Departing from the ambivalence inherent in the term vecindad, this thesis argues that the study of a domestic architectural typology can become a framework through which the history and structure of a city may be read. Vecindad is commonly translated as ‘neighbourhood’ and is cognate with vecino, which means both ‘neighbour’ and ‘nearby’, thus alluding to proximity and relationships of closeness. At the same time, a vecindad in Mexico is a building typology that groups households around a central street or courtyard. As such, the thesis investigates the history of domestic space and its redistribution through the popular yet disappearing vecindades of the city centre, characterised by groups that share a common domesticity.The notion of vicinity is central to the thesis’s argument and is examined within the historical and legislative context of housing in Mexico City, from the pre-colonial period to the present day. The research acknowledges an indigenous Mexican tradition of household collectivity and city-making that endured and actively informed centuries of Spanish colonialism and subsequent political reform.The investigation traces the history of Mexico City through the exploration of three distinct urban and architectural categories and their development over time: the grid, the urban block and the house. Each category finds a dialectical counterpart in indigenous Mesoamerican ideologies embodied in Nahua cultures: the altepetl, tlaxilacalli and calli. Their study within colonial and later republican Mexico City offers an alternative reading of habitation and of the housing legislation and reforms that followed. The thesis also follows the changing identities of inhabitants, paying close attention to how these inform the redistribution of space and the use of housing and services as a result of necessity rather than design.

Lola is a practising architect working between London and Mexico City. She graduated from the AA Diploma Programme after completing her undergraduate studies at Newcastle University. She later completed her PhD at the Architectural Association while continuing to teach at several UK institutions. She is Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, where she co-leads DS7 on the MArchD, and has also taught at the University of Westminster, the Bartlett and the AA.