Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (March 9, 1902 – November 22, 1988) was a Mexican

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international students and professors of architecture. He studied as an engineer in his home town, while undertaking the entirety of additional coursework to obtain the title of architect. Barragán won the

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

, the highest award in architecture, in 1980, and his personal home, the Luis Barragán House and Studio, was declared a UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2004.

Early life

Barragán was born in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Mexico, while the Guadalaj ...

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal ...

, Mexico. Educated as an engineer, he graduated from the ''Escuela Libre de Ingenieros'' in

in 1923. After graduation, he traveled through

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. While in France he became aware of the writings of Ferdinand Bac, a German-French writer, designer and artist whom Barragán cited throughout his life. In 1931, he again traveled to France with a long stop-over in New York. In this trip he met Mexican mural painter

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Si ...

, architectural magazine editors, and

Frederick Kiesler Frederick John Kiesler (September 22, 1890 – December 27, 1965) was an Austrian- American architect, theoretician, theater designer, artist and sculptor. Biography Kiesler was born Friedrich Jacob Kiesler in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empir ...

. In France he briefly met Le Corbusier and finally visited the gardens realized by Ferdinand Bac. He practiced architecture in Guadalajara from 1927–1936, and in Mexico City thereafter.

Career

His Guadalajara work includes over a dozen private homes in the Colonia Americana area of what is today near downtown Guadalajara. These homes, within walking distance of each other, include Barragán's earliest residential projects. One of his first buildings, Casa Cristo, was restored and houses the state's Architects' Guild.

Major projects

In 1945 he started planning the residential development of

Jardines del Pedregal Jardines del Pedregal ( en, Rocky Gardens) or simply El Pedregal (full name: El Pedregal de San Angel) is an upscale residential '' colonia'' (neighborhood) in southern Mexico City hosting some of the richest families of Mexico. It is also known as ...

, Mexico City. In 1947 he built his own house and studio in

Tacubaya Tacubaya is a working-class area of west-central Mexico City, in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo, consisting of the '' colonia'' Tacubaya proper and adjacent areas in other colonias, with San Miguel Chapultepec sección II, Observatorio, Daniel G ...

and in 1955 he rebuilt the ''Convento de las Capuchinas Sacramentarias'' in

Tlalpan Tlalpan ( nci, Tlālpan, , place on the earth, ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, and the plan for Jardines del Bosque in Guadalajara. In 1957 he planned

Torres de Satélite The Torres de Satélite ("Satellite Towers") are a group of sculptures located in the Ciudad Satélite district of Naucalpan, State of Mexico. One of the country's first urban sculptures of great dimensions, had its planning started in 1957 with th ...

(an urban sculpture created in collaboration with sculptor

Mathias Goeritz Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (4 April 1915, Danzig, German Empire – 4 August 1990, Mexico City) was a Mexican painter and sculptor of German origin. After spending much of the 1940s in North Africa and Spain, he and his wife, photographer ...

) and an exclusive residential area, Las Arboledas, a few kilometers away from

Ciudad Satélite Ciudad Satélite (), commonly known as Satélite, is a Greater Mexico City upper middle class suburban area located in Naucalpan, State of Mexico. Officially, the name corresponds exclusively to the homonym neighborhood, Ciudad Satélite, fou ...

. In 1964 he designed, alongside architect

Juan Sordo Madaleno Juan Sordo Madaleno (October 1916, Mexico City – 12 March 1985, Idem) was a Mexican architect. Biography Sordo Madaleno was one of the most important Mexican architects of his era. He worked with other renowned architects, including Luis ...

, the

Lomas Verdes Lomas Verdes is an upper-middle-class neighborhood located in the north of Mexico City. The community was developed in the late 1960s and is near Ciudad Satélite Ciudad Satélite (), commonly known as Satélite, is a Greater Mexico City uppe ...

residential area, also near the Satélite area, in the municipality of Naucalpan, Estado de México. In 1967 he created one of his best-known works, the San Cristóbal Estates equestrian development in Mexico City. File:Fuente de los Amantes.JPG, Fuente de los Amantes File:Casa Giraldi Luis Barragan.JPG, Casa Gilardi File:Casa Liraldi Luis Barragán.JPG, Casa Gilardi File:Torres de Satélite - 4.jpg, Torres de Satélite (in collaboration with sculptor

)

Barragán and the Modernist movement

Barragán visited

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

and became influenced by European modernism. The buildings he produced in the years after his return to Mexico show the typical clean lines of the

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

movement. Nonetheless, according to Andrés Casillas (who worked with Barragán), he eventually became entirely convinced that the house should not be "a machine for living." Opposed to functionalism, Barragán strove for an "emotional architecture" claiming that "any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake." Barragán used raw materials such as stone or wood. He combined them with an original and dramatic use of light, both natural and artificial; his preference for hidden light sources gives his interiors a particularly subtle and lyrical atmosphere.

Honors

Barragán worked for years with little acknowledgement or praise until 1975 when he was honored with a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1980, he became the second winner of the

Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

. His house and studio, built in 1948 in Mexico City, were listed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

World Heritage site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2004.

Influence

Satelite Towers and Anillo Periferico BMAC

The work of Luis Barragán is often (and misleadingly) quoted in reference to

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

architecture. John Pawson, in his book ''Minimum'', includes images from some of Barragán's projects. Most architects who do minimalistic architecture do not use color, but the ideas of forms and spaces which Barragán pioneered are still there. There have been several essays written by the Pritzker Prize recipient Alvaro Siza in prefaces to books that make reference to the ideas of Barragán.

Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. W ...

informally consulted Barragán on the space between the buildings of the

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

in La Jolla, California. According to the documents, Kahn's original idea was to place a garden between the buildings; however, Barragán suggested that an open plaza, with only a water feature in between, would better reflect the spirit of the location. This area, possibly designed with Barragán's advice in mind, is arguably the most impressive aspect of the building complex. He was a highly recognized consultor by many Mexican and International architects on landscape design, as he had a particular ability to envision the outdoor spaces and their relation to their interior paradigms and the natural context characteristics. Barragán's influence can be seen in the work of many of Mexico's contemporary architects, especially in

Ricardo Legorreta Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis (May 7, 1931 – December 30, 2011) was a Mexican architect. He was a prolific designer of private houses, public buildings and master plans in Mexico, the United States of America and some other countries. He was awarde ...

's projects. One of the projects, where Barragán's concepts and colors inspired Legorreta, is the Hotel Camino Real in Polanco, Mexico City. This project reflects the importance of the native culture and its intersection with an elegant modern design.

Legacy

Barragán died at the age of eighty-six in

. In his will, he designated three people to manage his legacy:

Ignacio Díaz Morales Ignacio is a male Spanish and Galician name originating either from the Roman family name Egnatius, meaning born from the fire, of Etruscan origin, or from the Latin name "Ignatius" from the word "Ignis" meaning "fire". This was the name of sev ...

, Óscar González González, and Raúl Ferrera.

, a friend and fellow architect, was bequeathed Barragán's library. He was tasked with choosing an institution suitable for receiving the book collection. Óscar Ignacio González, a childhood friend, received Barragán's personal objects. Raúl Ferrera, his business partner, received the archives and the copyright to the work. Díaz Morales established the Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía, a private foundation managed by the Casa Barragán, in co-ownership with the Government of the State of Jalisco. The house is now a museum which celebrates Barragán and serves as a conduit between scholars and architects interested in visiting other Barragán buildings in Mexico.

added the Casa Luis Barragán to its

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2004. Following Raúl Ferrera's passing away in 1993, the archives and related copyright became the property of Mrs Ferrera's widows who, after having unsuccessfully tried to find a collector or institution willing to keep these in Mexico, decided to sell them to the Max Protetch Gallery in New York. The documents were offered to a number of prospective clients, among them the

Vitra Design Museum The Vitra Design Museum is a privately owned museum for design in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Former Vitra CEO, and son of Vitra founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum, Rolf Fehlbaum founded the museum in 1989 as an independent private foundation. The ...

, which in 1994 was planning an exhibition dedicated to Luis Barragán. Following the Vitra company's policy of collecting objects and archives of design and architecture, the archives were finally acquired in their entirety and transferred to the Barragán Foundation in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The Barragan Foundation is a not-for-profit institution based in Birsfelden,

. Since 1996, it manages the archives of Luis Barragán, and in 1997 acquired the negatives of the photographer Armando Salas Portugal documenting Barragán's work. The Foundation's mission is to spread the knowledge on Luis Barragán's cultural legacy by means of preserving and studying his archives and related historical sources, producing publications and exhibitions, providing expertise and assistance to further institutions and scholarly researches. The Barragán Foundation owns complete rights to the work of Luis Barragán and to the related photos by Armando Salas Portugal.

Important works

All finished projects by Barragán are located in Mexico. * Las Arboledas / North of Mexico City (1955–1961) * House for the architect / Barragán House, Mexico City (1947–48) *

Subdivision, Mexico City (1945–53) * Tlalpan Chapel,

, Mexico City (1954–60) * Gálvez House, Mexico City (1955) * Jardines del Bosque Subdivision, Guadalajara (1955–58) *

, Mexico City (1957–58), in collaboration with

* Cuadra San Cristóbal, Los Clubes, Mexico City (1966–68) * Gilardi House, Mexico City (1975–77) * Cuernavaca Racquet Club,

Cuernavaca Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cue ...

, Mexico (1976-1980)

Luis Barragán House and Studio

Luis Barragán set up his studio in Mexico City, the building is currently a museum, but with tours available only by appointment. The building is from 1948 reflecting Barragán's preferred style, where he lived his whole life. Today is owned by

and the Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán Foundation. The site became

in 2004. File:Luis Barragan House exterior 01.jpg File:Luis Barragan - Casa Luis Barragan 張基義老師拍攝 010.jpg File:Luis Barragan - Casa Luis Barragan 張基義老師拍攝 015.jpg File:Luis Barragan - Casa Luis Barragan 張基義老師拍攝 039.jpg

In popular culture

In Tite Kubo's

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

, the character Baraggan Louisenbarn is named after Luis Barragán.

References

*Peñaflor, Osvaldo "Fundación Barragán lanza sitio web que recopila 5 décadas de la obra del arquitecto mexicano" https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/tag/barragan-foundation about Barragan Foundation new site (in Spanish)

External links

Website of the Barragan FoundationLuis Barragan's house and studio (in Spanish)about Barragan Foundation new site (in Spanish)about Barragan Foundation new site
*
Artists Rights Society, Barragán's U.S. Copyright Representatives
*https://www.admexico.mx/arquitectura/articulos/espacios-luis-barragan-cdmx-edo-mex/5039 {{DEFAULTSORT:Barragan, Luis Modernist architects from Mexico Architecture firms of Mexico Pritzker Architecture Prize winners 1902 births 1988 deaths Architects from Mexico City Artists from Guadalajara, Jalisco Modernist architecture in Mexico 20th-century Mexican architects