Dictionary of


Art  &  Artist




 

 Luis Barragan

 

Luis Barragan       


(b Guadalajara, 9 March 1902; d Mexico City, 22 Nov 1988).

Mexican architect. As no architectural course was offered in Guadalajara, he entered the city’s Escuela Libre de Ingenieros, graduating in 1924. He then undertook complementary studies to qualify as an architect, but these were cut short by a trip to Europe (1925–6), which included a visit to southern Spain; here he was able to study Spain’s Moorish architectural heritage and to become familiar with the theories of the French writer, painter and landscape architect Ferdinand Bac (1859–c. 1940). On his return to Mexico, he worked on a series of houses in Guadalajara (e.g. Casa Cristo, 1929), preserving in them the spirit of the local colonial vernacular architecture. In 1932 he visited Europe again and attended Le Corbusier’s lectures in Paris, assimilating the teachings advocated by the latter in his L’Esprit nouveau. In 1936 he settled in Mexico City, but the Corbusian influences became apparent in a number of residential buildings ranging from a group of houses in the Parque México (1936), Mexico City, to a series of apartment buildings (1936–40) in the Cuauhtémoc development, Mexico City, all of which were constructed with great economy of means and with a clearly commercial goal.
 

Fuente de los Amantes,
Los Clubes, 1966

Cuadra San Cristobál,
Los Clubes, 1966-68

Torres Satélite, Mexico City, 1957
Luis Barragan