Modeling the Urban Commune: Collective Housing, Utopian Architecture, and Social Reproduction in the Mexican 1930s

This article discusses a utopian architecture project presented by the Unión de Arquitectos Socialistas (UAS) in 1938 titled Proyecto de ciudad obrera para México DF. The UAS architects designed a city for industrial workers organized around cooperative principles and common property. The article situates the project in the period's broader discussions on social housing and the industrializing political program of President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-40). Drawing on social-reproduction theorists, I analyze the project's political and architectural position, as well as the potentials and limits of its proposal to collectivize social-reproduction responsibilities that were normally placed on the family, such as cleaning, cooking, and childcare. Finally, the article charts the project's later influence in social-housing debates and experiments in Mexico.