Luis Barragán

Summary of Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán is Mexico's most celebrated Modern architect. By infusing the minimalist International Style with influences drawn from traditional Mediterranean architecture, the Moorish monuments of North Africa, and the rural "ranch style" that had provided the backdrop to his youth, he effectively unshackled Mexican architecture from the colonial legacy of Beaux-Arts and Neoclassicism. Referring to himself as a "landscape architect", Barragán's residences and complexes drew international recognition and praise for (amongst other things) their seamless unification of interior and exterior space. A man of strong Catholic faith, Barragán's ultimate aim was to create structures that inspired contemplation and introspection, with his serene play on color, light, shadow, and texture, allowing for an element of spiritualism to enrich the experience of modern living.

Accomplishments

• Barragán's architecture took the principles of European Modernism and rooted them firmly in Mexican culture and tradition. In doing so, he created a unique native style that introduced earthy Latin American artisanship to the international stage.
• Barragán's name is associated with a style of "emotional architecture". He believed that architects could do more than work towards technical and functional solutions. For Barragán, "true architecture" must both complement its surroundings, and express beauty through concepts of "serenity, silence, intimacy, and amazement".
• Light, colour and volume were cornerstones of Barragán's artistic vision. He augmented his functional designs with precise concentrations of primary colour, and dynamic light and shade effects, with the goal of arousing positive mood affects.
• Barragán's lifelong love of horses manifested itself in his so-called"equestrian trilogy". His Egerstrom House, for example, doubled as a family home and equestrian compound. Designed with his customary minimalist styling, his choice of vivid pink and blue coloring contrasted beautifully with the building's surrounding landscape. Featuring a spectacular courtyard water pool, moreover, Barragán created an altar-like space dedicated to horses; an animal he believed possessed spiritual characteristics.

The Life of Luis Barragán

Progression of Art

Biography of Luis Barragán

Childhood

The third of nine children, Luis Barragán Morfín was born into a strict Catholic family in Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city. His parents, Juan José Barragán and Ángela Morfín, owned large areas of land, including a ranch in the Sierra del Tigre mountain range. He spent much of his early life on the ranch and regularly attended small town fiestas and local marketplaces. The Mexican Revolution (1910-20) had a significant financial impact on the family estate once they became subject to new expropriation laws (the action by the leading state authority of appropriating private property for public benefit). But it was on the family ranch that Barragán fostered his lifelong love of equestrianism and rural Mexican life.

Early Training and Work

Barragán studied architecture and engineering at Guadalajara's, Escuela Libre de Ingenieros college. With a financial gift from his parents, he embarked on a tour of Europe in the early 1920s. The trip opened his eyes to new artistic and philosophical paradigms, not least the industrial "modern style of architecture" he came across at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs world's fair in Paris in 1925. Barragán was especially impressed with Le Corbusier's L'Esprit Nouveau Pavilion, and Konstantin Melnikov's Constructivist Soviet Pavilion. Historian Emilio Ambasz adds that it was during this tour that he discovered the writings of Ferdinand Bac, a Franco-German landscape architect who would become one of his greatest influences. As Ambasz explains, "Bac's influence upon Barragán was more one of attitude than of form, but his philosophic and poetic images conjured up for Barragán a vision that never left him: the garden as a magic place for the enjoyment of meditation and companionship". (Barragán would single out Bac as a major influence in his Pritzker Architecture Prize acceptance speech some 55 years later.)

On his return home in 1927, Barragán established his own practice in Guadalajara. His name soon became linked with The Tapatía School of Architecture (La Escuela Tapatía de Arquitectura), a movement that thrived between 1926 and 1936. As architecture historian Karina Zatarian explains, "The Tapatíos were enamored by artisanal traditions, and the movement came to be characterized by stark geometries, locally sourced materials, patios, ample hallways, fountains, and the blurring of interior and exterior spaces, a predilection facilitated by Guadalajara's perpetually forgiving climate".

Barragán's early buildings brought vernacular Mediterranean and Mexican features - garden patios, rooftop terraces, enclosed courtyards, and artisanal patterning - to modern European minimalism. His original take on the International Style gained him widespread notice within the industry when his residences were featured in international publications such as Architectural Record.

Following the death of his father in 1930, Barragán assumed control of the family business. A year later he traveled to New York where he stayed for three months. During this time, he became friends with the legendary Mexican Muralist, José Clemente Orozco (who was living in the city in exile). Barragán travelled on to Paris where he attended lectures by Le Corbusier and met with Bac (who had recently garnered international plaudits for transforming an 18^th century Mediterranean farmhouse into a magnificent Neoclassical villa that blended seamlessly with the natural surroundings of the French Riviera).

In Spain, Barragán became captivated by the beautifully intricate gardens of La Alhambra, and the Moroccan Moorish architecture - white stucco facades, red-tiled roofs, clover-shaped and cusped arches, interior garden courtyards, and hand-glazed tiling - he discovered in European travel books (he would not travel to North Africa until the early 1950s). These features would become staples of his architectural vision: spiritual and contemplative spaces that blended with the natural beauty of their surroundings.

Mature Period

In 1936 (perhaps prompted by the fact that his radical design for a local public park had attractant fierce hostility) Barragán relocated from Guadalajara to Mexico City. A metropolis in the throes of rapid urbanization, Mexico City presented fresh opportunities for architectural innovation. The many buildings Barragán designed during this period, including the apartment complex on Plaza Melchor Ocampo (1939-41) with the German modernist, Max Cetto, are distinguished by their meticulous detailing and innovative spatial uses, and especially the manipulation of building facades to emphasize transparent planar qualities. However, as architecture critic Suleman Anaya writes, "Sometimes called Barragán's functionalist years, these works have become unfairly forgotten footnotes in his storied career. Barragán distanced himself from his early Mexico City output. In a telling 1962 interview, he refers to his creations from this period as "'edificitos' [little buildings], 'nothing great'".

By the early 1940s, Barragán had become temporarily disillusioned with architecture. He wrote to all his existing clients to inform them that he was stepping away from the profession, explaining later how he had felt "enormously demoralized and humiliated by clients, who didn't pay my fees and treated me patronizingly". But rather than turn his back on architecture completely, Barragán moved from commissioned work into independent architectural and urban projects, often working in close consultation with the "folk painter", Jesús "Chucho" Reyes.

Barragán had by now adapted to the role of real estate investor and developer and, in 1945, purchased a cheap plot of land at Pedregal de San Angel, a suburb of Mexico C ity. He commenced work on Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel (Gardens of del Pedregal de San Angel) almost immediately. Barragán's goal was to bring beauty to a sprawling area of rock formation that was hitherto considered too inhospitable to be built upon. Architecture historian, Marella Santangelo, writes, "Barragán devoted seven long years to this enterprise [...] surrounding himself with a group of architects who then cooperated on its construction [and also involved] artists like Diego Rivera and Mathias Goeritz . The complex [...] was meant to be the symbolic district of a new Mexican middle class, but also of a rising political and professional class. The plan designed by Barragán, had a topographic layout, with roads, plazas, walls and gardens that followed the shapes of the land, ponds and lakes to which he gave names and hierarchies, also establishing rules and standards. But the main idea behind the whole project was that of the garden, both artificial and natural, merging into an immense 'Eden'".

Although not a commercial success, Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel was hailed as a triumph of urban design and planning. Indeed, Barragán's reputation had grown to the extent that he was eliciting favorable comparisons with Brazil's legendary landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx. Furthermore, Barragán had worked with the German expatriate, Goeritz, for the first time. Goeritz's striking sculpture, El animal de Pedregal, a pre-historic-like serpent carved in concrete, adorned the main entrance of the complex. The art critic, Graciela Kartofel writes, "[Goeritz was] already in Mexico, more precisely in Guadalajara, when his dialog with architect Luis Barragán began. [...] Barragán told him: 'What a pity you are a painter, what Mexico lacks is sculptors.' Immediately, Mathias began to research how to learn those skills. [...] This was the origin of many commissions and personal proposals for Goeritz's sculptures". Barragán and Goeritz bonded over their strong spiritual leanings and would develop a close professional and personal relationship that lasted over the next two decades.

Barragán settled into his new home-cum-studio, Casa Luis Barragán (The Barragán House), in 1948. It served both as a personal manifesto (of his architectural philosophy) and a workshop for future experimentation. In contrast to the Jardines del Pedregal project (which he designed for the new Mexican middles class), his house was located on a small street in the City's old Tacubaya district. This working class neighborhood was characterized by clusters of modest homes and local businesses developed in the manner of 16^th century vecindades. (Initially built on a grandiose scale for wealthy patrons, vecindades were later renovated to accommodate working class families in a series of basic apartments that share a communal courtyard or patio. Vecindades were a cornerstone of urban Latin American life.) Casa Luis Barragán, now a museum, is summed up in its promotional literature as "the dwelling of an artist [...] paradoxically humble and intentionally anonymous".

Late Period

In 1952, Barragán completed the new chapel for the Capuchin Convent Chapel (Capilla del convento de las Capuchinas Sacramentarias del Purísimo Corazón de María to give it its full title) in Tlalpán. Revered for its "sublime simplicity" and Barragán's feel for the interplay between light and shadow, the chapel featured lattice work and stained glass windows designed by Goeritz, and a display of several painted works by Reyes. Although never completed, Barragán also worked on urban developments in the Manzanillo area on Mexico's Pacific coast during the same period. In 1955 he saw the completion of his Jardines del Bosque residential complex in Guadalajara, and the gardens for the Hotel Pierre Marques, in Acapulco.

In 1957 Barragán took part in the creation of another urban development, the Club de Golf Hacienda. It was followed a year later with Las Arboledas, a "residential subdivision" of Mexico City. Designed with ranch life in mind, it would mark the start of Barragán's so-called "equestrian trilogy". Ambasz explains, "The land on which Las Arboledas stands was once a ranch that Barragán, with a few partners, bought and subdivided. The raison d'etre of this project, and of [the other two] which were to follow, was the horse. The residents were expected to be, first of all, horsemen. Barragán designed the streets, established building norms and created all public gardens and fountains. Special paths for horses and gathering places for riders were delineated. The French Riding School came to establish itself here. For the School, Barragán created a series of walled enclosures, watering troughs, fountains and pools, all around and through a majestic avenue of eucalyptus trees, once the ranch's main approach".

In 1964 Barragán began work on his Los Clubes subdivision, the second part of his equestrian trilogy. It followed a similar formula to Las Arboledas. Ambasz writes, "As a symbol, he designed a heroically scaled fountain for horses [...] A long pink stucco wall assumes here the role of an abstract frieze against which the profiles of approaching horsemen turn into dynamic bas reliefs. On one side, two walls meet to create an echo chamber where hoofbeats mark a rhythm against the water's gushing basso continuo". Also, in 1964, Barragán and (fellow architect) Juan Sordo Madaleno, were commissioned to develop a master plan for a new town with a projected population of 100,000 on the outskirts of Mexico City. Their blueprint was completed in 1967, but the final development veered considerably from the original design. Nevertheless, the original master plan was preserved for posterity when it was published in the magazine, Arquitectos de México (1967).

In 1968, Barragán saw the completion of San Cristobal, an estate within his Los Clubes subdivision commissioned by the Swedish businessman Folke Egerstrom who, with his wife, reared and trained thoroughbred racehorses. The final part of his equestrian trilogy, it featured a stable, horse pool, swimming pool and a residential property.

Between 1969 and 1973 he worked on several similarly ambitious projects, including the El Palomar complex in Guadalajara. Barragán's last fully completed commissioned work, Casa Gilardi, was built in 1974 and showcased his skill at integrating water, light, and color within the limitations of a compact townhouse. In his later years, Barragán was engaged in what has since been termed "emotional architecture". This phase is marked by his preference for minimalist designs, bold colors, dramatic light and shadow play, and the integration of natural elements like garden water features. Buildings such as Casa Gilardi and the Satellite Towers, were conceived of as meditative living spaces that lend themselves to a mood of reflection and tranquility.

Barragán's international reputation was fully cemented in 1976 when the New York Museum of Modern Art hosted an exhibition of his work and published an extensive catalogue (written by Ambasz). That same year, he received Mexico's National Award for Science and Arts. In 1980, Barragán received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's most prestigious international award (and the so-called "Nobel Prize" of architecture). In his acceptance speech, he said, "It is impossible to understand Art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids, nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed?".

Barragán returned to Guadalajara one last time in 1985, where he received the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura (National Architecture Prize). A full career retrospective exhibition at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City followed in 1987 but, unfortunately by then, Parkinson's disease had significantly limited his capacity to work. Barragán passed away on November 22, 1988, at his Tacubaya residence in Mexico City. The following day his remains were taken to Guadalajara where they now rest in the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres.

The Legacy of Luis Barragán

By bringing calming and mystical features to the functional orthodoxies of the International Style, Barragán redefined the boundaries of Modern architecture. Likened to luminaries such as Richard Neutra, Louis Kahn, and Adolf Loos, his name is a fixture in the pantheon of 20^th Century architects. And yet, while universally acknowledged within the industry as the first architect to bring his country international recognition, Barragán's name remained largely unknown to most Mexicans until the early 1980s (when he won architecture's most important international award, the Pritzker Prize). The chief reason for this rest, perhaps, in a body of work that remains timeless, and was once removed from the prevailing socio-political milieu of a country being reshaped by revolutionary ideology.

Barragán's biographer, Antonio Riggen Martínez, writes that he was "deeply engaged with and subtly influence Mexican cultural landscapes [and that his] dual role as an innovator and custodian of his cultural heritage, adeptly [reshaped] the complexities of Mexican identity through his architectural endeavors". Indeed, Barragán's influence reached beyond the domains of urban design. Architecture journalist Gerardo Cázares has, for instance, observed how Barragán's name has been appropriated my several key designers in the world of haute couture, including Louis Vuitton, Thomas Pink and Nine West. Of the Mexican designer, Alfredo Martínez's "After Barragán" collection, Cázares writes, "[as] a thorough intersection between architecture and fashion [Martínez's collection] is intended to be an ode to the philosophical legacy of Guadalajara [and Barragán's] career. Vibrant colors used by Barragán aim to capture his essence and mysticism, replicating his iconic geometric compositions, shadows, lines, and volumes, opting for black canvas to contrast orange, blue and red colors in homage to the architect's ideas".

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