Barragán: The Complete Works [Revised] 1568983220, 9781568983226

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Barragan THE

COMPLETE

WORKS

Preface and original drawing by ALVARO SIZA

Essays by ANTONIO TOCA FERNANDEZ JOSt MAR IA BUENDIA JULBEZ LUIS BARRAGAN MORFIN

Postscript and original drawing by ANTONIO FERNANDEZ ALBA

Photographs by MARIANA YAMPOLSKY ARMANDO SALAS PORTUGAL LOURDES GROBET FRtOtRIQUE LAGRANGE GABRIEL FIGUEROA, et al.

With the special collaboration of the FUNOACION OE ARQUITECTURA TAPATIA

Contributors JUAN PALOMAR VEREA SALVADOR RODRIGUEZ ANTONIO RUIZ BARBARIN

Edited by RAUL RISPA

Princeton Architectural Press

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Published in 2003 by Princeton Architectural Press 37 East Seventh Street New York, New York 10003 For a free catalo11 ol books, c,11 l.800. 722.6657 Visit our web site at www.papress.com. First Published in En11lish in North and South America in 1996 by Princeton Architectural Press 07 06 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 l Second, revised edition All r i11hts reserved . Ori9inally published In Spain by Tan,is Arquitectur,, an imprint of Tanais Ediciones, s.a. - Raul Rispa, Publisher - on the occasion ol the exhibition or11anized by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Environment and the Mexico City Collea• ol Architects, Madrid 1994-1995, Lisbon 1995, Mexico City 1996 and other cities and countries.

0 Tanais Ediciones, s.a. 1995, 1996, 2003, Seville, Madrid 0 Cole1110 de Arquitectos de Ciudad de M6xico, A.C. 1995, Mexico City 0 Ministerio de Obras POblicas, Transportes y Medio Ambient• 1995, Madrid No part ol this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopyin11, recordina or otherwise, without the prior written consent ol the publisher.

Unsi11ned texts by Ernesto Alva, Margarita Garcia Cornejo, Juan Palomar, Sal,ador Rodriguez, Antonio Ruiz Barbarin and the editorial team Enalish editor second edition: Teresa Santiago En11llsh texts by Victoria Hughes, Ga,in Powell, Hawys Pritchard and Erica Wi tschey Copy-editing second edition by Lettice Small Executive editor second edition: Valeria Varas Graphic desi11n by Pep Carri6 and Soni• s,ncHez Lay-out by Carlos de Navas Cover desi11n by Belin G6mez Assist,nt editor second edition : Marta s,nchez For Princeton Architectural Press Project ed itor, first edition: Clare Jacobson Project editor, second edition: Nicola Bednarek Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Ann Alter, Janel Behning, Megan Carey, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Jan Haux, Clare Jacobson, Mark Lamsler, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Nancy Levinson, Katharine Myers, Jane Sheinman, Scott Tennent, Jennifer Thompson, }CHI Weston, and Deb Wood - Kevin C. Lippert, publisher Color reproduction and lilmset by Progreso Gr61ico, s.a .. and Proyectos Oigitales . s.a., Madrid Printed and bound by AGrupem. s.a., Alcobendas Printed In Spain Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publ ication Data Barr•16n, Luis, 1902· Barra1an : the complete works / preface and ori1inal drawin1 by Alvaro Sita ; essays by Antonio Toca Fern6ndez ... [et al.) ; postscript and original draw1n1 by Antonio Fern6ndez Alba ; photoaraphs by Mariana Yampolsky ... [et al.) ; with the special collaboration of the Fundaci6n de Arquitectura Tapatla ; contributors, Juan P,lomar Verea, s,1v,dor Rodrr1uez, Antonio Ruiz Barbarin ; edited by R6ul Rispa. -Rev. ed.

p. cm. Includes bibllo1raphlcal references. ISBN l -56898-322,0 (hardcover: alk. paper) l. Barragan, Luis, 1902- 2. Architecture-Mex ico--20th century. I. Siza, Alvaro, 1933- II. Toca, Antonio Ill. Risp,, R6ul. IV. Title. NA759.B36 A4 2003 720'.92-dc21 2003006081

ISBN: 1-56898,322·0

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This book is first and foremost about architecture. Given the content of many of the publications about Luis Barragan published since Emilio Ambasz's seminal catalogue for the 1976 exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art. this is a less obvious statement than it might seem. This second revised English edition coincides with the publication of the third Spanish edition, and includes revised and updated data - 119 works and projects are now listed - as a result of further research. BarragAn: The Complete Works is a significant publishing event. For one thing, it is the first

publication to encompass the architect's entire range of works and projects. This has been achieved by a confluence of efforts and resources, public and private, corporative and professional, institutional and individual, national and international. Cataloguing each work and Reproduction of the jacket of the first

project, identifying data, drawing plans, and in many cases taking photographs, were carried

edition of the complete works of Barragan, with photograph by

out by the Mexico City College of Architects with the collaboration of the Fundaci6n de

Mariana Yampolsky and designed by

Arquitectura Tapatra (Guadalajara Architecture Foundation), to whom credit is due. To thank

Pep Carri6 and Sonia Sanchez,

everyone involved would make a very long list indeed: the inside title and credit pages reveal

published in 1995.

the level and scope of contributions to this book, which include especially commissioned '

drawings by Alvaro Siza and Antonio Fernandez Alba. Without them, this book would not have been possible. In BarragAn: The Complete Works we have tried to present Barragan, architect and engineer, through the reality of his oeuvre. Hero-worship and elaborate theorising have no place here, any more than the high-flown language so inappropriate to the simple walls and spaces so typical of the "Mies van der Rohe" of pre-industrial materials of the Mexican vernacular. This approach has been highly acclaimed, both by scholarly criticism and readers alike. First published in 1995, several books on Barragan were launched in the following years. None of these, however, have reached such widespread diffusion as this Complete Works, published in German by Birkhauser Verlag, in English for Great Britain by Thames & Hudson, in Italian by Logos Art, in Spanish for Mexico by Llaca, in Portuguese by Dinalivro, and in English for North America by Princeton Architectural Press, first in 1996 and now in 2003.

The Editor

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Contents

Forewords

Jorge Gamboa de Buen

Preface

Barragan Alvaro Siza

Essays

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The Work of Lu is Barragan: Looking and Seeing Antonio Toca Fern,ndez The Spirit of Place Jos/J Marra Buendfa Julbez Secret Gardens Luis Barrag,n Postscript: Shaded Walls Antonio Fern,ndez Alba

Robles Le6n House Renovation Two Houses tor Robles Casti llo Enrique Aguilar House Efrain Gonzalez Luna House House House House Two Rental Houses for Efrain Gonzalez Luna Gustavo R. Cristo House Ildefonso Franco House Two Rental Houses for E. Robles Le6n House Colon Cinema Dr Medina House Gustavo R. Cri sto House Jos6 T. Sauza House Barragcln Family House Renovat ion Two Churches and their Front Squares House for Carmen Orozco Chapa la Square Kiosk House Harper de Garibi House Rental House for Robles Le6n House for Efrain Gonzalez Lu na Jos6 Clemente Orozco House Jalisco Cinema Revolution Park Rationalist Stage Rental House Rental House Two Family Houses Low -Cost Apartment Bu ildi ng for Mrs de la Parra (Widow Verduzco) M. J. de Sanchez Apar tment Building Jose Mojic a Apartment Building J. Chavez Pe6n de Ochoa House Renta l House Lorenzo Garza Apa rtment Buildi ng Concepcion Ribot Apartment s

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The Complete Works

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46 54 54 54 55 56 62 68 68 68 69 69 69 70 75 75 75 76 76 76 77 77 77 78 79 80 80 80 81 81 81 82 82 82 83

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Carmen R. G. de Cristo Apartments Apartment Building for Mrs de la Parra (Widow Verduzco) Apartment Building Alfonso Barrag4n Apartment Building Rental House for M. Pilar Uribe Two Rental Houses for Ral'JI Ortega Amezcua Rental House for Abraham Goldefer I. Pizarro Su6rez House Apartment Building Rental House for Mrs Corcuera (Widow Alcazar) Dr David Kostovetsky House Building for Four Painters' Studios House and Garden Improvements for Alfredo Vazquez and Luz Barrag6n de Vazquez House for Arturo Figueroa Uriza House for Arturo Figueroa Uriza Apartment Building for Arturo Figueroa Uriza Eduardo Vi llasellor House Four Private Gardens Ortega House (formerly Barragan House) Arch itecture and Landscape Three Private Gardens Jardines del Pedregal Residential Subd1vis1on Luis Barraglln House and Studio Eduardo Prieto L6pez House Villa Adriana Remodel House Bermudez House Two Houses House House Reforestation and Landscaping Jos6 Arriola Adame House Fountains and Shopping Mall Alfredo Vazquez and Luz Ba rraga n de vazquez House Remodel Aztec Park Pierre Marques Hotel Gardens Antonio Galvez House Chapel for the Capuchinas Sacramentarias del Purfsi mo Coraz6n de Marla and Convent Restoration House Jardi nes del Bosque Master Plan for Residential Subdivision El Calvario Chapel Satellite City Towers Las Arboledas Master Plan for Resident ial S4bd1v1sion Red Wall Bell Plaza and Fountain Dr inking Trough Plaza and Fountain Los Clubes Master Plan for Resident ial Subdivi sion Los Clubes Service Access Lovers Fountai n San Crist6bal Stables and Folke Egerstrom House Francisco Gilardi House Commerce Tower Barbara Meyer House Other Works and Projects Official Address 1980 Pritzker Architecture Prize

83 83 84 84 84 85 85 85 86 86 86

87

88 88 88 89 89 89 90 92 94

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112 124 132 132 132 133 135 136 136 137 137 137 137 137 138 146 160 160 161 162 168

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170 172 174 175 I 76 182 194

200 200 201

205

Luis Barrag,n

Addenda and references Biographica l Notes and Chronology The MOPTMA· CAM Barragan Project Gerardo Mingo Pinacho Barragan. Silence II Antonio Ruiz Barbarfn Bibliography About the Authors and Contri butors Photography and Illustration Cred,ts

210 2 12 216

218 224 231

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Jorge Gamboa de Buen

This book of Luis Barragan's comp lete works was originally publ ished

Chairman of the Mexico City

on occasion of the major exhibition organized by the Mexico City

College of Architects Mexico

College of Architects and the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Environment, with the kind help of the Fundaci6n de Arquitectura Tapatra and the advisory council made up by architects Andr~s Casillas, Jos~ Marla Buendia , Juan Palomar, Ernesto Alva and Margarita Garcia Cornejo. Luis Barragan is one of the most important architects of the twentieth century. He was a comp lex, enigmatic character, who forged his way along paths that often ran contrary to build ing fashions at the time. An engineer by training, he d id not become an architect directly, but via a c ircu itous, often turbulent route, marked out by his personal background, sensit ivity, travelling, reading and friendships. This is perhaps why his work was so diffuse and why he never aspired to the recogn it ion or publicity that so many others sought. Barragan did not promote himself. Barragan waited to be discovered. Researching and gathering material for The Complete Works was an arduous task. Barragan's output was not prodigious, albeit not as limited as published until now. Nor did he bequeath us many plans or models. Barragan d id not leave sketches mapping out his quests or his discoveries. And although some works received fantastic photographic coverage, little was known of his complete portfolio or the development of his designs. Much work was required to uncover lines of evolution and references to his origins, travels or reading matter. It was hard to select his most represenative designs, clarity the authorship of his earliest buildings, then catalogue his works and delve into the issue of which was really the last one. Nonetheless, we hope this book sheds light on this unique Mexican architect's breadth of vision. The reality of his work is bound

to amaze architects and students around the world.

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Barragan A

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Architecture that envelops us like a physical presence, simple and dense, defying description , imitation and photography; universal and present. The exterior is unaggressive, becoming anonymous. Yet - unexpectedly and occasionally - it stands out sharply like a detail from an out-of.focus landscape . Someone guides us through its spaces. We gl ide along. Talking seems superfluous; everything is unique, yet never demanding. The light is relaxing, or ecstatic . And the colour? It matches the variable state of the Soul. It is never definitive. One intuits another spontaneity: a spontaneity concealing a 'self' charged with messages, both familiar and remote (the photographs show vivid, pure colours - the colours one finds in any Mexico City street , or in a Mayan ruin - but of that visit to Barragan's house, the colour I remember is Gold). None of Barragan's Architecture is eternal. It depends on its own experience, or that of another's, on the gestures of ex istence. As a temple is remade over and again, in different ways, this continually degrading architecture is reconstructed in Memory; encountered in the ruins, in the richness of a fresco miraculously preserved underground, poised for rediscovery under the poisons of the air. No innovation ever abandons ancient reason. There is no such thing as innovation. There is a rediscovery of innocence, a capturing of the State of Grace, so that it is not lost from Memory.

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Antonio Toca Fernandez

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Luis Barragan's reputation as an architect is a curious phenomenon: he himself has been turned into a legendary figure, while his oeuvre has provided a seemingly inexhaustible source for interpretation. In the process, friendships, encounters, dialogues and conferences have arisen, making public interest difficult to reconcile with Barragan's reserved and solitary personality.

The ork of Luis Barragan: • Looking and ee1ng It could be said that Barragan set this process in motion himself. Seduced by his own legend, he withheld evidence of periods of activity, pieces of work and collaborations with other artists that he felt diminished his own achievements. The first monograph on Barragan by Emilio Ambasz remains one of the best guides to the subject, yet innumerable "interpretations" of Barragan, in the form of reviews, articles and poems, have given his disc iples the chance to capitalize on his increased prestige and the wider appreciation of his work, absorbing glory by association along the way. Because Barragan did not achieve recognition and critical acclaim until the end of his career, the field was left open for many imitators to produce almost exact copies of his buildings very cheaply. The result has been a sort of Barragan ism without the Barragan, and a very profitable enterprise at that. This particular brand of mannerism has provided an identity not only for certain architects - victims, one imagines, of severe identity crises who can no longer distinguish between Barragan's work and their own - but for entire movements that carry out projects using his entire corpus as a frame of reference. Fine though his work is, it does not provide that much scope for extrapolation. Barragan stressed the importance of understanding his architecture as his own personal mode of expression, asserting that it should not be copied formally. In a revealing interview he explained how his best works were the result of rejecting functionalism 's aridity and return ing to the origins of architecture - to its fundamental precepts. He was thus able to appreciate their value more fully and, in so doing, to create modern architecture}

ABOVE:

Detail of traditional religious architectu re

LOOKING AND SEEING

in Jalisco

Erich Fromm has written that before one can create, one must first develop

LEFT: Gonz~lez Luna House

the abil ity to see, so that one can then respond . Seeing is a conscious act

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that implies being aware of something, discovering it and analyzing it. To look at something , on the other hand, is to allow one's gaze to pass over it without regarding it. Barragan's work has to be seen ; just looking at it is not enough. That is why, if we are to achieve a more objective interpretation of his work - by definit ion a collective task - the first step must be to get closer to it: to see it, rather than wrap it in myth . The first point to bear in mind when approaching the work of Barragan is that despite the fact that he worked actively as an architect for nearly fifty years , his work did not receive the recognition it deserved until the late 1960s, and it came very slowly. Even in 1963, during an interview with a group of architecture students (of whom I was one), Ph ili p Johnson stated that the on ly contemporary arch itect in Mexico he considered important was Luis Barragan. This was surprising: none of us at the time was particularly aware of his work. The second point is that, once discovered, Barragan went from obscurity to celebrity very quickly. While it is unfortunate that it took so long for him to be recognized - he was seventy-four years old when he finished his last work and still barely acknowledged even in h is native country - it is just as unfortunate that he should now be considered legendary.

FROM OBSCUR I TY TO CELEBR ITY

For many years there was only a handful of Barragan adm irers in Mexico . Abroad, however, his work as architect and la ndscape architect found greater appreciation. Proof of how underappreciated he had been in Mexico came in 1976, in an exhibition devoted to his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and again in 1980, when he was awarded the Pritzker Prize. In both events the support and involvement of Johnson were instrumental. It was only after the recognition of the North American institutions that Barragan was awarded Mexico's Premio Nacional (1978), became the subject of an exhibition in the Museo Tamayo (1985) and won the Latin American Premio America (1987). These accolades marked the beginning of the process by which Barragan was rapidly transformed into a legendary f igure. Yet to this day the small body of his work is familiar - and accessible - to only a small minority, and even the works that are better known (through photographs) date from his later period. These buildings have received the same treatment as Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavi lion (1929): almost totally unknown in its time, it was later canonized as "the most important building of the twentieth century" . 2 Th is shift in the collective response to Barragan ' s work can be attributed to an inadequate understand ing of the more important aspects of his buildings. Only the formal facets of h is architecture have been examined :

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Satellite City Towers (1957) show the inlluence of Mathias Goeritz's German expre ssiomsm Seen from a distance. these prisms are an urbanlandmark;closeup,theyhavean emotive impact.

research into its essential characteristics. those that he considered the most important, is rare. It is usually the easy route that is taken: appreciating just one feature in vague, abstract terms, making invar iably bad poetic analogies, or imitating his work in the least rigorous way. Although Barragan was consistently punctil io us about getting hi s work published. it was the 1976 exhibition in New York that brought him international attention. Unaccustomed to the limel ight, Barragan lost the ability to be objective about himself and gradua lly began contributing to the myth around him. His dispute with Mathias Goeritz over the original design of Satellite City Towers is one example. He also refused to acknowledge that some of his houses were des igned with Max Cetto. and he never made it clear that the furnishings and accessories of his residences , erroneously attributed to him, were the work of designer Clara Poree!. The cas es of painter Jesl.Js Reyes Ferreira and of Miguel and Rosa Covarrubias are rather different. Although he acknowledged their infl uence in int roduci ng the colours that became so characteristic of his work, he did not give due recognition to their close invo lvement during the period when he rejected the language of rat ionalism and entered t he most creative phase of his ca reer . Barragan·s previous high.mindedness was no match for his urge towards self•aggrandizement or for the pressures of fame. He se r iously

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understated how much the devel opment of hi s work owed to cottaborators and fr iends. Myth requi res tha t an artist shou ld create out of nothing and to recognize co ll aboration woul d have diminished his own worth .

INCOMPLETE WORKS

The third point is that Barragfln's oeuvre is usually considered, quite incorrectly, to consist of what he produced during his later period , betwee n 1948 and 1976. Th is effectively red uces an already small body of work eve n furthe r and exp lains why m ost students of his work have been unable to get any clea r idea of his underlying creative process. There have been very few schola rly attempts to exp lain the beg inn in gs of what became such an individual style of architecture, or to explore the intensive modes of thought and creat ivity - the fa culty of seeing and resp onding - from wh ich this individ ual ism stemmed . The final period thus seems a divergence fr om the rest of his ou tput rather than a nat ura l evolution . Barragan·s early buildings in Guad alaja ra are vi rt ually unkn own, and some have been destroyed. His rationalist period is equa lly little known , and some

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buildings from that time have also been modified or demolished. Works created during his later period are almost imposs ible to visit. Indeed, so few people are familiar with the details of his work that p lagiarism of his houses and h is basic design features has been an easy matter. The work of architect Ricardo Legorreta is frequently grouped with Barragan's and , like Barragan's, continues to be much copied. Legorreta changed direction rad ica lly in 1968, when he began to produce work similar to Barragan's, with certain variations . Legorreta's conceptual solutions vary from Barragan's, since there are enormous differences of scale, proportion and spatial sense between the two. Legorreta manipulates b ig spaces and complex, large-scale programmes ; Barragan works on a small, intimate scale. While it is perhaps in landscape designs, squares and housing estates that Barragan is most attuned to the urban scale, Legorreta is adept at inserting works of architecture into an urban context. The significant feature of Barragan's buildings is usually the interior; they are not urban landmarks . In fact, some projects attributed to Barragan in his later years reveal an unfortunate tendency towards monumentalism. Legorreta's build ings skilfully take advantage of modern technology and structural solutions that Barragan could not , or would not , use. Barragan's return to traditional Spanish Colonial architecture gave him a powerful and

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attractive language that he refined for his purposes. That said , however, some

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of the solutions he adopted - especially structural ones - were already out of

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step with his time. His use of wooden roofing beams, though attractive, was anachronistic, even within the evolution of his work: during his rationalist period Barragan had used reinforced concrete roofs.

THE FAMILIAR AND THE FORE I GN

Above and beyond the formal properties of his work, Barragan's most valuable asset was in his development as an architect. This is where his creative genius revealed itself and where he was at his greatest. His primary contribution to contemporary architecture was a personal and particular architectural language that enabled him to produce a collection of buildings that differed radically from those in the predominant style of the time. Barragan's affirmation of the familiar - and he had no ideological axe to grind - allowed him to borrow ideas, materials, techniques and forms and ABOVE:

Revolution Park ( 1934-35), Barragan' s

first opportunity at garden design on a large

use them in an entirely individual way. As his point of departure he took the essential elements of Mediterranean architecture and updated them . After

scale, A new interpretation of the European

mastering that idiom, he moved on to the forms of European rationalism,

influence , it presaged his later work. LEFT:

borrowing their great sculptural effects. Finally, he went back to basics and

Secluded corners charged with

" atmosphere", texture and colour are integral

modified his work still more radically. This was a gradual process through

features of the world of Ferdinand Bae.

which he borrowed from several sources : popular architecture, rationalism -

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particula r ly that of Le Corbusier - and neoplasticism, which he called on for his management of space and use of contrasting co lours, as noted by Enrique Browne. J Another achievement was the way in which he created a fifth fat;:ade with either the floor or - in his stunning roof terraces - the sky. turning them into compositiona l elements.

TOWARDS AN INTERPRETATION OF THE OEUVRE

The close analysis of certain build ings by Barragan is rewarded by the discovery of the creative depth and care that went into every detail. His use of pools and fountains, for example, is a personal interpretation of water as a design element. He was insp ired by the Moorish fountains that were placed to serve as mirrors, liqu id cubes, visual grace notes, or musical elements, all of which appear in his own bu ildings and gardens. He applied his creative talent not only to the house, but to the re-creation of the eterna l garden, hi s personal harking back to paradise. Already in his Guadalajara buildings. Barragan incorporated his updated interpretation of the Hispano•Mus l im culture into his gardens. El Pedregal de San Angel and Las Arboledas, created between 1940 and I 944. were among his attempts to recapture a private paradise to which only a privileged few were allowed access . He also called on sixteenth-century In the Prieto L6pez House Barragan transposed

Mexican rel i gious arch itecture - the ir cubical spaces, effects of light and

the hacienda from an open country setting l oan

shade, and courtyards - and re-created them on an intimate sca le. Aspects

urban context. contradictory concep ts that achieve a harmonious balance in his res idences.

of popular Mediterranean architecture, such as terrace gardens, uninterrupted expanses of wall and staircases were re interpreted with extraordinary sensitivity. It was this scrutiny and analysis of traditional forms that charged Barragan ·s work with significance and relevance to his own culture. In rejecting international functionalist architecture and denouncing the harm done to the quality of urban life by ind ustr ialized society, Barragan·s ideological stance constituted an even greater legacy than his formal results. Barragan 's work has come to be a measure for the importance of int imacy and refinement that can be achieved with the most minimal and modest resources . With their courtyards, wa lls, gardens, fountains and spaces, the

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elegant poverty of Barragan's buildings succeed in capturing the vitality of Mexican culture. Barragan was able to identify and absorb what was worth learning from foreign architecture and to incorporate it into his personal mode of expression in a manner appropriate to the Mexican climate, lifestyle and sensibility. It could be said that Barragan's greatest gift was the f inely tuned judgment with which he blended the foreign with the familiar. To arrive at a true interpretation of Barragan's work, one needs to apply his own creative process. He insisted that to create, it was essential to discover, observe and update what one judged to be valuable. This was the way, the only way, in which he worked . He demonstrated that high quality in architecture need not be a grand gesture. His work expresses a confidence in his arch itectural craft over and above the flamboyant displays of .. technology or resources, affirming that architecture does not have tCYbe fash ionable to be important and valued. And there is his patient knowledge that simplicity and humility in the deployment of resources and materials have a genuine role to play in the creation of an architecture with which soc iety as a whole can identify. Barragan's most important contribution was the way in which his architecture presented Mexico with another medium through which to recognize itself and to be recognized.

Notes 1. Ramirez Ugarte, A.. "Los jardines de Luis

Barragan", in Mexico en el arte,

INBA,

Summer 1984. 2. Banta, J.P., Sistemas de significaci6n en arquitectura, Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1977 . 3. Browne E., "Barragan y de Stijl", in

Arquitectura Viva, September 1989.

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Jose Maria Buendia

Julbez

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She lived her life sighing about Comala, about going back. But she never did. Now I have come in her place. I am seeing things through her eyes, for she gave me her eyes to see: "As you go over the pass of Los Colimotes, there is a beautiful view of a green plain tinged with the yellow of ripe corn. From there you can see Comala, whitening the earth." Pedro Paramo

Juan Rulfo

The Spirit of Place Refined by the passage of time and by then an acknowledged source of inspiration, Barragan in his later years possessed the light energizing air of the nearby Sierra de Corrales. He was filled with the drama of the landscape and a powerful bond with nature. Nature shaped him and it was nature's message that gave direction to his life ' s activity. If one is to come to grips with the architecture of Barragan, one needs to know the places and landscapes that he inhabited. Barragan has enjoyed extraordinary popularity around the world. Today, "the maestro" - as Gfo Ponti dubbed him before his rise to international acclaim - is known everywhere. His name is enough to attract visitors from Europe , the Americas and as far away as the Far East as if to some architectural mecca. In trying to follow in Barragan's footsteps, architects from different geograph ical origins attempt the impossible. His physical environment, h istory and id iosyncrasies cannot be transported intact from one place to another. In Mexico alone there are dozens of Barragan disciples. Unfortunately , with a few notable exceptions, they imitate his work only in its formal aspects: his deployment of elements and materials and use of colour, which more often than not they misuse. Unless its form is determined by its content, arch itecture is inevitably devoid of mean ing. The content that inspires and engenders form is exclusively the product of the creative spirit, and though an architect may not be aware of it, he will always be imbued with the spirit of place. How hopeless and frustrating, then, to attempt to emulate Barragan 's forms to the letter. Once, when pestered by students, Barragan declared : "Don't ask me about this or that building, don't try to do what I do: see what I saw." Accepting the Pritzker Prize for what the jury described as "a sublime act of the poetic imagination". Barragan catalogued in his speech the memories and impressions that had been most influential in shaping his ideology: Mexican popular architecture,

It is alarming that publ ications devoted to architecture have banished from their

state of Jalisco

pages the words beauty, inspiration, magic, spellbound, enchantment. as well as

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the concepts of serenity, silence, int imacy and amazement.. they have never ceased to be my guiding lights He finds soli t ude, mystery, joy and death similarly potent. The fo llowing quotat ion is taken f rom his observations on ga r dens and fountains: In a beautiful garden, the majesty of nature is ever present, but it is nature reduced to human proportions ... To the south of Mexico City lies a vast edens1on of volcanic rock, and, overwhelmed by the beauty of this landscape, I decided to create a series of gardens to humanize, without destroying. its magic .. . The unexpected d iscovery of these "jewels" gave me a sensation similar to the one experienced when, having walked through a dark and narrow tunnel of the Alhambra. I suddenly emerged into the serene, silent and sohtary Court of the Myrtles ... I had the feeling that 1t enclosed what a perfect garden, no matter its size, should enclose : nothing less than the ent ire universe ... from the first garden for which I am responsible all those follow ing are attempts to capture the echo of the immense lesson to be derived from the aesthetic wisdom of the Span ish Moors. He goes on to discuss popular Mexican architecture : The sweet memories of marvelous fountains have accompanied me throughout my life. I recall the fountains of my childhood: the drains of excess water of the dam : the dark ponds 1n the recess of abandoned orchards; the curbstone of shallow wells in the convent patios ... the unassuming architecture of the village and provinci al towns of my country . .. the whitewashed walls; the peace found in patios and orchards: the colourful streets. Court of the Myrtles, Alhambra ,

Barraga n decla re s himsel f a Catholic and desc r ibes the spiri t ual peace t hat

Granada, Spain

possesses him when he visits the cl ois t ers , cells and secluded cou rt yards of uni n habited monasteries. He concludes with his fervent hope that "these feelings may leave their mark on my work ".

THE AESTHETIC OF I NNER EXPER I ENCE

Aesthetic and moral in tent as an ideal of architecture in Ba rr agan·s work could be summarized in the form of a story, specifically the one with which Ferdinand Bac·s Les Jard,n es Enchantes opens. Illustrated with cha r ming

"

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JO S(

l,t.t. R IA

8 V ( N 0 1A

J U L8£l

"Having walked through a

drawings, some realistic and some fantastic, the book's text and pictures

dark and narrow tunnel of the

had a strong influence on Barragan and his friends and colleagues Ignac io

Alhambra, I suddenly emerged

Dfaz Morales and Rafael Urzua. In view of the radicalism exerted by contemporary international architecture,

into the serene, silent and solitary Court of the Myrtles ...

Barragan's work is an exception, an act of disobedience. As with those of Gaudf, Olbrich, van de Velde and Teodoro Anasagasti , Barragan' s form and

I had the feeling that it enclosed

poetry are dense with vision and ambience that are charged with a power not

what a perfect garden, no matter

often achieved in architecture. His buildings evoke emotions and sensations

its size, should enclose: nothing

that are generally overlooked: inner experience, remoteness, fantasy and

less than the entire universe."

nostalgia. Barragan's work challenges the now ubiquitous glazed - nowadays

Barragan

even mirrored - curtain wall. Anonymous, devoid of all identity, sadly incognito, these walls even betray the rationalists' notion of the social panopticon. Far from providing their inhabitants with the privacy of indoor life, these displaycase structures imprison them in dehumanizing spaces. And such buildings are still being created in the hallowed name of functionalism, despite the movement's ongoing state of crisis since the late 1930s. Barragan's architecture embodies mystery, surprise and memory (consider the screened balconies and the walls of his Guadalajara build ings), a bastion against the excesses of life, against lack of restraint, against insensitive extroversion. Barragan gives walls their strength and autonomy, restoring importance and dign ity to the most ancient and perhaps noblest of all architectural elements. A Barragan wall rejects contemporary architecture's determination to use a glazed outer skin at all costs. So many misunderstand this concept, or reduce it to a fra il superfice, showing none of the rigour and conviction of the social-democratic tenets of the Modern movement. Barragan's counterproposal to these enormous glass cages is an architecture that grows ·out of the earth. Like the land in which it is grounded, it provides shade and protection, is made of habitable substance, has a human scale and is infused with meaning. Time and time again Barragan faithfully pays homage to the vernacular architecture of Jalisco and its simple nobility of expression. In Jalisco pueblo and house are redolent of their Mediterranean lineage. Barragan recalls the village of Mazamitla as it was in his early childhood: an upland pueblo of steep streets and whitewashed houses with red tiles, lulled by water and sunshine, where both place and experience taught him the supreme virtue of simplicity.

A BRUSH WIT H RATIONAL I SM

At one time in the 1930s Barragan nearly deviated from his particu lar path of development. Drawn, like so many others, to the latest avant-garde movement to emerge from central Europe, he experimented - successfully and honourably it must be said - with the International Style. This school,

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•

; OS (

MAR I A

BUENO i A

J ll LBl .?

whose principles included the suppression of national and historical references, was supported and disseminated by many important figures. Among these were two mutually complementary figures: the controversial Le Corbusier, evangelical activist of the new crusade, and Walter Gropiu.s, conciliator, ideologue and undisputed father of the Bauhaus. But Barragan knew that if he was to make a contribution to architectural culture , he wou Id have to do so by following his "natural" route, that of developing and reinterpreting his native trad itions . Had he stayed in the milieu of international functionalism, he would have been no more than a minor character in its constellation. As a sincere and inspired solo performer, and given his historical background, he might have made an outstanding spokesman for his culture . Fortunately , he returned from this foray, retaining the best of rationalism when it served his purpose - which often converged with the principles of popular practice - to begin his third and final phase. Having found his direction, he distanced himself from the voices of intellectual debate and freed his work from its stylistic hiatus, impervious to the attractions of ephemeral new concepts. His was a singular path, one whose route had been set by history. Along the way he wou ld give expression again and again to his own being and his cultura l provenance. Though exceptional, the work of Barragan shou ld not be considered atypical of or isolated from Mexico's architectural traditions. His work shows strong links with his precursors and fits naturally into its chronological and geographical context. Many of his contemporaries during his Guadalajara years shared the same idea ls and produced praiseworthy architecture. Notable adherents of what was known as la escuela tapatfa (the Guadalajara School) or e/ regionalismo tapatfo (Guactalajara regionalism) included Barragan's friends Ignacio Dfaz Morales and Rafael Urzua, the greatly talented Pedro Castellanos and Enrique Gonzalez Madrid. Barragan was well aware of his place in this environment and saw clearly that only through knowing one's history can one know oneself. Barragan was critical of his excesses during his committed functionalist

"I saw the constructions they call

period. With the benefit of hindsight, he was to warn some years later,

casbahs in the northern Sahara

during the 1960s:

Desert ... This is what I found to

All architecture that does not express serenity is not fulf ill ing its spiritual purpose.

have the closest bond with the

This is why it has been a mistake to substitute the shelter provided by walls with

landscape, its people, their

the inclemency revea led by large expanses of window.

clothes, the ambience and the

If the idea of the machine for living not only d iminishes archi tecture, it also

atmosphere."

dim ini shes human beings. It does not provid e people wi th re lief from the

Barragan

anxiety that characterizes life in thi s centu ry. nor i s i t con duc ive to

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R1 0.. r: Ortega House (194 2) Tacubaya , Me~ 1co Ci ty r u, 1110,n: Saad1 tombs, Marrakech , Mor oc co

contemplation . Ba rragan debunks the radical notions of the Modern movement and denounces th e philosophy behind the machine

a habiter

(surely architecture's most memorable definition) as detrimental to the quality of life . These are t imes of change and violence , religious and nat ionalistic conflict. loss of identity. unjustifiable inequalities in an alienated world whose lines are drawn by the priority of the moment , ferocious compet itio n, confusion and contrad iction, when elaborate, money•motivated architecture is at th e mercy of rap id change - in times li ke these, the architecture of Barragan assumes monumental status. Deeply rooted in popula r values and a populace that can always identify with them, Barragan·s solutions have a relevance beyond the ir time. They emit clear and recogn izable signals that echo their traditions, historical threads in an ongoing , if somet imes confusing, process of deve lopment.

SP I RIT U AL SPACES

Barragiin's spaces , inter ior and exterior , are environments in wh ich to feel and thin k. Barragan worked through t he medium of the emot ions; feelings are the leitmot if of his work. light ahead , side lights reflected, filtered or shaded - t hese effects alter the mood of the inhabitant and induce spi rit ua l reflection. His walls are welcom ing, contain ing , invit ing. They protect and provi de calm and safety against the unknown. Water - creation and sou rce of the Garden of Eden, essence of the oasis -

"There is one painter I prefe r to the rest, even to th e ones I en joy as much, and that is Goya. Overall, Spanish pa inting is the

is featured in different forms in his work. Water and natu re are perhaps approximations of, or metaphors for, a hidden or undiscovered paradise: a yearning for the ideal garden. Barragan·s architecture evokes pure aesthetic emotion . He used colou rs because he liked them , not to convey meaning (though it is clear from his

one that intere sts me mo st. "

work that wh i te was the basis for his palette) , and he appl ied them to give

Barragan

d imens ion to a space or to add Ma touch of magic M, to use his phrase .

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_..,

..... ..... •.....,,.,

\

llll•

light, the immaterial element that articulates and dynamizes architecture.

11111

.....

RIGHT: Window in the Capuchine Chapel

■1lll

F~R RIGHT: Popular architecture in a Mexican hacienda

I

'

In his earliest works the use of colour is confined to minor elements: balustrades, lattice screens, glazed doors with turned crosspieces, the occasional window or peephole and furn it ure . In all these features Bac's infl uence and sense of colou r are obvi ous, and certa in recurrent, if sporad ic, colou r combinat ions refer to Choukhaeff's drawings for Pushkin's Boris Godunov. The stereography of buildings, thei r representation on one plane, has fascinated students throughout histo ry - from the plans of Toledo ' s Santa Maria la Blanca to those of Palladio; from the layout of the Sacrarium of Mexico City Cathedral to those of Borromini; from the Abul Hassan medersa in Sale to the Masjid I Shah in lsfahan or the fascinating Khargi rd, also in Iran; and, more recently , from Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building to Hans Scharoun's rest home. Those who enjoy the beauty of compositional plans independently of their value as representations of spatial organization will find little pleasure in plans drawn by Barragan, least of all those for his residences . Barragan's interrelated spaces are not distributed according to a rationally organized scheme. His ground plans , generally of an additive configuration. are not examples of compositional skill. From the plans alone his buildings would seem to lack simplicity. Some circulatory patterns are out of proportion and poorly arranged, as in the Galvez House, o r antifunctional and overdone, as in the Gilardi House (especially for the person serving food). Ana lysis of most of his plans reveals apparently rudimentary skills. Pe rh aps his early tra in ing as an engineer had something to do with this (or indeed his personal concept of architecture). On the other hand, his geometric drawings of exterior spaces are outstanding: the now derelict Drinking Trough and Lovers fountains. and the Egerstrom stables, square and pool are good examples. Even so, it is essential to look at h is drawings after seeing the bu ildings themselves, which provides a very different reading. All defects are nullifed

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111GHT:

Gonzalez Luna House, Guada lajara,

Jalisco FAR RIGHT:

Nori a de Gamez, San Lu is Potosf

by Barragan·s prodigious conception of space and his sensitive handling of solid geometry. Width, height and depth combine with sequence and light, with attraction and mystery - imprecise labels, these - to constitute a harmonious unity whose representation in plan is impossible. Geometricians describe architects as people who plan in space, and that is how Barragan designed: he imagined things and constructed them mentally, amalgamating ambiences and elements that emerged from his memory.

TOWERS, WALLS , WINDOWS, CUBES

Barragan remained faithful to his principles and the formal expression of them, and his thematic repertory and certain elements are recurrent throughout his oeuvre . The house often served as a domestic variation of religious volumes. Double·height (and sometimes higher) rooms and filtered light (translucent panels of colour in his earliest works, later replaced by yellow-painted glass) feature in the Robles Le6n, Gonzalez Luna. Cristo and Gilardi houses and in the Capuchin Convent in Tlalpan. The tower is used repeatedly, from his vigorous corner towers in Guadalajara through to the Satellite City Towers and smaller water towers that are such an impo rtant element in the composition of roof lines and profi les (the silhouette of the Ortega House and of his own house, both in Tacubaya, for example). There is also the wall, which functions as both theme and element. In the Orozco House, one of the last buildings of his Guadalajara period, he had already used the wall as a pu re surface, unpunctuated except for windows . This presaged the bareness of his later walls, both load -bearing and free • standing. laconic and grand in the sunlight. Another element intrinsic to his work is the sabras door composed of diagonals, of Egyptian origin and typical of popular architecture. The Gonzalez Luna House has two beautiful doors, one simple , the other

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House in El Pedregal (1954) by MaK Cello

elaborate and studded. The entrance door to Los Clubes and the access door

and Luis Barraglm

to the Gilardi House are also noteworthy. Of all the elements in Barragtin's architectural nomenclature, however, windows experienced perhaps the most change. There is a vast difference between those in his Guadalajara projects and those of his later period . Ea rly on he used small -aperture windows, made of iron or wood, with lattice screens of crisscrossed or turned wood. Lat er, semicircular, mullioned triptychs and oriel windows appear. Nea r ly all these types are conventiona l. introduced to Latin Ame r ica centuries ago from both the popu lar and the more sophisticated cultures of Andalusia. But Barragan transformed them into special features, endowing them with novelty by combining materials in varying ways and investing them with beauty. Puri sts might find his use of wi ndows naive or provincial, but they are undeniably attractive and fu l fil their function supe rbly, providing security, tight and shade, privacy and an irresistible air of mystery. The exquisite muqarnas (wooden roof supports - a feature characterist ic of Moor ish architecture)

over the entrance to the Ildefonso Franco House (close

relat ion of those in Fez) are finely crafted. Equally interesting, and more novel, are a few of the windows· in the Harper de Garibi House, the Agui lar House (now destroyed) and the popular housing on the Calle Zaragoza. Occas i onally he looked backward, using an unadulterated Spanish Colonial-style window. Simil arly, in one of his earliest works, the Gust avo Cristo House. he incorporated a square-paned metal window typical of the International Style. Barragtin's fantasy-char ged archi tectural language

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JOS(

MA AI •

BU EN O I A

JUL 8 l l

disappeared during his functionalist phase (he called it his "commercial" phase), when he began to use these windows. In some of his buildings he used large expanses of glass, even the tenetre en longueur. Barragan ' s preoccupation with number is obvious: the square and its relations feature in many of his compositions, as do reference lines. Throughout his works cubes are paired in a very simple and almost identical way. The aligned -step configuration characterizes his organization of volume , which accounts for the indented outline of his fac;ades. One of his favourite motifs was to turn the roofs of lower volumes into terraces, roof gardens intended to be living areas. A natural heritage of sunny climates, they appear in Barragan' s houses again and again; examples include the Gonzalez Luna, Aguilar and Cristo houses in Guadalajara; the Mago Vazquez House in Chapala ; the functionalist Pizarro Suarez House in Mexico City (radically altered by its new owners); the Ortega House, for which he made his first large garden - an evocation of the hanging gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife; his famous Tacubaya roof terrace, which he continually mod ified (originally it featured a great cross in relief on one of its walls); and the Gilardi and Meyer houses . The roof terrace of the Gonzalez Luna House has a pergo la and bench in one corner, views over surrounding and distant gardens and a pleasantly unexpected secret high-wal led patio linked to a larger outdoor space out of wh ich r ises a sol id t ime-worn staircase. If not the most sculptural of Barragan ' s roof terraces, it is certainly the most powerfully lyrical: a combination of noisy shapes, rhythms and textures, amplitudes, silent shadows and evocations . Barragan the poet, the Mazamitla boy, chose to li ve surrounded by books , keeping himself apart from the vagaries of categorized trends (modern, rational, late, neo -, post- and -isms), all of which contain validities depending on the viewpoint, but none absolute truth . To explore his work is to be taken back to the essence of the pueblo, the likes of Nfjar, Lucainena, Ubrique and C6mpeta and Arcos, Grazalema and Takrouna, Skiros, Sifnos, Catorce and Cuetza lan, Trinidad , Cheran , Quetzaltenango and Potosf and Coro and Popayan and Zacoalco , Sayula, Zapotlan, Atotonilco and Cocula. Barragan's architecture is a nostalgic reminder of time spent in those marvellous villages, where the art of unhurried living is timeless. These pueblos are moral reserves, civilization's spiritual sentinels, wellsprings of dignity, an endangered qual ity in a time when money and vested interest rule. They are unwitting helots whose human essence is no longer reflected in the large and breathless c ities of our day. Barragan, simplifier and purifier of form, remained true to h is destiny and maintained h is architectural integrity until the last wall he ever built.

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Go gle

Luis Barragan

Before I start, I must ask you to bear with me and listen carefully because I don't speak English.• Please excuse my being so presumptuous. You will only have to put up with it for twenty-five minutes, I promise. I am just going to put forward some of my thoughts about gardens designed to be an integral feature of our homes .

ecret ....,.ardens It is a great honour to have been invited to this meeting of architects through my friend , the architect Carlos Contreras, and an even greater honour to have been asked to talk to you about gardens, a subject so thoroughly explored and developed here in California . Carlos Contreras suggested that I use the residential area I have been working on over the last four years as the basic theme of this talk. The region is called Jardines del Pedregal, and its houses and gardens have had to be built on a desert of lava that has the most fantastic shapes. By happy coincidence, while making a garden for myself, I discovered the possibilities of designing the area and of enjoying this marvellous landscape, building gardens and houses that highlight the beauty of the stones by using their qualities and shapes as the most wonderful decorative elements . As part of this project I had to provide links between the area and the city. In the process I asked Mr Contreras to draw up plans dividing the land into plots in such a way that would preserve the original character of the landscape and enable us to create private gardens, one for each house, each demarcated and surrounded by walls, trees and foliage that would screen off views of the outside and of neighbouring houses. I must admit that I was apprehensive about the idea of private gardens. They are completely contrary in principle to the open gardens usually made around houses in the United States and in Mexico. I want to tell you some ideas of mine in connection with this , about ways of living in the modern •Address originally given in French before the

world. I will look at the differences behind these two types of garden: the

California Council of Arch itects and the Sierra

open and the enclosed.

Nevada Regional Conference, Coronado,

California on 6 October 1951.

One of the characteristics of modern life everywhere, in Mexico and the United States, is that it is lived in public . One spends most of the time in

El Pedregal de San Angel: "The total physical and intellectual appropriation of a virgin landscape,

public places. Lunch is usually spent away from home, lunch time for talking business and dinner time for eating and for seeing people. In Mexico, we do

on (and through) wh ich to establish a new

the same at breakfast. On holidays free time is spent going to n ight clubs,

alliance between man and the land."

playing sports, going to the cinema. On weekend outings we tend to be

- Juan Palomar Verea

surrounded by strangers, people outside the family.

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Time that we could just enjoy we use for commu nicating with the outside world by means of radio and television, which bring sporting events, musical programmes and news even into our bedrooms. The way we use the telephone is another aspect of how public l ife enters private life : telephone calls transport a person out of his house and into business and social engagements. In these ways modern man lives in public, and th is is why he makes open gardens, which cannot possess the charm and advantages of private gardens . During what part of the day can a modern person leading that sort of life meditate and allow his imagination to explore creative and spiritual ideas? In that sort of life, is it possible to fi nd the peace and seren ity so necessary to us all, especi ally nowadays? I do not believe that open gardens are conduc ive to the day-to-day relaxation of either the body or the spirit. We admire that sort of garden as we drive past in our cars at sixty or seventy kilometres an hour, but we do n ·t feel drawn to spend any time there, to use them as resting places. It is important to realize that, especially in certain climates and certa in parts of the world, the garden can serve through all the seasons as a "living room" where one can sit, eat and meet with the other inhabita nts of the house. I wish I could commun icate to you the psychologi cal and spiritual relaxation that can be derived from making a habit of spending a few hou rs a day in the garden. It gives one the feeling of a private and intimate territory, and of a trad itional dwell ing. Through th is type of garden we get used to beauty as part of our everyday life, like our daily bread . Unconsciously, we slip into spontaneous contemplation without the sl ighte st effort , totally reduc ing nervous tension. Catherine the Great of Russia wou Id back me up on th is point: she mainta ined that whenever her advisers were unable to come up with a solution to a problem of government, she wou ld wander aimlessly around the garden , and there she wou ld f ind both t he best solution and spiritual peace. So I believe t hat architects have to design gardens to be used , like the houses they bu ild . They must also develop an awareness of beauty and the taste and inclination towards the f ine arts and other spiritual values . While recognizing that the public lifestyle is necessary, indispensable even, I believe that these observations about private and public gardens point to this conclusion: in exchange for his activities within the commun ity . a modern person can enjoy and benefit from the invaluable reward of a private life and a private garden. A garden of this kind contributes so much to developing the personali ty of th e ind ividual and helps combat un iform ity of thought. I wonder i f, along wit h garde ns for pr ivate houses, it is poss ible t o make

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"I met an architect in Mexico:

gardens of a private nature for a large group of houses built as a

Luis Barragan ... ! discovered him

community. I believe it is possible, if we think of community gardens - such

to be an absolutely outstanding

as the Generalife in Granada - as communal gardens. They need to be

man ... His gardens have nothing

designed so that they contain separate and partial areas, with intimate little hideaways where individuals can feel as if they are in their own garden.

more than a little source of

In designing and planning these functional gardens it is of primary

flowing water, yet they are so immense that all the landscaped contrivances in the world could

importance to invest effort in character and atmosphere, as well as in plastic beauty. Another point is raised by the fact that subdividing private gardens

not rival them."

involves the introduction of streets and avenues . This is an issue on wh ich I

Louis Kahn

can speak with experience. Streets flanked by walls pose no problem from the plastic point of view: they can be treated like vertical gardens, with trees, vines and f lowers. The streets bounded by such wa ll gardens can also carry decorative features; they in no way impinge upon the intimacy of the gardens . Groups of trees planted forward from the natural edge of the road, fountains and other elements create " street gardens" that look unusual and make an attractive aesthetic contribution: the element of mystery that is the equivalent of sex appeal in a garden . Any garden made to include this element is guaranteed success .. Remember the pleasure of walking through the streets of Florence, with the walls of its great villas and gardens all around . The streets of Rome and many other cities are rich in private gardens whose beauty extends beyond their walls and ra ilings, providing more beauty and appeal than many of streets with open gardens that we have in the United States and Mexico. Particularly those of you who know Mexico will know what I mean when I talk about the beauty of streets that pass among walls and founta ins: Patzcuaro is a good example. There is a charm about streets that lead into open spaces, about the plazas adorned with trees and fountains that add still more to the beauty of the streets. Along with these ideas, which served as guidelines when we divided El Pedrega l into plots, we also looked carefu lly at how to sustain harmony between the arch itecture and the landscape . We specified that only bui ldings in keeping with contemporary architecture were acceptable, and we obtained a permit from the city authorities to design and construct modern arch itecture. We made it clear that we did not understand the term "modern" to include the so-called California Colonial style. These stipu lations were applicable to all , and as I am speaking to such a distinguished gathering of arch itects, there is no need to explain how the system works. In Mex ico we have received t he unfortunate influence of the California Co lon ial style . This is even more absurd since the style came from Mexico in

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the first place and was taken from there to California. Los Angeles and Ho llywood re .expo rted it to Mexico as the Californian Spanish Colonial style. Since I am on the subject of bad influen ces received in Mexico, I should say that in recent years Mexican architects have also absorbed the line and valuable in fluence of many Californ i an architects through their work, publications and personal contacts and friendships. One case in point is Richard Neutra, who has been to Mexico three times and is known all ove r the world. Frank Lloyd Wright and others, such as Raymond Loewy. who bu ilt himself a house in Tetelpa - a little pueblo 25 kilometres from Mexico City are also good fr iends of Mexican architects. When I talk of bad influences, I do not mean that Mexican archi t ects copy the work of the architects I have just mentioned, or that of other eminent North American arch itects. Their aim has been to study the principles appli ed to solving similar problems in the United States and to apply them to situations in the various regions of Mexico. We are trying to have gardens in the houses we design show that they are modern works. appropriate to the environment, programme and materials required in each case. The Jardines del Pedregal land is extreme in i ts baroque exaggeration of textures and formations. We found that if we were to avoid detract ing from or spoiling the beauty of the landscape, and if we were to create beautiful arch i tectural forms that were in harmony with it , we would have to opt for

In the Vhquez Arroyo-Luz Barragan House the walls bordering the street are trea ted as sculpture. Trees and flowers turn them into a vertical garden.

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8A ~ RACAN

extreme simplicity: an abstract quality, preferably stra ight lines, flat surfaces and primary geometric shapes. We found that one advantage of these rocky formations is their fertility, the result of two important factors: first, the porosity and cracks produced in the rocks, with earth formed by dust laid over with millennia of rain; and second, the stable climate produced by the mild temperatures that preserved the rocks. That necessary feature of a modern garden, the lawn, posed no prob lem. We had assembled rocks for use in building walls, thus leaving rock-free areas. We simply covered these with turf, which needed only a 40· centimetre-deep bed of topsoil. Drainage is no problem either, since water flows away through the cracks in the rocks. I now have plans for a "dry" garden, using on ly stones, with no trees or vegetation, and with paths and avenues of black sand. It will be a new experiment on volcanic terrain. I will c lose with a few established principles of the art of garden making. First, circular panoramas should not be overused: if we frame the immediate landscape against a good view behind, the achieved effect is doubly enhanced . I always prefer uneven ground with strange shapes - they guarantee a successful garden. Thank goodness for geological accidents . And finally, let me remind you of what the great writer and landscape artist Ferdinand Bae believed: a garden holds within itself the entire universe. It is the prize of our work, and in the art of making gardens we can find all the serenity that man is capable of achieving.

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Antonio Fernandez Alba

My personal encounter with Luis Barragan was brought about by my friends Antonio Toca and Manuel Sanchez de Carmona in Mexico City, where Barragan lived. It was in the summer of 1974, when the Federal District's new Metropolitan Autonomous Universities were being inaugurated. The aim of these institutions was to provide a different route to particular educational models so that they could meet the increasing demand from students and the specializations that were springing up during the 1970s in this rapidly developing country.

Postscript: -....,,.-haded

al Is

I was invited to participate in the early days of the Azcapotzalco Unit 's Architecture and Design departments. These were exciting and stimulating years at the un iversity, and it was during that period that I had the opportunity to meet Luis Barragan. He had not yet been discovered by the international med ia, and apart from a small minority of young teachers and students few people were interested in the small buildings that Barragan was producing in Mexico. In Madrid I had heard vague reports about him as a person and about the nature of his work, of which I had seen photographs in a minor architectural publication. The article referred to a convent that Barragan had built in Mexico, and since I had built two enclosed-order convents in Salamanca (1960-69), I told my friends that I was interested in meeting the man about

whom the young teachers at Azcapotzalco had talked so enthusiastically. The house in which Barragan lived was modest in appearance, inconspicuously set into the street. The only eye-catching formal feature that differentiated it from the adjacent buildings was a worked lattice screen. Beyond the entrance lobby a wooden staircase ascended to white-walled spaces, with floors of polished earthenware tiles and bold woodwork crafted by hands whose skill was also discernible in beautiful panelled shutters of polished wood . We were in a large room, arranged to serve a variety of functions, both domestic and professional, closed to the street and open to an inner Drinking Trough Fountain, Las Arbo ledas residential estate ( 1959). Through the eucalyptus

courtyard where a group of trees filtered the light, creating an almost monastic, chiaroscuro effect. There was a little, gently flowing fountain and

leaves one sees a white wall whose sole

walls of various colours that enclosed the patio to form a chamber of

purpose might be to receive the shadows

soothing sensations, of wood, clay and whitewash. A p lace, in short, where

of those branches.

one could look into the heart of things.

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Barragan fitted perfectly into this setting: h is appearance was unpretentious, h is manner approachable, cordial and intelligent, with no hint of the rhetorical arrogance used so frequently by fashionable architects . I remember our off-the -cuff conversation as having been thought-provoking, his deliberate mode of speech and gesture imposing a certain order. Barragan turned the f lurry of questions with which we tried to extract answers from this fount of architectural wisdom into a dialogue with courteous attention and relevant replies (to our sometimes irreleva nt questions) . An arch itect known for having a relatively small oeuvre, he often opted for silence rather than make a specific statement. His verbal silences m irrored the bastions of arch itecture he bui lt in the face of the frenetic destruction of urban spaces: Mexico was and still is a hotbed of urban desolation. Though Barragan made no secret of his opposition to the moral poverty at the heart of much of what still calls itself umodern architecture" - pseudo"masterpieces" and their counterfeiting designers - he expressed his views without any undue disp lay of vehemence. He confessed great admiration for Louis Kahn, with whom he was then starting work on the open spaces for the Salk Institute. The mention of Kahn brought up recurring issues, such as the silences of space, the poetic metaphor contained in all good architecture, nature contained within the territory of arch itectural form and other matters now lost in the mists of t ime. Barragan understood these notions of building as truths need ing no adornment, believing that architecture should not add superfluous elements to create its own physical expression . The truth of architectura l form shou Id be entirely material in the configuration of constructed space. Unassuming in his formal principles, he said he designed arch itectural works through a process of coming to terms with knowledge. This was a dramatically different approach than that adopted by the many architects of that period whose obvious intention it was to load their spatial conceptions with empiricism while giving little attention to the benefit of reason. The tendency to create myth and inflate the importance of the extraneous was typical of the "special-effects" method of architecture . Toward the end of my visit, I was particularly intrigued by an astute observation of Barragan's . Prompted by suggestions that architecture was a powerful instrument for change, that "author architecture" had a role to play, and that ideologically art and architecture could bring about spiritual transformat ion within society, Barragan commented that in those cases, when a project is actually translated into publ ic existence, its power to transform is lost. Over the years I have confirmed that bu ildings designed by self -important or postmode rn archi tects , howeve r spectacular the scale or

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practical the intent. are all assimilated by the in exorable treadmill of consumerism. The house Barragan designed for himself synthesizes his concerns in architecture. Here , the wall is a frontier that demarcates living space. His architecture tends to be unified by one material , which is easily manufactured and exists in harmony with its immediate natural surroundings. limited in scale, the house grows within the outline of its walls, which are laden with evocations and memories, mortared labyrinths of pleasing textures and order, through whose perspectives we discover space. Barragan·s house embodies the relationship between architecture and landscape. Few architects have the gift of using constructed form to express Calvario Chapel : "II is impossible to understand art and the glory of its history without avowing rellgiousspiritualilyand the mythical roots that lead us to the art ist ic phenomenon's very raison

the emotive power contained in the materials. It has always been the function of a good arch itect to purify the forms with which he builds and to recapture the original innocence of the materials he uses. The work of Luis Barragan, elemental and simple, seems to do that.

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There was a certain monasticism about the environment in which this solitary architect lived. His silent spaces were not far removed from the " intoxicating sobriety" of Spanish monaster ies, and, like a monastery, h is house was a place inhabited by the memory of people and things, by questioning and fear. The space where solitude dwells calls for an arch itecture of symbols. shapes and colours in which states of awareness - moods - can be neutral ized . His spaces are not engaging through spectacular form or impressionistic effects as an overlay for the architect's craft. Hence the li mited chromatic range that characterizes monastic spaces and a large proportion of Barragan's work. Both colour and form function as unforeseeable elements of his buildings, the true landscape of architecture . In spaces like Barragan's house one experiences two worlds, the imag inary and the real; space and person are evoked by the things before us . It was around noon , the t ime of Angelus , when I visited Luis Barraga n's house in Mexico City - it seemed resonant in that setting. I remember the experience as an encounter with a person who had chosen to put his gifts of sensitivity and talent at the service of architecture . It was his lot to live during a period of architectural decadence, a time when it co uld be sa id that architecture as such had been supplanted by self-seeking fantasy. a time when many architects aimed to create bu ildings for their own glory. Barragan was a man of d ignified appearance that housed a d igni f ied intelligence. as Nietzsche has written : " Any intelligence worthy of the name is a remarkable intelligence." Barragan ' s work. like that of Gunnar Asp lu nd . Sigurd Lewerentz before h im and Rogelio Salmona today. is immune from the commentaries of architectural trade magazines. transcending t he merchandising features of the superfluous and the gratuitous . The bui ld i ngs of Barragan are modest arch itectural testimon ies: their message is contained in their very construct ion and is legible only to the gaze as innocent as the intuit ive sensib ility that created t hem.

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The Complete Works

This catalosue of Luis Barrag.6n's buildings,

plans and projects Is the first publication of his complete works It is the result

ol the close collaboration betwffn the Mexico City College of Architects and the Guadalajara•based Fundacl6n de Arqultectura Tapatla, which compHed

the Information on the Jallsco b\llldlnp, together with the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Environment. The

buildings are presented in chronological order, save for the occaslonat exception to accommodate the desJan and access

to the materia l.

Robles le6n House Renovation

1927 with the restorahon ol a house for Emiliano Robles Le6n. Even at this early stage his preference for smooth wall surfaces and light. shadeandcolourtoemphas1ze volumes is clear. H istendencytomakethe most of local vernacular bu ild1n11 skills 1s also evident . In this pro1ec1 the architect used split levels. double-hei ght galleries and a mezzanme lloor that overlooked the hvmg room and dmmg room . Barra11in's layout of the ser11ce areas has become famous : the service rooms over the 11arage. the service courtyard clearly enclosed and hnked to the kitchen and back garden , the pantry nut to another small space that used to be the anteroom to the d1n1ng room. separahnll the ki tchen and thedmmgarea . The adobe wall finishing enabled him to achieve mterestin 11 v1suale fl ects. The sam e is true of t he treatment given to the arnses between the walls.

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Two Houses for Robles Castillo

Enrique Aguilar House

!095Avda.lgnactol.\lal1arla .corner

!SOS Manuel L6pez Cohlla

o!Argen1,na

Guadala1ara, Jahico

GuadalaJara, Jalisco

This is the first building entirely designed and built by Barragjn . Br icks and glazed tiles -in

which fora time he showed great interest

and studied all their possible applications were used

tor the window boxes and the

lattice work of the parapet walls along the upper-storey balconies .

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Efrain Gonzalez Luna House 2083 Bosqu e Guada laJ ara , Jali sco

The Efrain Go nza lez Luna H o use mark s a high point in Barrag.in's ea rl y, Guada la jara yea rs. It a lso esta blished an ea rl y sy nthesis of inte res ts th a t he wo uld con t inu a ll y develop ove r th e course of hi s career. Much of the house's power stems from the understanding between the arch i tect and the client. Gonzalez Luna was a typical representative of the city's enlightened patricians, and his res idence clearly reflects the intellectual symbiosis between the aspirations of a forward ,looking elite and Barragiln's aesthetic concerns. Both had sprung fr om similar sources. local cultural and building traditions, but the house also revealed the new ideas that Barragan had enthusiastically abso rbed on his first trip to Eu rope. Two principa l considerations determined the composition: the solid family life of the owners, expressed in generous spaces both inside and outside, and Gonzalez Luna's intense intellectual activity. Th us, the li brary was given independent access for his visitors through the stairway in the turret. With appropr iate symbolism, the lib rary crowns the family's main living space. The influence of Ferdinand Bae and the Spanish· Mediter ranean vernacular tradition are in evidence, but the architect's artful handling of elements that would become Barragan trademarks are also discernible: t he placement of the oute r walls: the careful articulat ion of the windows: the play of light and its different ambient effects: the in tercommunicat ion of garden, pond and inside areas: the introduction of colour as a defining and celebrated element; the choice of materials; and the use of the roof te rrace for social events and private reflect i on. The house's romantic atmosphere results from its massing and the juxtaposition of geometric elements -

ABOVE: Detail ol lancet ·style

w i ndows

sem ici rcles. squares, rectangles and other forms - that are

LEFT: North fa(;ade

harmoniously co mbined to create an overall effect.

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un: View of the terrace 8El0W l(FT: Pergola

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•eo~t : Detail of the terrace and garden OPPPOSl1£.TOPTOltOTTO ,-C :

Models seen from the north.west. south and

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House

House

331liceo

517 Pedro Loza

Guadala;ara, Jallsco

Guadal11111ra , Jallsco

House 74 Prosper1dad

- - - -_______ ------_o,_,,_,_,.,_.,_,._,,_,.,_,o _

1928

1928

1928

Located in one of the most typ ical

Wh ile working on the house on L1ceo. Barragan

Although this house was uecuted on a lower

neighbourhoods ol downtown Guadala1ara.

was also making use of his now character1s t 1c

budget and located in a less soph1st1cated

this residence was one of Barragin's early

style in a way suited to a neighbourhood with

area ol the city. 1t 1s styllst1ca lly closely

attemPts to incorporate new formal codes

its own d1stmct1ve 1denl1ty: El Santuar10

linked to the L1ceo and Pedro Loza houses .

in to the vernacular style. The conliguration of the corridor-vestibule and the patio 1s

Although the garage already existed - a re latively novel feature at thet1me- the

handled without unnecessary pretentiousness

fa~ade does not appear out ol conte xt . The

but offers very basic security. Bae-style

use of fillets and special twinned windows

motifs continue to be combined with

relate this work to others of the same period .

traditionalornamentationandtheuseol local materials. The one-storey house has an upper level that is purely ornamental, linking it to the adjacent la~ades and creating an imposing entranceintheurbanlandscape.

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Two Rental Houses for Efra fn Gonzjlez Luna 26Sand267Zaragoza Gu1d1l111r1 , Jal,sco

In lhH• r•nlal houses 81rr11in preHrnd

then•111hbourin1houses, rHp•c11n11th• constr11ntsofa cohes,veurban contut. The plan shows several innovations that make 11 morelunct1onal. 8ow1n11 to local architectural norms, Banaain included tenacH, which were tr1d1honaUy used to commun,cate outside access with ms•d• corr1do,s, 1nv1tm1 people to share the ir 1n11m1cy. lnthe layout heusedd1fler•nt types of spatial d1stnbut1on to achieve interHt1n11 perspectives and 101ned p1na11es. skyl111hts, archways and empty spaces. lnStd•. the or1anizat1on is s,m111, to previous des111ns, with a passa11e, corridor and courtyard to one side of the s,t•. but the bathroom 1s placed under a skylight and one bedr oom ,s above the 11ara11e.

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Gustavo R. Cristo House 1671 Pedro Moreno, co m erol Mar sell a G .. ad 1111ara. Jahsco

During his period in Guada la jara, Barragan bega n to com bine th e Spanish-Mexican vernacu lar tradition wit h influences from his trave ls abroad. In this house th e a rchitectu re of No rth Afr ica is particularly apparen't. At the same tim e, however, Barragan see med to be forg ing his ow n individ ual style in a new direction . Barragan's use of colour is bolder than before, and the inter ior walls feature a peculiar type of ~mud sp lash~ texture known as zarpeado, achieved with the same finishing as the outer fa~ades . The composition of the rear courtyards shows a complexity that ant ic ipates some of his later designs, and the placement of the kitchen garden is rather more sk ill ed than in his earlier works . His use of a zig-zag pathway up to the house is noteworthy, although sadly it has been swept away by later alterations . The Cri sto House i s one of the most bizarre experiments in Barragtin ' s oeuvre , a marriage of Mediterranean influences that would be synthesized and devel oped in his later works . Fernando Gonzalez Gortazar has pointed out

.. eovE: Deta il of the !a~ade

that the house has ~cur ious ell iptical arches that he never

LEfl : Mai n !a~ade

used again ~ - although Juan Palomar notes the excepti on of a t im id attempt in one of the windows for Barragan·s house at Chapata, wh ic h wa s not reta ined in the final vers ion "and a success ion of irregularly shaped , enormously beautiful courtya rd s in the back n. Thus, an element that was once secondary - the courtyard for hang ing the washing assumes unexpected importance th rough the creat ive use of surrounding walls and the opening that gives access to it .

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Ildefonso Franco House 2207 Avda . de la Paz, corner of Sim6n Bolivar Guadalajara, Jalisco 1929

The design aim of this house and the adjacent one on 224 Simon Bolfvar was to create an atmosphere for rest and the contemplation of nature. Barragan made the most of outdoor spaces, turning the roof deck into a terrace and creating a solarium. Using h is now tried-and -tested formula of building two houses on one site, Barragan reinterpreted the traditional spaces and materials of his early period and absorbed Andalusian and Arabic influences in a search for personal expression . Determined to create an architectural language of his own - but also straightforward and sensitive he explicitly rejected structural rhetoric and outmoded formal ism. In pursuit of a newer, deeper understanding of the basic elements of construction, he used a great deal of wood , tile and the colour white. Commissioning a special -size green tile, he covered surfaces with the tiles and used wood for gates, doors and windows, inside and out. In these photographs one can see the detail ing of the polychrome Virgin p laced in a niche, the latticed window and the carved woodwork. Skilled in formal creativity, Barragan captured the beauty of external sources and integrated them into this building. The design of the corbels in the porch over the door, for example, recalls the stalactite-like ornamentation above the arches in the Alhambra 's Courtyard of the Lions. The muqarna, imported from the Moorish tradition, can still be

seen in Spanish buildings from Andalusia to Aragon and even more frequently in Morocco . All in all, the dominant tone is simplicity. The play of volumes is paramount, with ornamentation playing a seconda ry role .

Detail of the house on 224 Sim6n Bolivar

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••• •• •• •• • ••• ••• •• ••

. . .. •

:

•

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•

:................................................................~~=O=======Cl====Q::~;;;;:::z!::=tJ

Pl ans and elevations (clockwise from upper left): ground floor, upper floor, end elevation and main fac;ade

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Main access

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"

Two Rental Houses

House

Col6n Cinema

Avda. de La Paz. corner of Colonias

224 S,mOn Bolivar

Guadala1ara, Jahsco

Guadalajara. Jalisco

GuadalaJara. Jal1sco

for E. Robles Le6n

1930

Collaborator: Juan Jos~ Barrag.in Barragan used a courtyard with a huge

This house forms part of a pro1ectwhose

The building has now been totally modi fied.

archway on the street fa!>1pp1, cor ner of R!o Atoyac

141 and J43Avda. ParqueMhico

Colonia Cuauht6moc. Mu 1co City

Coloma Cuauht6moc. Mu1co City

Coloma H1plldromo . Mu1co City

In these apartments Barrag.in applied

In their opt1m1zat1on ol space these two •

modern pr1ne1 ples, such as keep ing space

storey apar tments on Avemda Parque Mh 1co

freeforeasyeirc1.1lat ionandlengthening

are real funct1onallst period pieces. The front

windows.

la(,ades-4metres per dwelling-once again show Barrag.tn·s masteryolcompos1t 1on. According to Carlos Gonz.ilez Lobo, " they concentratec1rculat1onand services in the centre of the plan, allowins the habitable rooms to be located at the extremes, so astomakethemostolllght,vent1lat1on and views." Barraslln also made landscape a feature : by usins a recessed front wall. he created a corner window that opened up the ansle of the house's panoramic view. a device he used repeatedlyinh i slaterbutldinss.

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Low-cost Apartment Building for

M. J. de Sanchez

Jose Mojica

Mrs de la Parra (Widow Verduzco)

Apartment Building

Apartment Building

50RioElba,cornerolRioAtoyac

J8R1oElba

12 Melchor Ocampo

Colon1a Cuauhlt moc. Mu1co City

Colonia Cuauhttmoc. Meuco City

Coloma Cuauhttmoc. Mu,co City

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J. Chivez Pe6n de Ochoa House

Rental House

Lorenzo Garza

61 Avda. Mississipp,

3 RloGuadnina

40 Melchor Ocampo

Colonia Cuauhttmoc, MHico City

Co1onia Cuauhtemoc , Mexico C,ty

Colon,a Cuauhttmoc , Me• ico City

Apartment Building

1936--40: Collaborator: Jose Crei•ell In this single ,familyhouse Barragan used the stairs as the main axis of the composition and the landings as key elements. Horizontal ci rculation was reduced and channelled through the small hallway. He used overhead lighting above the stairs, a feature he would repeat years later in his own res idence and i n the Gilardi House (see page 194).

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Concepci6n Ribot Apartments

Carmen R. G. de Cristo

Apartment Building for

Apartments

Mrs de la Parra (Widow Verduzco)

Avda. Rio Miniss,ppi,cornerofRloA toyac

65 Avda . Rio Miuiuippi, comer ol Rfo Lerma

7ORfoElbill

Colon,a Cuauht6moc, Muico City

Colon,, Cuauht6moc. MellCO City

Coloni, Cu,uht6moc, Mexico City

1936--40

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Apartment Building

Alfonso Barragan

Rental House for M. Pilar Uribe

Apartment Building Rio Lerma ar,d Rio Gvad ,ar,a

33Avda . Rio M,ss, ss,pp,

Coloma Cvavht4imoc. Mu ,co Coty

Coloma Cvavhl4imoc . Mu1co Coty

1936-40(demolished)

1936-40

..

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Coloma Cor,desa. Meuco C,ty

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Two Rental Houses for

Rental House for

RaUI Ortega Amezcua

Abraham Goldefer

I. Pizarro Sujrez House

116 bis and !18 Avda. Mazatl.11n

114 Avda . Mazatl.11n

1630 Paseodela Retorma

Colon1a Condesa. Mexico c,ty

Colon,a Condesa. Mu1co c,ty

Colonia Lomas de Chapultepec. Mexico City 1937:Collaborator: JuanJodBarrag.11n

The official blueprints state that Barrag.11n

The committee established by th e MHico

was an engineer by profession and owner ol

City College of Architects !or the exhibition of

the building. He designed and constructed

Barragan's works, organized by the Spanish

two houses accord ing lo the floor plan shown

Ministry ol Public Work s, Transport and

below, but the r eal owner, RaUI Ortega

Environment and the Colleges of Architects of

Amezcua. later used another architect to

Madr id, Mexico City and other capltals,

translorm-ilnotcompletelyredesign -

r anked Barrag.11n's works according to a

the bu ilding, although it appears that the

carefully weighed scale ol interest: th is house

overall organization of Barrag.11n"s des ign

was among the top twenty .

was respected .

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Apartment Build ing

Rental House for

Dr David Kostovetsky House

Mrs Corcuera (Widow Aleizar) 14Estocolmo

130Avda . Mazatl6n

103 Avda . Nue~o Leon

Colonia Ju•ru , Mex icoC,ty

Colonta Condu,. Me xico c,ty

Colon t, H,pOdromo, Moico c ,ty

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l

Building for Four Painters' Studios 38 Melchor Ocampo Colonia Cuauht6moc, Mexico City 1939 Collaborator: Max Cetto This is one of the most typical buildings of

blocks away, Barragan used the stair landing

Barragan's functionalist period, which he

as the fulcrum of the structure's organization,

termed "commercial". It was a period of

which allowed for split-level areas that

transition for Barragan's work, and most

mirrored the spaces on the fa~ade .

critics have failed to appreciate its

The final building owes much to his

true value until now. However, those who

cooperation with the German architect and

knew Barragan well, such as his friend

emigre to Mexico, Max Cetto, who had had

and fellow archi tect Andres Casillas, admit

contact with the Bauhaus, studied with

that it played a substantial role in his work

Hans Poelzig and was part of the Congr~s

as a whole. Antonio Ruiz Barbarin, too,

International d' Architecture Moderne.

considers the period significant within

Barragan and Cetto also collaborated on the

the context of Barragan's evolution and

Satellite City Towers project (page 162) and

development.

two houses on 10 and 12 Avenida de las

As wi th the houses on Guadiana, a few

Fuentes in El Ped regal (page 133).

I

,,... I /

87

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House and Garden Improvements

House for Arturo Figueroa Uriza

House for Arturo Figueroa Uriza

for Alfredo Vazquez and Luz Barragan de Vazquez

55Avda.JamesSull,van

251 Avda. H1dalso: Chapala. Jalisco 1940: Collaborator: AllredoVhquez Accordins to several testimonies, Barrasi!in worked alongside his sister and br other•in law to improve their house. set on the slope ota small hill overlookins Chapala Lake. and thelargegardensurroundin g it.lnthishouse theelementstha twerecharacter1sticofhis work in Guadalajara were filtered throush a geome tr ical rigour in a process typical ofh1s laterperiod . Thegardens , too.anliclpated some aspects ol the landscaping work t hat he would develop further In Tacubaya and EIPed regal.

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Eduardo Villaseiior House

Apartment Building for Arturo Figueroa Uriza

Four Private Gardens

61 Avda . .James Sullivan, corner ol M. Schul!z

139 Reyna

Francisco Ramirez and Avda . Const1tuyentes

Coloma San Ratael. Mexico c,ty

Colonia San Angel. Me•1co City

Colonia Tacubaya, Mexico City 1940 In 1940 Barrag6n bought a piece ol land 1n Tacubaya. After subd1v1ding ii into lour plots. hebull t gardensonthreeolthemand 1n 1947, his own house w1th a studio anne• and gardenonlhetourth(seepage9l).

Authors and researchers have not reached an agr eementastowhetherornotth1sbu1ld1ng 1s based on a plan by Barrag;!.in.

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Ortega House (formerly Barragi!in House) I0Gener11I Fr11nc,sco R11mirez Colon,a hc ubaya, Mu,co Ci t y

A work of particular sign ificance in Barrag3n's personal and professional deve lopment, this building marks th e end of his functionalist period. Tired of " commercial" work, he an nounced to his clients and fr iends in arou nd 1940 th at he was retiring fro m the profession - at least as he had been practising it unti l then. Around that t ime he bought a large wooded estate on Calle de Madereros (now Constituyentes). whe re he began to build a series of sardens for hi s own use . Using parts of an old vernacu lar-style bu ilding al ready on the site, he built his f irst hou se for himself in Mexico City, next to which he la id out several room -like gardens, a device he undoubtedly learnt from the Alhambra in Granada . Albeit st ill nascent , all the elements with wh ich he would bu ild his absolute masterpiece and archetypal house on the same street , at number 14, seven years later are present in this house . The sardens, into the des ign of which he poured the cumulat ive knowledge of all his previous experiences , deserve separate ment ion and illustration (see pase 89).

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"The Dream of a Town Planner called Luis Barragan" could easily be the title for a book on his work as urban planner and landscape architect, an unjustly ignored facet of his career. Following his feverish output between 1936 and 1940 (which had substantially filled out his pocketbook), Barragan informed his clients that he was giving up architecture. Perhaps he was already thinking of his great dream ... In 1939 he designed four private gardens (see page 89); in 1940 hi s own

Barragan worked as consultant and designer for the garden and wooded

house and gardens (now the Ortega House, page 91) and in 1944 three

areas of the Ciudad Universitaria Campus (1949-54) in Mexico City. a

private gardens 1n El Cabrio (see page 95). With their references to Dali

collective project in wh ich some 180 architects were involved. Although

and De Chirico, these are the direct antecedents to his great project for

exi sting documents fa il to show the extent of his involvement in the

El Pedregal, four hundred hectares of "paralyzed, imposing ocean" of dark

project, his hand is recognizable in the preservation of the native

lava, where, accord ing to his fr iend the painter Juan Soriano, Barragan

vegetation, the use of such materials as volcanic rock and rubble stone for

would en1oy the sunsets of the Anahuac Va lley with his guests. a

pavements and floors, and the elimination of the ornamental flowerbeds

mi xed crowd of arti sts, intellectuals and businesspeople - Diego Rivera,

that were so common at the time.

Clemente Orozco, "Chucho" Reyes. Dr Atl, Edmundo O'Gorman and J. A.

The zoning plan for Jardines del Bosque ( 1955, see page 160) had

Bustamante. among others. These dusk meetings were devoted not only

simpler regulations than El Pedregal. It was simply a matter of designing

to aesthetic appreciation but to marketing the residential estate of

roadways, green spaces and property divisions for a middle class that

Jard1nes del Pedregal. for Barragan had already established a company to

wanted a new residential area in more pleasant surroundings and with

develop his idea that gardens cou ld provide open spaces as an ideal

better services (churches. parks. school s). The sculpture crowning the

counterpo int to modern Mexican architecture.

landscaping was by Mathias Goeritz, who executed the not altogether

BarragAn was searching for a new balance between man and earth. The plots were generous: some houses were sited on over 10.000 square

suc cessful Pajaro Amarillo (Yellow Bird). Wher eas in El Pedregal Barragan wanted to fit the build ings into the

n1etres (roughly 10 acres): the m inimum permi tted was l.000 square

landsca pe. hi s aim wi th Satellite City Towers (page 162) was to identify

rnctres (11bout an acre). Subdiv1s1on was car ried out according to th e lie of

and emphasize the m ain poin t of access to Ciudad Satelite. Yet again the

the tcrri\1n. With the almost total ab sence of official town planning

archi tect turned to Goentz. whose first idea was rejected on the grounds of

re1sul,1t1ons. new vi stas for crea t1v1ty were opened up and Barragan. as

being "unbu,ld:ible". Barragan then came up with a concept for a plaza

l;indsc.,1\ti ,1rch1tect, cou ld 1111pose his own rule s.

wi th seven towers. several fountains and as many steps, reminiscent of t he

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Architecture and Landscape

towers in Tuscany's San Gimignano that he had seen on a trip to Italy with

And the San Cristobal Stables (page 182) are a masterpiece created on an

Juan Soriano. In the end it was decided to erect five triangular towers of

eminently human scale - for humans on horseback.

different heights - now landmarks in Mexico City. Barragan continued his work with the Las Arboledas subdivision (195~1.

From 1964 to 1967 Barragan worked with his fellow architect Juan Sordo Madalene on the master plan for Lomas Verdes (page 201), a 380-hectare

see page 168) in the suburbs of Mexico City. Once more he made the

property northwest of Mexico City. The plan was to create an autonomous

most of his talents as a landscape architect, creating two fountains of

urban unit for 100.000 inhabitants. d ivided into two areas: one wou ld be

ingenious design and construction - integrating trees. light. l and and

highly urban, with tall buildings; the other would be suburban, with open

water into an indivisible whole. The fountains reflected a return to the

spaces and single-family residences. The overall plan consisted of four

origins of their use by horses and riders and as a source of enjoyment for

neighbourhoods, each with 4,500 dwellings; a city centre with domestic,

passers•by. As always. he used rustic, tectonic materials laid out to confer

professional, commercial. governmental and entertainment services, all

di screet but particular significance on each element. The Red Wall (page

interlinked by porticades running along the plazas; a central axis that

I 69) stands in striking contrast with the intense blue of the sky, the bright

began from the land's highest point (where the chu rch stood); and two

green of the trees and the mineral ochres of the earth.

other main thoroughways, one of which was flanked by a double line of

Next to Las Arboledas he designed a smaller subdivision, Los Clubes (1963, page 174), as an exclusive area for horse lovers. Here, Barragan·s mastery in handling the urban scale is again apparent. A key part of his

buildings leading down to the city centre. Unfortunately. Barragan's intriguing plan was not followed. Barragan later received offers from the United States to plan several

plan was the drinking fountain for horses. Los Amantes (The Lovers, page

residential housing estates: Serrano, Texas ( 1977); Summer Peck, Fresno.

176), which he designed to create an element of visual surprise. To

California, (1984); and Carver, Palm Desert, California (1985). Little has

prevent the horses slipping when entering, the pool floor was covered with

been said about these projects, because ii is unlikely that Barragan was

pebbles, which he then took out beyond the water up to the street.

fully involved in the works. since his state of health by then was in decline.

He also incorporated an enigmatic service gate that stands ever closed.

Salvador Rodriguez Salinas

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Three Private Gardens Avda. San Jer6nimo Coloni a San Angel, Mexico City 1944 (demolished)

In 1944 Barragan developed a large property called El Cabrio in the south of Mexico City, with the idea of turning it into private gardens. He intended to re-create a sense of wild nature adapted to human needs, a place where people could lead a life of reflection and meditation. In these gardens Barragan invited in nature's untamed side, where rationality would give way to intuition . He made extensive use of horizontal planes, establishing a sequence that created loosely confined zones within low perimeter walls, bushes or water pools - intimate enclosures that did not reduce the power of nature. As Emilio Ambasz put it, Barragan achieved the exaltation of his best images of Surrealism in these gardens . The gardens display some of the deeper characteristics and avant-garde concepts in Barragan's work, which at the time ran against the norms, summed up nicely by Juan Palomar Verea: There would not seem to be any deep-lying difference between the patios of his houses and the plazas of the subdivisions he designed. A plaza could fall under private ownership and a patio could belong to the community. They were not public or private spaces: they were open. In them, very few elements defined the place: some walls, the d irection marked by two rifts, a water pool, three subtle but clearly cut stepped levels. That was all. They could contain a small crowd or no one at all. They could capture the fleeting shadow of a horse-rider on the move or the static one of a pepper tree on the wall. The space was the same. It was not completed by anything other than the cosmos. It opened itself up to seasons and storms, nights and constellations, and only to these did it surrender. Other presences always gravitated towards it from outside. Its spaces lay in wait. They were, truly, open.

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95

96

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Jardines del Pedregal Residential Subdivision Colonia San Angel, Mexico City

1945-50

"I spent the years from 1945 to 1950 working on El Pedregal," Barragan told an interviewer, "an area to the south of Mexico City, covered by the lava from the Xitie Volcano, which erupted in the second century. A garden I designed gave me an idea for the urban development of the area. But El Pedregal needed a large company to build it up and a strong financier or real-estate agent to back it. I invited Jose Bustamante in and he accepted eagerly, which was how we came to set up Jardines del Pedregal. I was in charge of the planning, the design of some of the houses and the ornamentation, though I was also involved on the financial side." Thus began the development work , with all that it entailed. It was a meeting between one man' s human sensibility and an imposing natural phenomenon . Thirty-f ive years later , when he received the Pritzker Prize, he declared: To the south of Mexico City l ies a vast extension of volcanic rock, and, overwhelmed by the beauty of this landscape, I decided to create a series of gardens to humanize, without destroying, its magic. While walking along the lava crevices, under the shadow of imposing ramparts of live rock, I suddenly discovered, to my astoni shment, small, secret, green valleys - the shepherds call them "jewels" - surrounded and enclosed by the most fantastic, capricious rock formations wrought on soft, melted rock by the onslaught of powerful prehistoric winds.

The project involved creating a select residential area on about four million square metres of land that would be governed by a new, harmonious relationship between man and nature, bui ldings and land . The idea was to construct a private and publ ic habitat with clear-cut gu idelines, so that the architectura l or public utilities would not only passively respect the rock formations and preserve the indigenous p lantlife but also pursue an active strategy, in wh ich the natural elements - including ground water - would become the basic elements of the design itself. Barragan thereby developed further the neoplasticism of

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-

--- -~ -.-- - - · -

•

De Stijl, the attempt to bring harmony to man-made

surroundings that dominated European aesthetics in the 1920s. Barragan 's novel approach, however, distingu ished him more as a precursor to the Modern environmental movements that would emerge decades later. This is especially true of the way he formulated his ideas in terms of an ecological humanism or - to put it the other way around of humanistic ecology. At the Jardines del Pedregal he divided the area into plots; established roadways, pavements, gardens , plazas, fountains and ponds, entrances and exits; added cactus and pepper trees; designated building standards and even designed some of the houses. He worked with the advice of Jesus "Chucho" Reyes, also originally from Guadalajara, whom he had met shortly after moving to Mexico City . A painter and l El Cabrio

person with exceptionally good taste, a passionate defender

2 Fountain Plaza

of Mexico's native cultures, he had a decisive influence on

3 Cetto House

the architect's creative work. The sculptor Mathias Goeritz

4 Two houses at Avda. de las Fuentes 5 Show Garden

helped him with certain symbolic elements, as did the German architect Max Cetto, who had had contact with the

6 Prieto L6pez House 7 Public Park

Bauhaus and been a friend of Gropius, as well as a member

8 Traffic Circle and Service Entrance

of the Congres International d' Architecture Moderne. The gardens were entered through an enormous plaza

9 Cigar Plaza 10 Commercial Center

bordered on one side by a long white wall and on the other

11 Church

by jagged walls of uneven lava , which began in the depths of

12 Pyramid of Cuicuilco

a volcanic hollow. A tall jet of water shot out of this cavity. gradually dispersing as gravity recalled it. The composition was rounded out with a serpent sculpture by Goeritz and a fence of fluorescent, scarlet-painted vertical spikes. Barragan designed the show garden - now gone - to display the expressive and poetic potential of the land and the quality of life that could be created there. He included several fountains, such as the Fuente de los Patos (Duck Fountain), and the series of fountains between the rocks that made up the Plaza de las Fuentes (Fountain Plaza). He also designed the Plaza del Cigarro (Cigar Plaza), which was surmounted by a tall cylindrical shape (a water tank). Using a min imal number of elements and textures he humanized the wil d landscape : a small wall here, a pavement between the rocks there, a pond or a geyser to break up a monotonous stretch of rocks. He thus achieved a

98

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R1Gi-.T ~NO 8CLOw: T he

unadulterated El Ped regal landscape

fllOM LCH: Aer 111I v iews m !950, 1959 and 1980

masterful synthesis between the natural landscape and the country's culture: an earthly paradise , qu iet and int im ate , a personal vision based on his own eclect ic roots pre•Columbian stairways and ceremonial centres, gardens and orchards of the Viceroyalty era, the perspectives of the Mediterranean garden, the sounds of the Alhambra , the

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subtlety of the Japanese garden , the straight lines of Mondrian. Today little of this remains, apart from Salas Portugal ' s beautiful photographs and Barragan's design specifications. Straight lines, horizontal surfaces and pr imary geometrical volumes have become things of the past. The area grew, the large lots were subdivided and, once again, paradise was lost.

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IOI

~Bo~ c View of the show garden OPPOSITE: Detail of the show garden

102

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.._eovE: Show garden and sales office OPPOSITE, TOP ...NO BOTT OM: Although the Jardines del Pedregal subd,v,s1on differs from the four private gardens (see page 89). ol which these are partial views, Barragliin's landscaping pro1ects all followed a uniQue proJeCt design sequence and crea tive process.

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-",BOY[ L[(T -",ND RIGHT: Duck Fountain LEH: Fountain Plaza

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.o.sovE: Fllghlofsta1rssetmtot heearth 'scontour OPPOSITE, TOP: Minima list water Jet OPPOS ITE, 80TT01'1: Ponds m the show garden

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ABOV£: Entrancegate ~BOV£ IIIGHT: Rai lings l eading up to the entran ce gate

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Luis Barragjn House and Studio 14 General Francisco Ramirez Colonia Tacubaya, Mexico City 1947

This masterpiece, transformed over time as if it were a kind of laboratory, faithfully reflects what Barragan meant when he said many years later, in his speech at the Pritzker Prize award ceremony, that his architecture was autobiographical. The house is free of clutter. Its exterior fits into the context of the unpretentious neighbourhood, while its interior is complete ly Barraganesque. From the entrance vestibule the architect's characteristic atmosphere and space, enhanced by the rustic finishings on the walls and the indirect lighting, have an immediate impact . In the hall, the space is set off by a pink wall with clear• cut volumes, a half-open staircase without a bannister, simple furnishings and a golden Goeritz painting illuminated by natural overhead lighting. A split-level, double-height space contains the main room and the studio living room, which is divided by low walls that do not interrupt the continuity of the ceiling beams. In the ma in room a huge picture window looks onto a jungle-l ike garden . Set back in the walls, the window's mullion and transom form a cross that accentuates the bu ilding's mystic quality. What appears to be disorder in the ivy-walled garden is part of a deliberate p lan to transmit the calm of untrammelled nature to the rest of the house. Steep wooden stairs set into a wa ll snake their way up from the studio, leading to a door that remains forever shut. The granite staircase that j oins the ha ll to the other rooms is supported by a yellow wall that emphasizes the lighting in the vestibule and links the bedrooms in an almost magical way; a smal l stairway leads up to the roof deck. High terracotta-red walls define the space of an abstract roof, which, like the rest of the house, is an open invitation to contemplation.

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113

A.BOVE: A

structure, typical ol Barragin's work In this

period. that connects spaces using trad1t1onal shapes and maternlls. (The door is now gone.) RIGHT: The main hwmg room. with a lectern to the lelt and a huge picture window that allows light from the garden and views from the house. Unframed . 11 1s held m place by simple cross supports. a fea ture repeated In other projects.

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ABO¥£: View of the garden lrom the main r oom AIOYC AIG,.T: Vi ew of the stud io trom the garden

Au,,.,: Detail of the natur11I llghhng over the stairwell with a pa int ing by Mat hias Goeritz. OPPOSITt: Partial v1ewolthe library

'"

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i1.eovE: View ol the garden OPPOSITE: View of the garden and the main room window

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Views of the roof deck

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"'

Eduardo Prieto L6pez House 180 Avda. de las Fuentes Colonia Pedregal de San Angel, Mexico City 1948

Barragan began planning and constructing this house when the

- -

Jardines del Pedregal development was in progress and did not have running water, electricity or even streets. He took loose stones and rocks from El Pedregal and used them to build the outer walls of the garden and house. In this way Barragan isolated the outside world and created an inner space for peace and tranquillity. Along with the generous dimensions of the space, this became the main compositional theme, reminiscent of the vast old haciendas. Of all Barragan's houses this is the most spacious. In it, he re-created a childlike experience of space and linked the different areas with exemplary compositional mastery. The atmosphere is only limited by the materia ls - wood floors, large bare walls and beam ceilings to provide continuity between spaces and generate a world of shapes that recall the hacienda and emanate unashamed modernity. The house's ambience is established in the entrance patio, an elegant square defined by simple walls. These walls are perhaps the first manifestation of the min imalist approach that became so important in Barragan's later work. Behind the small entrance is an impressive vestibule that takes visitors in to a level that is below the living and eating areas but that shares common ceiling beams. The result is a single space spread out with intrigu ing perspectives. Despite their size, the living and eating areas are modest. The furniture is simple, the decor minimal and the harmony total. They look onto the garden through generous windows whose vistas were chosen for maximum effect. With split levels, tiny stone walls and lively vegetation, the magical garden takes visitors out of time into a seemingly infinite space.

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View with d1n1ng room in the background

"'

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LIYlng room . with v,ews ol the garden

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130

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TOP: View of a wall that incorporates the volcan ic rock

.1.eovE: An entrance to the garden un : View al the house from the garden

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Villa Adriana Remodel

House

Bermlldez House Me~•co City or Gu11dala1ara

245Av. Hidal110

IISA11u11

Chapala.JallKO

Coloo,,a Pedregal de San An11eI . Me~•CO C,ty

tn about 1947 JesUs Gondlez Gallo and his

An undocumented work . In Carlos La:o ·s

wile commissioned Barrag;lin to r emodel th eir

Arquilectura Mexicana ConlemporJnea,

Th,s work appears In b1bll ograph,es but without add1!1onal 1ntormaI1onor an address.

weekend house i n Chapala, kn own IS Villa

publ ished in 1952, the house appears under

Some say 1t ,s located In Mu 1co City , while

Adr iana. Barragan added a two -s torey

number L· I S (Lot IS). There Is now another

othe rs clai m 11 Is In Guadata,ara . falosco.

corridoraroundtheoriginalbu ild ,ng to serve

bu1ldingonthe s1te.

IS a living space from wh ich to enjoy the

surround ing views. Th e apparent simplicity of the wo rk is notable in its composition and su ccessfulsca le,wh ichmake itboth invihngly intimate and magnificently grand.

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Two Houses JO and 12Avda dllHfuentn Colon,, Pedrea•• de San AnaeI , Meuco C11y

,,..

Collaborator Mo Ceno Work,ng with Cello made Barra;.tn more

Editor's Note:

lam1liar with the lanauaae of Modern

There Is some speculation that these houses

archi tectur e, The proiect respected El

were actually on 130 and 1'0 Aven lda de las

Pedregal subd 1v 1sion's des,an standards.

Fuentes. Smee Barrag.tn never clarllled the

tak,ng advantaae ol !he landscape, conservIn1

matter. fo r the purposes ol identificat ion In

the lava rocks and existing ve;elat1on and

this book we r ely on the authori ty ol Salas

emphas1z1ng the contrast between pure

Portugal. whose hislor1c photo;raphs show

geometric volumes and the unpred1c11ble

the houses to be at number s 10 and 12 on the

craggmen ol nature with whIt1 walls.

same street .

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Ul

LEH : I nterior wi th proieclmg sta irway and bannister BELOW L£fT: Courtyard with cement elements built around volcanic rocklormat1ons OPPOSITE: Partial view of the interi or as seen from the garden

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House !40Avda.delnFuentes Colonia Pedregal de San Angel. Mu,coCity

Collaborator: Mu Cetto

(See Editor·s Note on page 133) Listed by Alberto Moreno Guzman 11nd other sources, theresidenceiscurrentlybeingresearched.

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House

Reforestation and Landscaping C1udad Ur11vers1 tar1a. ur