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Founder of the Colegio de Arquitectos de México in 1946, Mario Pani (Mexico City, 1911–1993) was the architect who most contributed to the design and construction of the current configuration of Mexico City, whose legacy transcends by going beyond architecture projecting in the context of social life.

In the midst of the so-called “Mexican miracle”, the vertiginous population growth in the country caught Pani’s attention, who began to take an interest in popular housing. According to his approach, the unavoidable urban densification had to take into account a balance between the needs of modernity and improvement in the quality of life of inhabitants.

His vision on functionality ranged from residences and condominiums to hospitals, schools, hotels and urbanization plans. Among his projects that promoted this concept are the large-scale ones such as UNAM’s Ciudad Universitaria (1952) —in co-authorship with Enrique del Moral— and Ciudad Satélite (1954), and later buildings such as the Torre Insignia (1962) and the Conjunto Urbano Nonoalco Tlatelolco apartment complex (1963).

He is also known for his work of dissemination, through magazine Arquitectura (1948). He was a member of the international jury of the São Paulo Biennial in 1951 and received, among others, the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in 1986.