What were Aztec Architects Doing on November 1, 1519?

What were Aztec Architects doing on November 1, 1519? A View of the Accomplishments of the Precolumbian Design Professions on the Eve of the Arrival of Hernan Cortés. A small library could be filled with literature depicting the barbaric exploits of the early inhabitants of the Americas. Only a few volumes would actually deal with their positive accomplishments. And, probably of these, just a handful would cover art and design topics. This paper presents art, architecture, and design attitudes in Precolumbian America in the early 1500’s. Who were the designers? What were their motivations? What were some of the key design principles they followed? What did they really invent and contribute to the larger world of urban design and architecture? In the case of the Aztecs, being the group we most know of today, can we talk about great achievements at the larger urban design scale? What can we learn from the architects and designers that created a new world metropolis that dwarfed Paris, Madrid or Rome and where one could “see things never seen before, not even in dreams”. The paper has two parts: first, there is a presentation on the origins, development and design contributions of the Aztecs. The second part investigates the human angle: a) who or what was behind the design contributions, b) what were designers thinking and c) how they approached creativity. All the illustrations that accompany the paper were digitally generated by the author based on recent archaeological data from the Aztec Templo Mayor project.

Volume Editors
David Covo & Gabriel Mérigo Basurto

ISBN
0-935502-57-2