The CAPFCE and its headquarters building

Also known as the "school Factory" the CAPFCE building represented a step forward in educational and institutional infrastructure. It has become a landmark to understand Olympic Mexico, the one in which it seemed that we would approach to be a promising country, with a great future. Its architect, Francisco Artigas, conceived a fully functional project that today remains intact. Let's learn a little bit about his story.

 

The Administrator committee of the Federal School building program was created in 1944 by the then President of the Republic Manuel Ávila Camacho as part of a large public works program to respond to the growing demand for educational facilities That there was in the country that time. The creation of this organization required the coordinated services of architects, physicians, "hygienists", economists, pedagogues and "financiers" who worked together and provided their knowledge to formulate a truthful approach to Problem and look for him at the same time, an appropriate solution.

Among the architects and artists who participated in this program we can mention José Villagrán García, José Luis Cuevas, Mario Pani and Enrique Yáñez, who gave a first impulse to the work of the Committee in its technical aspect, leading to the practice of the first School planning. In the initial stage were built large school buildings such as the Superior Normal, the National Conservatory of Music or the National School of Teachers, constructions that reflected an eagerness to begin solving problems of the type Educational, however, according to the committee participants themselves time after, this type of building did not correspond to the educational needs of the country, which required numerous and small centers of instruction as they would check with the Passage of time and educational experiences that were carried out in different States of the Mexican Republic.

In reality those first large educational buildings reflected more the desire for state legitimacy and the need to demonstrate that the revolutionary discourse was being implemented, but it was not a realistic solution for the school-age population Nor for the teachers, for whom even new squares were created with the intention of covering the demand that there was in the country. To ensure that the Committee could meet the objectives for which it was created, research and analysis of varied problems had to be carried out, from the economic and social conditions of the places in which they would be installed, as well as the demographic and Of the country, which made the program begin to bear fruit in the 1950s.

As of 1960, the Committee's functions were decentralized to state governments in order to focus on expanding the infrastructure at the pre-school level, the upper half, the middle and upper half, which was how the levels of Education in the country. Thus, the result of the coordinated policy of the Committee with the Government of the then Federal district headed by Lic. Ernesto P. Uruchurtu, managed to rise around 142 schools with 2173 classrooms for 271.300 students, since it was ratified in office in 1958.

For 1962, architect Francisco Artigas was responsible for running the Committee — a position that remained until 1972 — but it was the year 1967 when the project began to gather all the offices of the CAPFCE — which were scattered in the center of the city — in an S Olo Building. The land chosen to carry out the new construction was located in the Florida Colony, in the street of Vito Alessio Robles. Artigas and his team of the Capfce were in charge of developing the project, who retaked the idea of showing the stability and grandeur of the state but now, through the materials used and a simple but striking structure.

To this we would have to add the Olympic city context that was installed in the Federal district in those years. Throughout the city, buildings were erected to show both its visitors and those who inhabited it — as well as the eyes of the outside — the modernity, cleanliness, culture and education that prevailed throughout the country: the capital would only reflect the rest of the Republic. It is probable that therefore the building of Artigas has characteristics of the so-called International style, like others built at that time, when at the same time it was sought that the architectural discourse was understood not only by the Mexicans but by people of Any nationality.

This building is located on a large wooded area, a privileged terrain that remains open to the street, without bars or walls that obstruct the view, with a rectangular floor and three levels. An internal patio allows the entrance of light and natural ventilation to the whole building and allows to appreciate the vegetation of the area from the interior of the building. Water also has a fundamental role in this project because, in addition to a fountain in the central courtyard, the building has a kind of portico on the main facade and on the sides, which is formed by mirrors of water, which is reflected in the wooden ceilings With sunlight.

The portico is achieved through columns lined with white marble that hold the earthenware inside which achieves the effect of the facade seems floated. The height of the mezzanines generates ample and illuminated spaces throughout the building, which as planned as a specific place to house offices, propitiates productivity and a good working environment. The wooden floors, the large glass tinted in bronze color and white marble, reaffirm the institutional appearance of this building that still belongs to the federal government as it houses the National Institute of Physical Infrastructure Education, inifed, as Currently called the previous CAPFCE.

It surprises the specialists that this is a government building that has not been intervened, adequate or adapted until completely deformed. From my scarce experience, I believe that government buildings are the ones that have been more easily preserved without intervention despite the fact that, like other 20th century constructions, they are catalogued more unprotected as their importance deserves.

by Paulina Martínez Figueroa