Cited as one of the most versatile and prolific architectural voices in Mexico City today, Alberto Kalach co-founded the firm Taller de Arquitectura X (TAX) in 1981. Kalach works collaboratively, completing projects from residential commissions to civic structures with firms and contemporaries such as Teodoro González de León, Juan Palomar, Tonatiuh Martínez, Gustavo Lipkau, and Jose Castillo, among others. His award-winning Jose Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City remains the largest public library in Latin America.

Kalach’s concern for the emerging 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. Kalach’s 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’s center, was awarded a special prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale.

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

Moderated by Brad Cloepfil. Cloepfil is an architect, educator, and principal of Allied Works.

Support

This lecture is co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union.

The Architectural League is pleased to acknowledge the support of TRESPA for this Current Work lecture. This program is additionally supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.