Miranda, Ignacio de, editor.

[MEXICO'S ARCHITECTURAL VOICE] El Arquitecto: Organo de la Sociedad de Arquitectos Mexicanos [The Architect: Organ of the Mexican Society of Architects]. Nos. 1 and 2.

Mexico City, August and December 1933. Quartos (ca. 27.8 × 23.2 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 38 and 6, [4], 7-28 pp. with numerous photographic illustrations. Wrappers slightly toned, spines lightly rubbed; title page is loose in the August issue; else very good. Item #55761

Two issues of the rare Mexican architectural journal that was published from 1923 to 1933 as the official organ of the national architects' association, the Sociedad de Arquitectos Mexicanos (SAM). The periodical addressed both an internal audience (the members of the association) and an external readership of prospective clients. In addition to the journal, individual books were also published, among them a directory of building materials together with their suppliers. The journal furthermore advocated for the professional and political interests of Mexican architects, who found themselves confronted on one hand with a loss of standing relative to engineers, and on the other with competition from foreign architects. A prominent example of this is the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the centre of Mexico City, for the design of which the Italian architect Adamo Boari had been commissioned in the late nineteenth century. (On this and the following: Georg Leidenberger, Tres revistas mexicanas de arquitectura: Portavoces de la modernidad, 1923-1950, >htt ps://w ww.scielo.org.mx/pdf/aiie/v34n101/v34n101a5.pdf<, June 4, 2026.)

The journal sought to counter this trend, in part by documenting buildings designed by Mexican architects.
The final volume, from which we are able to offer the two issues, reflects an opening of the journal towards the new currents of modernism – tendencies that had previously played little role in the publications of the conservative SAM. The typography, too, was redesigned in this final volume. Nevertheless, the focus remained firmly on Mexican architecture, and international developments were covered with a degree of hesitation. Worth highlighting in the two issues at hand are, for example, a richly illustrated article on Diego Rivera, one on Aztec temples, and one on the currents of Functionalism.

Ilk, Global Avantgarde p. 276, no. 25.

As of June 2026, KVK and OCLC list only one complete run in North America; otherwise, only earlier years are found in five North American libraries.

Price: €450.00

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