Max Cetto

Max Cetto

Max Ludwig Cetto (February 20, 1903 – April 5, 1980) was a German-Mexican architect, historian of architecture, and professor.

Born in Koblenz, Germany, Max Cetto studied at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Munich and Berlin. At the latter he studied with Hans Poelzig, graduating as an engineer–architect in 1926. In 1932 he took part in the competition for the design of the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva. Founder-member CIAM (Congrés Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne), 1928. He moved to San Francisco in 1938, where he worked in the studio of Richard Neutra.

Married Gertrud Catarina Kramis in 1940; children: Verónica, Ana María, and Bettina Cetto. He settled in Mexico and became a naturalized Mexican in 1947. As well as having a natural affinity with Mexico, he was able to incorporate his European experiences into what he built there. The respect for nature he had learnt from Neutra is evident in his handling of the volcanic terrain of the Jardines del Pedregal, Mexico City, where he collaborated with Luis Barragán, constructing various houses amid the impressive scenery of the place without disturbing the volcanic lava or the vegetation. He also showed skill and great sensitivity in using the materials and techniques of the region.

Notable examples of his work there are the studio house of 1944 for the surrealist painter Wolfgang Paalen in San Angel, his own house (1949) and that built in 1951 for the painter Roberto Berdecio (b 1910). These and other houses elsewhere, where he combined a Modernist approach with a respect for ecology, were highly influential in Mexican domestic architecture. He was Professor of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, from 1965 to 1979. †Mexico City, 1980.