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Eluding any easy categorization, the whole spatial experience is best conveyed with emotive language; commentators refer to the house with words such as “enchantment” and “spellbound”, terms more commonly found in a lyric work than in the architectural discourse. The personal residence built by Barragán in 1948 at 14 Calle Francisco Ramírez in Mexico City, where he lived and worked until his death, is one of his undisputed masterpieces. The experience of the interior – which simultaneously embraces modernity and tradition in a contemporary interpretation of the domestic space – has an emotional component that continues to fascinate. On the second level, the architect's room and the afternoon room take over the view toward the sheltered garden. They are accessed through a yellow space again illuminated in the morning thanks to the light from the vestibule that bounces until it reaches the rooms. By contrast, we have the dining and breakfast room, which have windows overlooking the garden.
VISIT OTHER LUIS BARRAGAN WORKS IN MEXICO CITY
From the incredibly varied book collection, to religious paraphernalia mixed with sculptures and modern art, it feels like a house that is meant to be joyously lived in and experienced, not merely looked at. We’re reflected back to ourselves not only in the mirrored orbs found throughout the house, but in the spaces made for solitude among books, nature, and religious contemplation. I left feeling encouraged to follow my own obsessions and joys in creating a home, green or pink, wood or gold. This second door separates the shadows of the golden goal in the light of the lobby, which is produced by a reflex mechanism. From outside the yellow, the light falling on a gold surface of a Baroque altarpiece and after bathing in the bright pink walls.The experience of color can also be read as a complementary sequence. The purist of stairs lead visitors through the other stories of the house, towards private bedroom and studio spaces.
Casa Luis Barragán: House and Studio Museum
The minimalist style gives reason to the significance of detail, every aspect of the house has it's purpose and is obviously planned by the architect. It was in the design of the secondary, functional spaces, at the rear of the plot and at roof-top level, that Barragán freely experimented with a more abstract, innovative approach, complemented by locally sourced materials and vernacular accents. A variation of the same theme appears in the rear patio and service court on the ground floor. The layout of the Cristo House is Barragán’s first attempt to implement an inward-looking scheme, one that incorporates the garden space rather than confining it to the margins of the plot. The area at the back of the site is thus treated like a continuation of the interior, as a succession of open-air rooms extending the sequence of the internal spaces.
Luis Barragán: the Mexican master of modernism - Mexico News Daily
Luis Barragán: the Mexican master of modernism.
Posted: Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:36:08 GMT [source]
In Residence: Inside Casa Gilardi, Luis Barragán's Final House Design
The interconnected living, dining and breakfast rooms are set on the upper level and articulated by a centrally placed, monolithic fireplace. This organization allows fluid circulation within the open plan while clearly defining each space. Large, full-height glazed openings in every room provide views of the garden to the south and frame the vast landscape to the east. Built in 1948, this Mexican modern house, designed by Luis Barragán, is recognized for its international significance. The house-studio, inhabited by the architect himself until 1988, incorporates principles of the vernacular architecture of the region in its design, including the use of striking colors.
The motif of the open-air room, introduced here for the first time, became a prominent compositional element in Barragán’s architecture. Born in Rio de Janiero and educated at the city's Escola Nacional de Belas Artes at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Oscan Niemeyer would go on to have perhaps the largest impact of any creative on his home country. Following his graduation, he joined the office of architects Lúcio Costa, Gregori Warchavchik, and Carlos Leão as a draftsman.
In the United States, Barragán is not as well-known as his American or European contemporaries, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, or Le Corbusier. But during his lifetime, he was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976 (with a gorgeous catalog by Emilio Ambasz), and he was awarded the Pritzker Prize, an annual award for achievement in architecture, in 1980. With the current popularity of midcentury modernism in the U.S. and elsewhere, recent exhibitions and gallery shows on Latin American architecture of the same time period have renewed interest in Barragán’s work. Casa Barragán has become a popular fixture for those visiting Mexico City, thanks to its bright colors, wild garden, and sky-framing rooftop. Barragán’s design took advantage of the terrain’s gradient by partially inserting a section of the building into the slope. The house entrance leads through a spacious transversal hall to the two principal levels of the residence and the various functional zones in the main block.
Major projects
Like modern pioneers, the young couple embraced Barragán’s vision and signed the sales agreement on 11 July 1946. Due to technical and bureaucratic complications linked to infrastructure works, the excavations for the house did not commence until May 1949. Luis Barragan's house is located on a small street in a historic neighborhood in Mexico City, a popular neighborhood made up of simple traditional Mexican homes. Within this neighborhood, workshops, small shops, and building material suppliers can also be found. The house’s main façade is aligned with the street and preserves the appearance of the neighboring constructions.
Casa Barragán
Much of his work—like the iconic Akari lamp—pulls from Japanese tradition, while architectural and furniture designs draw from his experience with sculpture. After a brief stint studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer became one of the youngest students at the Bauhaus, where he was soon appointed head of the carpentry shop. The Bauhaus's ideal of holistic design had a huge impact on Breuer, who would go on to develop groundbreaking designs for furniture (like his iconic tubular steel-and-wicker chairs) as well as architecture. Barragán's influence can be seen in the work of many of Mexico's contemporary architects, especially in Ricardo Legorreta's projects. One of the projects, where Barragán's concepts and colors inspired Legorreta, is the Hotel Camino Real in Polanco, Mexico City.
House museums #28: Casa Luis Barragán - Financial Times
House museums #28: Casa Luis Barragán.
Posted: Sat, 05 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Further, minor interventions concerning the internal organization of the areas at the front influenced the redesign of the street facade. Casa Luis Barragán, built in 1948, represents one of the most internationally transcendent works of contemporary architecture, as acknowledged by the UNESCO when included in their 2004 World Heritage list. This museum, which encloses its creator’s residency and studio, is property of the Government of the State of Jalisco and the Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán. Mexican artists and architects profoundly influenced Barragán’s use of color and material, among them Jesús Reyes Ferreira, Rufino Tamayo, and Juan O’Gorman. The architecture scholar Federica Zanco describes this transition in Barragán’s work from the beginning of his career in Guadalajara to his early years in Mexico City, including his increasing use of color, geometric forms, and almost abstracted use of space. In Guadalajara, Barragán grew tired of creating similar buildings for his wealthy, provincial clients.
Upon entering the house from the street, the user is met with the vestibule, which is illuminated through a yellow glass, flooding the room with a warm light. Being the boundary between the interior and exterior, this space is a waiting area that prepares the user to enter and absorb the characteristic architecture of this house, where stone, wood, and whitewashed walls stand out. The Luis Barragán House and Studio, also referred to as Casa Luis Barragán is a seminal piece of architecture located in Mexico City. The property, which was designed and lived in by the renowned Mexican architect, was completed in 1948 and serves as both a testament to Barragán’s signature style and a museum dedicated to his life’s work. Owned by the Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía and the Government of the State of Jalisco, the house and studio offer a unique glimpse into Barragán’s creative process and the principles that informed his work.
Born to a Japanese father and Irish-American mother in Los Angeles in 1904, a young Isamu Noguchi soon moved to Japan to join his father, where he had his first exposure to woodworking trailing the carpenter who built his mother's home. He returned to the U.S. for high school and after graduation began an apprenticeship with the sculptor Gutzon Borglum (best known for Mount Rushmore). In 1926, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to study sculpture in Paris before traveling through Asia. Shortly after he returned to the United States, he was interred at the Poston Camp, the largest of several concentration camps created out of growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S. ahead of World War II, where he was accused (and acquitted) of espionage. It was only after his return to New York following the war that Noguchi fully realized the organic, sculptural modern style for which he is known today.
Towards the front, high windows are used to let light in but maintain privacy, whereas large windows open up the back to the garden. Since the back of the house opens up to private space as opposed to the public street at the front of the house, Barragan is able to manipulate the windows accordingly. Luis Barragán House and Studio, also known as Casa Luis Barragán, is the former residence of architect Luis Barragán in Miguel Hidalgo district, Mexico City.[1] It is owned by the Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía and the Government of the State of Jalisco. It is now a museum exhibiting Barragán's work and is also used by visiting architects.[2] It retains the original furniture and Barragán's personal objects.
The translucent, closed reticulated library window is the single item projecting over the plane of the façade. Almost the entire exterior conserves the plastered concrete’s color and natural roughness, where only the pedestrian and automobile entrance doors and the window’s ironwork are painted. The decision to build the house on a small street in the old Tacubaya working-class neighborhood is one of the first declarations of the work’s manifesto. Despite urban development pressures, this popular neighborhood struggles to conserve part of its singular character. The archival documents referring to the project are scarce, consisting of a few undated period photographs. However, a schematic plan published in the September 1931 issue of the Architectural Record shows the original layout.
Over the years, the vegetation gradually matured, becoming thick and lush as the property was subdivided to meet the needs of its inhabitants. Upon entering, the visitor walks down a dark hallway until they suddenly encounter a pink wall, the first engagement with the known style of Barragan. The only function of this main room is to use the telephone, but it is still characteristically lit and decorated with simply a chair and a table, neither of which have changed location in the last 50 years. The double height space of the main room is separated only by lower partition walls, which separate the space into different areas. The flat roofs of the Cristo House compose a system of interconnected terraces, similar to the previous designs of the Aguilar House and the González Luna House. The tendedero, a walled area used to dry clothes, is configured here as a pure, almost abstract geometric form, a void enclosed by walls.
We publish articles grounded in peer-reviewed research and provide free access to that research for all of our readers. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. In 1994 it was converted into a museum, run by Barragán’s home state of Jalisco and the Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán Foundation. On 29 October, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City opens a retrospective of Barragán’s work, prepared and designed by the Barragán + Ferrera office. Historian Edmundo O’Gorman reads Barragán’s acceptance speech in English on the architect’s behalf.
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