Alberto Arai

Who was Alberto Arai?

Alberto T. Arai was a Mexican architect, theorist and writer, of Japanese descent.

Born in Mexico City, the son of a Japanese ambassador in Mexico, Dr. Kinta Arai, Alberto T. Arai studied also philosophy, espousing Neo-Kantianism and becoming politically a socialist artist. He became a supporter of Functionalism, with its emphasis on the social applications of architecture, and was also a founder, with Enrique Yañez, of the Unión de Arquitectos Socialistas, helping to draw up a socialist theory of architecture. He was one of the most active participants and attempted to put his socialist theory into practice on two unexecuted projects in the same year: the building for the Confederation of Mexican Workers and the Ciudad Obrera de México, both with Enrique Guerrero and Raúl Cacho, and his social worries on the unexecuted General Hospital project. His urbanistic knowledge give him the opportunity to make urban planning to several cities along the country.

Later, when Mexico opted for a developmental policy, Arai became a standard-bearer for nationalism in architecture.