Jardines del Pedregal
Jardines del Pedregal (English: Rocky Gardens) or simply El Pedregal (full name: El Pedregal de San Angel) is an upscale residential colonia (neighborhood) in southern Mexico City hosting one of the richest mansions of the city. It borders are San Jerónimo Avenue and Ciudad Universitaria at the north, Insurgentes Avenue at the east and Periférico at south and west. Its 1,250 acres (5.1 km2) were the major real estate project undertaken by Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán. When it was originally developed, in the mid-1940s in the lava fields of the Pedregal de San Ángel, it was probably the biggest urban development the city had seen. The first house to be built here was the studio/home of architect Max Cetto.
The area has changed a lot since its original development but even as its modernist spirit and its original elements of ecosystem protection are gone critics have described its original development, the houses and gardens as a turning point in Mexican architecture. Some of the old modernist houses have been catalogued as part of Mexico’s national patrimony.
The Pedregal lava fields were formed by the eruption of the Xitle volcano around 5000 BC, but there are documented eruptions until 400 AD.
The area near what is currently el Pedregal, called Cuicuilco, was inhabited since ca. 1700 BC. Around 300 BC, the area contained what was probably the biggest city in the Valley of Mexico at the time. Its importance started to decline around the 100 BC and was completely empty by 400 AD.
In the mid-1940s Luis Barragán began a project to urbanize the area and protect its ecosystem. Barragán had the idea of developing El Pedregal promoting the harmony between architecture and landscape. The first structures built on the site were the Plaza de las Fuentes, or Plaza of the Fountains, the demonstration gardens and demonstration houses by Barragán and Max Cetto. Other famous architects that contributed to the development of Pedregal include: Francisco Artigas, Enrique Castañeda Tamborrell, José María Buendía, Antonio Attolini, Fernando Ponce Pino, Oscar Urrutia and Manuel Rosen.“Los Jardines del Pedregal de San Ángel, un legado de la modernidad arquitectónica 1947-1962”
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