Hermann Zweigenthal, Herman Herrey. Memoria y actualidad de un arquitecto exiliado austriaco-alemán

Abstract

The biography of the architect Hermann Herrey, creator of the traffic circulation system which was applied in the layout of the unam's campus (Ciudad Universitaria) and the Mexico City suburb, Ciudad Satélite, is still little known to historians of architecture and town planning. This architect of Austrian origin, whose original name was Hermann Zweigenthal, was an important figure on the architectural scene in Germany during the 1920s, where, under the direction of Hans Poelzing, he specialized in theatre architecture and road planning. These two apparently unrelated —but actually closely involved— specialties also informed the theoretical work he developed during his exile from 1933 onward (when Zweigenthal Changed his surname to Herrey). In New York, he worked, in close collaboration with his wife Erna, a physicist, on an analysis of the capital's traffic problem for which they offered a proposed solution. This study, which was innovatory for its time, revealed an integral approach to planning which is still valid today. The article proceeds, via a review of Zweigenthal-Herrey's biography, to reflect on the eco-esthetic parameters of present-day urban planning.