Mexico’s Concrete Block Landscape: A Modern Legacy in the Vernacular

Concrete block structures are a common sight on Mexico’s landscape. Roughly 70% of the country’s urban houses and an increasing number of rural dwellings are composed of blocks. For such a widespread and popular building material, however, there are few studies that explore the history, scale-of-use/production, political economy, social or cultural impact, or wide-ranging outcomes of a block dominated built environment. In an attempt to understand the history and current distribution of concrete blocks and concrete block structures on Mexico’s landscape this paper: (1) discusses the historical use and development of concrete blocks in Mexico; (2) explores different representations of blocks and how these have changed over time; and (3) situates Mexico’s contemporary block landscape in a vernacular context. In doing so, the article demonstrates that, like other human landscapes, concrete block landscapes are representations of history, culture, society, and individual actions.