Alberto Kalach lecture

A Current Work lecture by Mexican architect Alberto Kalach.

October 15, 2012

Recorded on October 14, 2012.

Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art.

One of the most versatile and prolific architectural voices in Mexico City today, Alberto Kalach co-founded Taller de Arquitectura X, or TAX, in 1981.

Kalach works collaboratively, completing projects ranging from residential commissions to civic structures with firms such as Teodoro González de León and Jose Castillo. His award-winning Jose Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City is the largest public library in Latin America.

Kalach’s concern for the problems of his vast native city has inspired projects at a range of scales, from his minimal $5,000 houses to housing developments and urban master plans. His most ambitious speculative plan, México Ciudad Futura, is the largest project ever conceived for Mexico City. The visionary scheme to rejuvenate the city’s environmental and social dynamics through the rescue of the dry Texcoco lake bed, just 10 kilometers away from the city center, was awarded a special prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale.

Kalach has lectured and taught at universities throughout Central and North America and Western Europe. His work is the subject of a monograph from the series Contemporary World Architects, published by Rockport Publishers.

 

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