- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Architecture
Full Description
The plaza has been a defining feature of Mexican urban architecture and culture for at least 4,000 years. Ancient Mesoamericans conducted most of their communal life in outdoor public spaces, and today the plaza is still the public living room in every Mexican neighborhood, town, and city-the place where friends meet, news is shared, and personal and communal rituals and celebrations happen. The site of a community's most important architecture-church, government buildings, and marketplace-the plaza is both sacred and secular space and thus the very heart of the community.
This extensively illustrated book traces the evolution of the Mexican plaza from Mesoamerican sacred space to modern public gathering place. The authors led teams of volunteers who measured and documented nearly one hundred traditional Mexican town centers. The resulting plans reveal the layers of Mesoamerican and European history that underlie the contemporary plaza. The authors describe how Mesoamericans designed their ceremonial centers as embodiments of creation myths-the plaza as the primordial sea from which the earth emerged. They discuss how Europeans, even though they sought to eradicate native culture, actually preserved it as they overlaid the Mesoamerican sacred plaza with the Renaissance urban concept of an orthogonal grid with a central open space. The authors also show how the plaza's historic, architectural, social, and economic qualities can contribute to mainstream urban design and architecture today.
Contents
Authors' Note
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. The Primordial Sea: Forming Open Space in Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican Concept of Space
Mountains and Altepetls
Caves, Quatrefoils, and Sunken Courts
Types of Open Space in Mesoamerica
Triad Centering
U-shaped Courts
Quadrangles
Quincunx: Symbol of the Cosmos
Ballcourts
The Sunken Court of TeopantecuanitlÁn
The Dallas Plaque: A Cosmogram
Chapter Two. Forming Spanish Towns in Mesoamerican Culture
People and Ideas
The Invasion
The Europeans Making Contact
European Plazas in the Early Sixteenth Century
Origins of the Plaza
Building New World Towns
Types of Towns
First Acts and Encounters
Laws of the Indies
Conversion
Quincunx Patios
Relaciones GeogrÁficas
Chapter Three. Sixteenth-Century Communal Open Spaces (Five Hundred Years Later)
Caves and Crevices
Amecameca, State of MÉxico
Zoquizoquipan, Hidalgo
Valladolid, YucatÁn
Quincunxial Arrangements
Atlatlahuacan, Morelos
Huejotzingo, Puebla
Huaquechula, Puebla
Zacualpan de Amilpas, Morelos
Terraced Mountains
Molango, Hidalgo
Achiutla, Oaxaca
YanhuitlÁn, Oaxaca
Sunken Courts
TepoztlÁn, Morelos
Tochimilco, Puebla
Calpan, Puebla
Ballcourts and Bullrings
Villa DÍaz Ordaz, Oaxaca
Tlanalapa, Hidalgo
Tepeapulco, Hidalgo
Open Space Ensembles
Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca
Tlacolula, Oaxaca
Otumba de GÓmez FarÍas, State of MÉxico
Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca
Tepeaca, Puebla
Etla, Oaxaca
Bishop Quiroga's Utopias in MichoacÁn
Tzintzuntzan, MichoacÁn
PÁtzcuaro, MichoacÁn
Santa Fe de la Laguna, MichoacÁn
ErongarÍcuaro, MichoacÁn
Angahuan, MichoacÁn
Visible Overlays and Deliberate Alignments
Mitla, Oaxaca
Hacienda Xaaga, Oaxaca
Teposcolula, Oaxaca
Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca
Epazoyucan, Hidalgo
The YucatÁn Experience
YotholÍn, YucatÁn
TibolÓn, YucatÁn
Izamal, YucatÁn
Chapter Four. Origins and Evolution
Epilogue: Plazas in the Twenty-first Century
The San Miguel Example
Qualities of Successful Plazas
Sprawl and the American Myth
Appendix. Measured Drawings: Plans of Towns
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
