It was only after the Mexican War of Independence that the Indian fountain sprang forth. It was only after the expulsion of the Spanish crown that the zeitgeist of Mexican art turned to its ancient past with justified fear. Since then, painters, writers, and architects have drawn inspiration from…

It was only after the Mexican War of Independence that the Indian fountain sprang forth. It was only after the expulsion of the Spanish crown that the zeitgeist of Mexican art turned to its ancient past with justified fear. Since then, painters, writers, and architects have drawn inspiration from this lineage. Mexican modernism and muralism drew on the pre-Hispanic current and mixed it with the sensibility of their time, in pursuit of national identity. From a vein of this river emerged Agustín Hernández."
Tezontle Studio & Luis Orozco Madero

Praxis, Agustín Hernández is the fourth book in a series dedicated to some of our favorite architects, the houses they build, and the stories they tell.

Born in 1924, Agustín Hernández came of age as an architect in Mexico, as modernist ideas merged with a renewed pride in the country’s past. He was one of the first to combine the symbols, myths, and urban planning principles of pre-Columbian civilizations to create imposing architectural monuments that retain their avant-garde character to this day—from the military academy he built as a modern Mayan ceremonial ground to the remote meditation center commissioned by his sister, based on serpent symbolism, to the home-studio he built for himself in 1975: Praxis, a geometric treehouse that still dominates Mexico City’s Bosques de las Lomas neighborhood.

"It was only after the Mexican War of Independence that the Indian fountain sprang forth. Only after the Spanish crown was expelled did the zeitgeist of Mexican art look to its ancient past with overdue awe. Ever since, painters, writers, and architects have drawn inspiration from this bloodline. Mexican modernism and muralism both took the pre-Hispanic undercurrent and blended it with the sensitivity of their time, in the pursuit of national identity. Hernández.”

Tezontle Studio & Luis Orozco Madero

Praxis, Agustín Hernández is the fourth book in a series devoted to some of our favorite architects, the houses they build, and the stories behind them.

Born in 1924, Agustín Hernández came of age as an architect in Mexico as modernist ideas coalesced with a renewed pride in the country's past. He was a frontrunner in combining the symbols, myths, and urban planning principles of pre-Columbian civilizations to create imposing architectural monuments that even today retain their avant-garde nature—from the military academy he built as a modern-day Mayan ceremonial ground to the remote meditation center commissioned by his sister, based on the symbolism of the snake, and the studio-home that he built for himself in 1975: Praxis, a geometric treehouse that still towers over the Bosques de las Lomas neighborhood of Mexico City.

Publisher: Apartment

Weight: 0.5 kg
Dimensions: 17 x 2 x 24 cm
Language: English