Lecture: Alberto Kalach of Taller de Arquitectura X

Monday, October 15, 2012, 7 - 8:30pm

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Taller de Arquitectura X--Mexico Public Library | Mexico City, 2005-2011

Taller de Arquitectura X--Mexico Public Library | Mexico City, 2005-2011

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Taller de Arquitectura X--Reforma 27 | Mexico City, 2007-2010

Taller de Arquitectura X--Reforma 27 | Mexico City, 2007-2010

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Taller de Arquitectura X--House in Nanjing | CHINA, 2005

Taller de Arquitectura X--House in Nanjing | CHINA, 2005

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.

Introduced and moderated by Brad Cloepfil, architect, educator, and principal of allied works.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Architectural League of New York.

FREE for current students/faculty/staff of The Cooper Union and League members; $15 for non-members. For more information on ticketing please go here.

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