Page 163 - Libro Max Cetto

In Cetto’s Proximity Bettina Cetto

Fig. 2 Melchor Ocampo 38.
Photo: Rafael Gamo (2018).
At that time in Mexico City, there was a boom in the construction of houses and
apartment buildings for the rental market, which had to be built quickly and cheaply and
deliver a modern look that satisfied the tastes of Mexico’s growing middle class. Cetto desig-
ned several of these buildings, not only for Luis Barragán but, above all, for the young Yuca-
9
tecan architect Jorge Rubio, as attested by the floor plans, section drawings, facade variants
and interior perspective notes for over twelve projects that can be found in the Max Cetto
Archive at the uam Azcapotzalco. Designs of staircases and fireplaces are abundant, but we
can also find original and color axonometric projections of facades, annotated floor plans
and sketches of the excellent building at Río Lerma 147, designed and built with Barragán.
This period has been scarcely studied and analyzed, both in the case of Luis Barragán as
well as in those of Jorge Rubio and Max Cetto. The former even dismissed this work in later
10
interviews, describing it as consisting of “little buildings,” “nothing outstanding.” This is
unfortunate because any serious scholar or lover of his work would want to learn about his
architectural language during this time, that transition from his Guadalajara period (prior
to 1935) to when, a decade later, he designed the Pedregal de San Ángel subdivision and
its model gardens, and soon afterward, the Prieto López house and his own residence, the
latter in the Tacubaya neighborhood. With regard to the talented Yucatecan architect Ru-
bio, as far as I am aware, it is because his work in general has not been properly studied; he
died quite prematurely. In Cetto’s case, he never claimed as his own those works that were
commissioned to him as an employee, although he clearly didn’t spend the years between
1939 and 1945 with his arms crossed.

9 As recounted by Cetto in the last interview published during his lifetime: Gómez, “Entrevista con el arquitecto Max L.
Cetto,” 119.
10 Anaya, “Luis Barragán’s Forgotten Works, Revisited.”

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