University City (National Autonomous University of Mexico)

The University City, known colloquially as C.U. or CU (pronounced cé-ú), is the set of buildings and spaces that make up the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), located near Pedregal de San Ángel, south of Mexico City. On June 28, 2007, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

History

Background

The first news about the interest of Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga that New Spain had a university dates back to 1536. The viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and the Crown soon joined this initiative and gave a positive response in 1547, but it was only until 21 September 1551 when the Constitution of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was issued.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the schools, faculties and administrative buildings of the University were concentrated in the center of the City of Mexico, which is why it is popularly known as "University Neighborhood", without maintaining a connection between the buildings themselves (among others, the buildings of the Old College of San Ildefonso, the Old Palace of the Inquisition, the Academia of San Carlos, the Old Temple of San Agustín and the Minería Palace), and several times a project was conceptualized to relocate them to a single campus that integrated university life. The first recorded news about a construction project for a university city dates back to 1928, when Mauricio de María y Campos and Marcial Gutiérrez Camarena, students of the then National School of Architecture, presented, as a professional thesis to obtain the title of architects, a project with that topic.

After 15 years, this idea began to prosper. In 1943, during the rectorship of Rodulfo Brito Foucher, the appropriate site was chosen to build the University City: the Pedregal de San Ángel, an area of predominantly volcanic terrain, the product of eruptions of several volcanoes, including Xitle, which occurred more than two thousand years, located south of the Valley of Mexico.

During the administration of the then President of the Republic, Manuel Ávila Camacho, and the rector of the UNAM, Genaro Fernández MacGregor, the University presented to the federal government a proposal for the Law on the Foundation and Construction of the University City, which It was approved by the Congress of the Union on December 31, 1945. The following year, rector Salvador Zubirán managed the acquisition of the chosen lands, approximately seven million square meters, and on September 11, 1946, President Ávila Camacho issued the decree of expropriation of the land destined for the construction of the University City (CU).

The University did not have the financial resources to continue with the construction plan and it was not until the end of 1946, with the arrival of Miguel Alemán to the presidency of the Republic, that it had the necessary means to solve the economic problem. With this, the work that would lead to the formulation of a basic program for the general preliminary project of the work was reactivated.

The respective Commission organized a preliminary project competition for the realization of the overall plan of the CU, in which it invited the National School of Architecture, the Society of Mexican Architects and the National College of Architects of Mexico to participate.

Due to its direct relationship with the creation of the new campus, the National School of Architecture decided to hold an “ideas contest” among the professors to develop the overall plan, based on the general ideas of the program that had been defined by the Commission and which were transmitted by the architect Enrique del Moral, director of the School. Prominent architects such as Augusto H. Álvarez, Mauricio de María y Campos, Enrique del Moral, Eugenio Peschard, Xavier García Lascuráin, Marcial Gutiérrez Camarena, Vladimir Kaspé, Alonso Mariscal, Mario Pani and Augusto Pérez Palacios, among others, participated in the competition.

The jury, made up of the participants themselves, ruled in favor of the works presented by the architects Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, who were entrusted with directing the final project, as had been agreed in the competition. It should be noted that Mauricio architect M. Campos joined the group, who was invited due to the interest he had long shown in the construction of this university space.

The enthusiasm generated in the National School of Architecture led not only to the development of the overall preliminary project, but also to the design of each of the buildings that would integrate it. In this way, for the preliminary project of each building, a team led by one or two teachers was appointed with the intervention of the most advantaged students. The participation of the then students of the last years of the degree, Teodoro González de León, Armando Franco Rovira and Enrique Molinar, was of such importance that the directors of the project decided that the overall sketch made and proposed by them would serve as a basis. for the development of the respective preliminary project.

The university works and the project prepared by the Society of Architects were presented before the jury made up of the representative of the rector of the UNAM, and the presidents of the National College of Architects of Mexico and the Society of Mexican Architects. The jury ruled in favor of the School of Architecture project.

A few months later, Rector Zubirán organized and chaired the Technical Director Commission that replaced the Commission that had been in place until the end of President Ávila Camacho's regime. It was made up of the architect José Villagrán García, as its executive representative; Mr. Díaz Cánovas, as personal representative of the President of the Republic; the engineer Alberto J. Flores, director of the National School of Engineering, and the architect Enrique del Moral, director of the National School of Architecture.

This Commission ratified the architects of Moral, Pani and Campos as directors and coordinators of the Joint Project, and granted them the power to designate all the architects who would be in charge of the projects of the various faculties, schools and institutes and the other buildings required by the University City. Likewise, it carried out the necessary arrangements for the university departments to designate advisors and consultants in charge of determining the requirements programs for each building.

In 1948 the first infrastructure works began: drainage, tunnels and bridges. Unfortunately, the work was suspended for several months due to the departure of rector Zubirán; It was not until early 1949, with the appointment of rector Luis Garrido, that the Commission resumed its work.

The development of the works depended on funds, which were scarce, so their development was slow; However, circumstances favored the progress of the project. Due to the interest expressed by the President of the Republic, UNAM decided to rethink the constitution of the University Board of Trustees. Mr. Carlos Novoa, then director of the Bank of Mexico, was appointed president, and Mr. Eduardo Suárez and the accountant David Thierry were appointed as members. Novoa's position in the financial circle and his ability to obtain resources resulted in the federal government providing the necessary resources for the works.

In March 1950, the Board of Trustees created the organization called Ciudad Universitaria de México, also chaired by Carlos Novoa and whose general management was the architect Carlos Lazo Barreiro, who assumed the task of turning the projects that were going into reality. ending. Likewise, there was the collaboration of the engineer Luis Enrique Bracamontes as works manager and the architect Gustavo García Travesí as plans and investments manager.

On June 5, 1950, the first stone of what would be the first building of the University City was formally laid: the Science Tower, in a ceremony presided over by the rector Luis Garrido and the Secretary of the Interior, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines.

The work of the entire team, headed by architect Carlos Lazo, was brilliant, since they worked with a mystique of improvement and exemplary efficiency. The excellent coordination between all participants resulted in the works being carried out with economy, order and unusual speed, which allowed them to be completed in less than three years. Never before had so many architects and engineers been concentrated; There were more than sixty designers, two hundred residents, contractors and supervisors, and nearly ten thousand workers who worked on this great work.

The projects for the different complexes and buildings were carried out under the General Directorate of the Complex Project, which also coordinated the work of the architects in charge of its execution and the construction companies; all with the purpose of achieving correct unity and harmony of the whole. To this end, multiple seminars were organized between the different participating teams.

In the General Program, the creation of a physical and pedagogical unit was sought that would allow easy communication of the schools with each other and, therefore, coexistence between students, teachers and researchers. Likewise, the centralization of basic teachings, common to different schools, was introduced to avoid the multiplicity of classes and spaces, as well as to promote cultural and social exchange between students.

The project was divided into several fundamental zones: school, student rooms, sports practice, exhibition stadium and common services. Likewise, the convenience of including an art museum with a double purpose was taken into account: didactic, for knowledge of the development of the arts -particularly in Mexico-, and dynamic, for the display of temporary exhibitions. It was determined that the complex was projected to accommodate a maximum of 25 thousand students, since on that date the UNAM had less than 15 thousand.

On November 20, 1953, the “Dedication of the University City” took place, a ceremony presided over by President Miguel Alemán Valdés, with which the official inauguration of the University City was carried out.

The move of the schools began in 1953, and was coordinated by Dr. Nabor Carrillo, who had taken office as rector in February of that year. The new rector faced two major problems: the completion of the University City buildings along with the supporting infrastructure and the budget expansion necessary for the move of the university schools. It was in March 1954 when school activities began on the new campus.

Inscription in the Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Its exceptionality lies in the fact that despite being a modern work, the past is present, it managed to amalgamate tradition with the avant-garde of the moment, and incorporate plastic conceptions into the buildings not as simple additions, but as an integral part of them., the landscape is decisive in its structuring, it appears as a general envelope and in particular it operates as an articulating element between the volumes that make up the complex. The harmonious arrangement of its buildings means that it is appreciated as a whole and not as a sum of isolated elements. It is worth highlighting that its constructions, being elevated from the surface, make it possible to be crossed by pedestrians at surface level, allowing for open and elucidated routes. integrators. The presence of compositional invariables such as those observed in Mesoamerican spaces is clear, it is a kind of Contemporary Monte Albán, the temples that surround the central patio are the CU faculties and schools, in fact they turn out to be the temples of knowledge.

The CU turns out to be a public, secular and free study center that in a country characterized by sharp social differences operates as an efficient instrument of social mobility, it is a material symbol of public education. From the choice of the site to build it, He presumed that what was done there presented a challenge, to build something original. Its location is Pedregal, a vast territory south of Mexico City impregnated with volcanic lava, with its peculiar vegetation, they were the inspiration of several artists including Diego Rivera and those who saw a creative potential, which was so dramatic, that landscape that was known like the bad country. Diego Rivera, deeply imbued with some of Frank Lloyd Wright's ideas in relation to the garden city, wrote a text for the occupation of the site. Later, it would be Luis Barragán who would manage to develop an urbanization in that area, naming it Jardines del Pedregal de San Ángel. In a section adjacent to that territory and covering an area of 730 hectares, the Mexican government during the 1940s decided to promote the construction of the University City of Mexico.

The best architects, engineers and artists of Mexico participated in this collective work: Mario Pani, Enrique del Moral, Carlos Lazo, Juan o Gorman, Alberto T. Arai, Ramón Torres, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Francisco Eppens, Félix Candela Javier Barros Sierra, among more than 200 co-authors. As a result of a national competition, one of the most modern schemes was chosen. This proposal created by students at the most advanced levels was wisely taken up by their teachers who managed to specify and integrate work teams for each building, Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral. were the authors of the master plan, in its construction experimentation with new materials, construction procedures and forms not yet applied was considered, they gave themselves the opportunity to take risks: Félix Candela with free-standing roofs, Juan O'Gorman with completely covering the four faces of the Central Library with a mural, Mario Pani by combining diverse materials in the Rectory Tower and applying innovative urban road schemes to the complex in general, Alberto T. Arai by recreating a Mesoamerican Archaeological zone in the pediments of the sports area, Luis Barragán when proposing the groupings and vegetal patches so characteristic of the site, Carlos Lazo when organizing and tempering the actions that arose between the actors of such a symphony. The central field was inaugurated on November 20, 1952, and has been the scene of various social movements such as the student movement of 1968 and other events such as the Olympic Games of the same year.

The growth of Mexico City and its constant morphological changes have made it one of the few references of an architecture that has remained almost the same as when it was conceived, finally it has become a reference not only in geographical aspects, but for its harmony and the vast presence of green areas, as part of which the Pedregal de San Ángel ecological reserve appears. In its entirety, the university city turns out to be the second largest area of land in Mexico City, 730 hectares that are only surpassed by the land that corresponds to the Mexico City International Airport. During 2005 it was granted the category of artistic monument of the nation and is currently part of the UNESCO world heritage list, with this attempt to provide a notion of living heritage, unlike other examples of the modern movement where unfortunately they only remain the testimonies of the buildings and do not continue active their original functions.

A dynamic action plan has been established to preserve without modifying, under schemes that activate its use, highlighting its vitality and validity, the notion of network has influenced a plan called that integral, whether physical or virtual networks, a A significant number of university activities are carried out under this criterion, pedestrian and public transport networks were created to activate the use of common spaces and put cars aside in remote parking lots, an action that guarantees the rational use of vehicles, considers the collective transportation inside the Campus and clears it of disturbing agents of the landscape, as well as harmful physical and visual barriers, it also does so with environmental and noise pollution, in turn physical mobility networks were built through bicycle circuits, cybernetic networks wireless.

In the list of UNESCO's cultural heritage of humanity, only three universities are part of it, accompanying Ciudad Universitaria de México the universities of Alcalá de Henares in Spain and the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. The category includes the first university circuit inaugurated in 1952 and its more than 50 buildings within the core area of 176.5 hectares, which represent 25% of the 730 total of the university campus. The limits of this area are: to the west the Olympic Stadium; to the south Los Frontones and the Sports Zone; to the east the Faculty of Medicine and to the north the buildings of the Faculties of Philosophy and Letters, Law, Economics and Dentistry. Registration was achieved thanks to the promotion led by Juan Ramón de la Fuente, former rector of the university, with the support of the university board, almost four years ago, which his appointment on June 28, 2007 represents the culmination of the desire of several generations of university students and connoisseurs, because the campus of the University City of Mexico was recognized as cultural heritage of humanity.

Master plan

The architectural draft originally contemplated dividing the university campus into three areas:

• The first, called the School Zone (subdivided in turn in other sections: Humanities, Sciences, Biological Sciences and Arts), built around an explanade with gardens in which the administrative buildings would be located.
• The second area would be for sports fields of various disciplines.
• And, finally, the area of the University Stadium, which in 1968 became the University Olympic Stadium.

The three areas were organized as rings within a so-called larger supermanzana. During the decades of its existence, the urbanized area of C.U. has been growing to accommodate a growing student, administrative and visitor population, originating the layout and construction of ever-growing rings, organizing the urbanization in concentric circuits. Because of this process, some of the original buildings do not maintain the functions that were initially assigned to them, since the Schools, Schools and Institutes that were hosting were relocated to the outer circuits, and their former buildings were occupied by the Schools and Schools that followed in the center of the university campus. Examples of this process of change of use are: the School of Veterinary Medicine (now the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnia) and the Faculty of Sciences, as well as the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences.

The projection and execution of the vialities in the master plan was carried out by Juan Durán, Jesús Domínguez, Edmundo Rojas González and Santiago Carro. The landscape was under the command of Alfonso Cuevas Alemán.

University Olympic Stadium and surrounding area

The Mexico 68 Olympic Stadium, built between 1950 and 1952 as part of the original master plan, was led by architects Augusto Pérez Palacios, Jorge Bravo and Raúl Salinas. His original name was only University. The decoration is Diego Rivera's artistic work. Originally it is home to the university teams of football and football association. The stadium changed its name in 1968 as it hosts the Olympic Games of that year. Thus, UNAM became the only university in the world in which such games had been held until then. Currently, it is home to the football teams professional association of the First Division of Mexico and First Division of Women of Mexico: Club Universidad Nacional y Club Universidad Nacional Femenil, and of the Pumas CU of the UNAM of football in the National Student Organization of American Football. It has capacity for 72,000 spectators.

Ecological reserve of Ciudad Universitaria

Approximately one third of the area of the University City is occupied by an ecological reserve: Ecological Reserve of the Pedregal of San Angel (237.3 ha). This protects an xerophile scrub ecosystem formed by the eruption of the Xitle volcano. In this reservation you can find a quite large variety of different animals including cacomixles, tlacuaches, Spanish rabbits and gray fox Also within the reserve are several sculptures that integrate into the landscape of the pedregal and the botanical garden of UNAM.

Internal transportation in Ciudad Universitaria

University City has its own internal transportation system. It is made up of 13 bus routes known as Pumabús, and a free bicycle loan system similar to a library ("biciteca" or "bicipuma") different stores in various parts of the City. The latter initially emerged in the Faculty of Medicine under the name "Puma on wheels" and later "bicipuma", after a year of operation it was extended to the other sites of Ciudad Universitaria.