Leído en una tesis

Acknowledgements

This thesis would have not been possible without the support of many people. I thank very much my supervisors Laura Hanks and Raymond Quek for their constant and illuminating advice.

I express thanks to CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) and SEP (Secretaría de Educación Pública) the Mexican institutions that funded these studies. I am grateful with The University of Nottingham especially the School of the Built Environment and the Graduate School for providing an excellent place to build this academic experience. I thank especially Gullermo Guzmán, a man that knows how to make the difference. I thank also Liz Bromley-Smith, Stephen Platt, Swinal Samant, and Bradley Starkey, for kindly consider my help for their courses.

The research could not have been done without the opportune suggestions of different scholars. Jonathan Hale, my initial supervisor, for his way of presenting me paths and the oportunity of working in the Centre for Research in Architectural Culture (CRAC). Giuseppe Basile, for his insights about aspects of Brandi’s theories. Rene Tobe, for her opportune recommendations about Ricoeur. Concepción Márquez, for her way to estimulate me to explore philosophy as a way of life. Ricardo Martínez, for his original vision of some essences of architecture. I thank also Anna Maria Guiducci, Paolo Fancelli and Gabriela Switek, for dissinterestedly providing me with information that helped to enrich the research. I express gratitude for the support of José Manuel Mijares and Jesús Aguirre Cárdenas in UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). I am grateful for the support of collegues in Nottingham Trent University in the School of the Built Environment, especially Helen Beswick, Paul Collins, Guillermo Garma, Marisela Mendoza and Alina Hughes, for providing me with another place to share this research and the invaluable oportunity of teaching with them.

I show appreciation especially to Michael Bernie, Vale Carnevale, Rachel Grigor, Julie Godefroy and Diana Meraz Avila, for their help with proof reading and typing.

One occupies a unique space, however; time is what we share; many thanks to my good friends Deborah Adkins, Liliana Campos, Guillermo Guzmán, Mauricio Hernández, Nina Hormazábal, Ricardo Martínez, Marisela Mendoza, Verónica Pinilla, Francesco Proto, Salvador Rodríguez, Florian Schepp and Maureen Trebilcock for sharing yours. I thank in a special way all the members of the Brotherhood of the Red Wine for having shared those Fridays to cultivate the friendship and to care about each other.

Finally, I want to thank my family, especially my wife Vale, the excellent woman behind my work, without whom this would have never happened; my daughters Diana and Valeria who experienced with love my absence in my presence, and my parents, Rosario and Fidel, my sister Diana and my brother Diego, for their always-inconditional support.