's gardens in the history of contemporary Mexican architecture
The importance of the so-called "early childhood", defined by UNESCO as the "period from birth to eight years of age, is now undeniable, which is a unique moment of growth in which the brain develops remarkably". During this stage, children are given a greater influence from their environments and contexts, so the spaces designed for them are of paramount importance. But this was not always the case, and although there is already more awareness of the importance of children's architecture, children are still absent in other areas, such as politics, or historiographic. This blog post takes a look at a little-known history within Mexican architecture, a silent story, on a small scale, but of great significance and potential.
While within the development of Mexican architecture, school campuses have been the kind of construction that has been given the most attention, it is somewhat difficult to believe that the architecture of kindergartens has been overlooked by most specialists in these issues. However, it is understandable when we take into account that the children to which this special type of construction is aimed were also invisible for a long time to both the government and society at large.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, children aged 3 to 6 were only a priority for their families, growing up and learning in the home environment so it was not considered necessary to take it to a special place for their care and teaching. This began to change when mothers were entering the working environment, so the first kindergartens and kindergartens were attached to factories or establishments that employed mainly mothers.
Although preschool education was part of post-revolutionary government discourse around 1921, it prioritized the formation of a purely Mexican child, so the creation of special Mexican activities, games and music was prioritized, so the creation of special Mexican activities, games and music was prioritized, for the little ones, but no attention was yet paid to the spaces in which their school life was developed. The number of kindergartens continued to increase but the locals did not have special characteristics that differentiated them from others and even in some cases were shared with children of other school levels.
It was until the early 1940s, with the arrival of Jaime Torres Bodet at the Ministry of Public Education and the founding of the Administration Committee of the Federal School Construction Program (capfce), that the State looked more hard at the sector efforts were made to improve the facilities of these plants to equip them with the furniture and teaching material that best met their needs. Its number grew considerably and in 1946 there were a total of 620 in the entire Republic. By the end of this decade is when we found the first examples of a special architecture for preschoolers, with cozy, colorful spaces, games, gardens and special classrooms to cover the areas of learning that corresponded to the most Small.
The children's gardens of the Multifamiliar German President (1949), the Presidente Juárez Urban Center (1952), the Imss Santa Fe Housing Unit (1957) and the Independence Unit (1960) are the most visible examples of the change that took place in the way we see the educational spaces for preschoolers, all created under the principle of plastic integration. In the mpa, designed by Mario Pani, the nursery and the kindergarten had murals by Carlos Mérida in a frieze of vinyl on concrete with animal designs and in several zoomorphic motifs that were at the entrance of the place. Similar case occurred in the kindergarten of cupj, also designed by Pani and which also had some panels decorated with the designs of the same painter. In addition, in this case its location among three large gardens, isolated and conditioned so that the children were in a quiet environment, suitable for rest but also for the game.
The children's garden of the Imss Santa Fé Habitat Unit, had outdoor classrooms, spaces rarely found in Mexico and which according to specialists, recall the typical concept of anarchist schools and even hospitals for children with tuberculosis of the interwar period in Europe. This garden also had in the outdoor area a sandpit, an element that would later appear in almost all Mexican school play spaces. In addition, from the 1950s onwards, the different spaces that kindergartens had to have and which architects had to take into account for their design and construction would be more clearly established.
In this way we already find spaces for offices that, in addition to management, classroom of educators and wineries, had to have an exclusive medical service for students. Classrooms should also be screened for almost every activity carried out with children, such as drawing, domestic activities, a library and the famous singing and games classroom so characteristic of the children's gardens of the time, in which they were held to cab or rhythmic games, performed stories, children's orchestras and dances; and of course, an outdoor classroom, so that the little ones could be in contact with nature.
In addition to these own areas for teachers and students, the so-called "special premises" were contemplated, which included a theatre, a dining room suitable for feeding children, a kitchen for food preparation, a place of naps and toilets. On the outside, open spaces also played a key role. From the courtyard of honor, to honor the flag; the playground, which already included the famous tubular climbing structures, swings, up and down, slips, sandpits and even water mirrors; or farms and plots, to learn about caring for animals and growing plants and flowers.
These new spaces already showed a greater concern to adapt to the needs of the child population of preschool age, to motivate their development and learning but at the same time providing a suitable place to rest if necessary, to feed, to care for them medically if required and for recreation. It took about fifty years to make the little ones more useful, but this effort by the Sep and the architects to build an exclusive children's space for preschoolers was not restricted to Mexico City. Examples of great historical and architectural value are still found in places such as Xalapa, Veracruz, Acapulco, Guerrero, Zacatepec and Tepoztlán, Morelos, Toluca, State of Mexico and others, which must be studied in the future to learn more about this subject as extraordinary as unknown.
by Paulina Martínez Figueroa