Functionalist stage (1936-1945)

In 1931, he traveled to New York, where he met Frederick Kiesler") and published, for the first time and abroad, his work in Architectural Review and House and Gardens").

In 1936 he moved to Mexico City and built several housing constructions, of a functionalist type and inspired by Le Corbusier and with a commercial interest as the deterioration of the family situation influenced him. He collaborated with architects such as Max Cetto and the engineer José Creixell. The building of four studios for painters in Plaza Melchor Ocampo stands out, which is a work where the use of space and color already stands out. It is possibly his period of greatest production although not of greatest recognition.[1]​.

Mature stage (1945-1988)

In the early 1940s Barragán acquired a series of lands along what was then called Calzada Madereros (now Av. Constituciónntes), although then a popular neighborhood but possibly influenced by a long-term economic interest due to its proximity to the new presidential residence of the Pinos "Los Pinos (México)"). There he would concentrate his attention on the outdoor space, a large garden divided into irregular sections and would make various interventions to the construction that was already there, known as Casa Barragán-Ortega[2]​ and a stage begins in which he intends to become independent from clients and undertake his own works ([2]​ in various letters with Ignacio Díaz Morales he expresses his frustration with the practice of architecture), the first of which will be the Pedregal Gardens. Precisely, the sale of part of the land on Calzada Madereros helped him finance his next ventures[2]​ and reserved for himself the space that would later house his House-Studio.

Almost simultaneously with the acquisition of the land in Calzada Madereros, Barragán acquired another piece of land in the vicinity of the historic neighborhood of San Ángel, bordering the Pedregal area, in a site known as El Cabrío.[3]​ Here he began to explore the possibilities offered by the wild landscape of volcanic lava with the installation of various structures such as walls and gardening interventions. This would inspire him to develop the area.

Gardens of Pedregal de San Ángel

El Pedregal was a peculiar area due to its origin in the explosion of the Xitle volcano 2000 years ago that created a unique landscape, with native flora and fauna and that had a certain mysticism due to the ruins of Copilco and Cuicuilco that bordered it and there were even popular references to witchcraft practices and the presence of spirits[3]​ and, although El Pedregal attracted the fascination of artists and scientists (relevantly Dr. Atl and Diego Rivera),[4]​ By the time Luis Barragán became interested in the area, it was a wild and inhospitable area considered home to snakes and criminals (who precisely took refuge there due to its isolation).

In 1944 he began to acquire land and, together with brothers Luis and José Alberto Bustamante, real estate entrepreneurs, bought a total of 865 acres (approximately 3,500,000 m²). He created the urbanization plan and initiated designs of streets, accesses, squares, parks and model houses.

The streets were outlined according to the lava formations (according to Keith Eggener,[3]​ Barragán himself attributed the layout of the streets to the urban planner Carlos Contreras and his collaborator, Alejandro Margáin, credits him with planning the urbanization project[5]​) and in the same way all the spaces were used to generate paths or pools. He developed three show gardens and two houses together with Max Cetto, whose house was the first erected in the area. The area would have several entrances delimited by bars in red and green colors, and two parks: Plaza de las Fuentes, which also had a sculpture by Mathias Goeritz, El animal del Pedregal, (which still survives on the corner of Avenida San Jerónimo and Avenida De las Fuentes) and the Fountain of the Patos.

Barragán established various regulations for construction in El Pedregal, probably following the essay that Diego Rivera had written on the matter ("Requirements for the organization of Pedregal") on the possibility of urbanizing that area,[3]​ but of which there is no greater evidence than what is collected by the historian and architecture critic Esther McCoy in four points:[3]​.

Jardines del Pedregal de San Ángel quickly became an exclusive area in high demand among the Mexican elite. Architects such as Artigas, Attolini, Buendía, Rosen, among others, turned Pedregal into an icon of modernism with their international style works. Over time, Barragán's work would be surpassed by that of other architects: as an example, Francisco Artigas carried out more than fifty works[6]​ and one of them, the house for Dr. Federico Gómez, would become an advertising icon of Pedregal (although demolished in 2004). Barragán built a single house, Casa Prieto López"), for the lawyer Eduardo Prieto López, to whom in 1946 he sold 15,000 square meters, well located on a main corner and under generous conditions. The work was delayed until 1949 due to various complications typical of the initial phase of the urbanization project and was completed in 1951.[7]​.

Studio House

Main article: Luis Barragán House.

By 1948 Barragán already lived at number 14 Francisco Ramírez Street (in a letter he received from Ignacio Díaz Morales[2]​), having sold the rest of the land he had acquired, probably to finance Pedregal. The house he built seems to have been originally intended for a client, Luz Escandón, as witnessed by a plan that accredits her as the owner.[2] This house will function as a permanent laboratory for Barragán and its distinctive elements will witness constant changes, such as in the color of the terrace.

Subdivisions in Atizapán: Las Arboledas, Los Clubes, Cuadra San Cristóbal and Casa Egerström

In 1957 he began a series of works in the municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, at that time a point far from the city, where he continued his activity as a real estate developer: Las Arboledas (1957) and Los Clubes (1961), and the Cuadra San Cristóbal with the Egerström House (1966), which were commissioned.[8]​.

Las Arboledas is an urban project aimed at horse riding activities, a vocation of the area that will be accentuated with the following developments of Los Clubes and, more markedly, with the Cuadra San Cristóbal. Barragán designed the streets, entrances and created various elements such as: the red wall that delimits the area, characterized by its length that creates the impression of merging with the horizon; the Paseo de los Gigantes with the Fountain of the Drinking Fountain, a composition between two walls of contrasting colors and a long drinking fountain that has resulted in one of the iconic images within Barragán's work, and the Fountain of the Campanario.

Los Clubes is a development located on the northern limit of Las Arboledas where Barragán built two public elements: the Fountain of the Lovers, which is a water space designed for resting horses, and the Service Gate.

Within Los Clubes Barragán created a complex for Folke Egeström, which is considered one of his masterpieces:[8]​ the Cuadra San Cristóbal and the family house. It is a monumental space created on the scale of a person riding a horse, where the pink, purple and ocher colors stand out with the white of the house and the large water mirror.

Other works

Inscribed within a post-revolutionary controversy about national identity, his later work is based on a rhetoric about universal vernacular architecture that Barragán formulates with antecedents from North Africa, Spain, and rural areas of his native state of Jalisco. This was enriched when he visited Morocco in 1951, which translated into a formal language of massive constructions, with thick walls and measured openings, where the finishes are markedly textured and with bright colors that Barragán believed he identified as popular extraction. Elements such as water and light play a fundamental role in his projects, almost always enriched by gardens.

Between 1955 and 1960 he restored the convent of the Capuchinas Sacramentarias in Tlalpan, in 1957 he carried out the urban sculpture project of the Torres de Satélite in collaboration with the sculptor Mathias Goeritz and the painter Jesús Reyes Ferreira. In 1955 he built the house for Antonio Gálvez, a work that survives in its original state. In 1966 he was consulted by Louis Kahn for the central courtyard of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, to which Barragán recommended leaving the open space without vegetation with only a fountain running through the space. [9] Subsequently, in 1976 he built the Gilardi House, of which the use of color and natural light in the dining room-pool stands out. His discourse on vernacular architecture coincided in the 60s and 70s with structuralist and architectural semiotics interests. Based on these interests, the New York architectural world launched him to international stardom through the Museum of Modern Art in New York's 1976 show called "The Architecture of Luis Barragán." From this exhibition arises the publication of the book of the same name by Emilio Ambasz, curator of the MoMA, which became the main reference on Barragán's work, however, it has generated some controversy due to its lack of criticism and historical analysis since it only reproduces the vision of the architect himself, which also results in his work being represented incorrectly ([1] see the sections by Enrique X. de Anda and Federica Zanco).

He was a member of the SAM and the AIA, and as a result of the 1976 exhibition, he won the national architecture prize in 1976, but his greatest recognition came in 1980 when he won the second Pritzker Prize in history, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Architecture. He died on November 22, 1988 suffering from Parkinson's disease. In homage to this architect, one of the workshops at the UNAM Faculty of Architecture bears his name.

In 1979 he created the Barragán+Ferrera office, the product of a partnership with the architect Raúl Ferrera Torres, who had already collaborated in his workshop some years before and who also worked with Ricardo Legorreta, thus beginning a less officially recognized professional stage, with representative works in the Mexican city of Monterrey and some unrealized projects such as offices for Francis Ford Coppola.[10]​[11]​.

Functionalist stage (1936-1945)

In 1931, he traveled to New York, where he met Frederick Kiesler") and published, for the first time and abroad, his work in Architectural Review and House and Gardens").

In 1936 he moved to Mexico City and built several housing constructions, of a functionalist type and inspired by Le Corbusier and with a commercial interest as the deterioration of the family situation influenced him. He collaborated with architects such as Max Cetto and the engineer José Creixell. The building of four studios for painters in Plaza Melchor Ocampo stands out, which is a work where the use of space and color already stands out. It is possibly his period of greatest production although not of greatest recognition.[1]​.

Mature stage (1945-1988)

In the early 1940s Barragán acquired a series of lands along what was then called Calzada Madereros (now Av. Constituciónntes), although then a popular neighborhood but possibly influenced by a long-term economic interest due to its proximity to the new presidential residence of the Pinos "Los Pinos (México)"). There he would concentrate his attention on the outdoor space, a large garden divided into irregular sections and would make various interventions to the construction that was already there, known as Casa Barragán-Ortega[2]​ and a stage begins in which he intends to become independent from clients and undertake his own works ([2]​ in various letters with Ignacio Díaz Morales he expresses his frustration with the practice of architecture), the first of which will be the Pedregal Gardens. Precisely, the sale of part of the land on Calzada Madereros helped him finance his next ventures[2]​ and reserved for himself the space that would later house his House-Studio.

Almost simultaneously with the acquisition of the land in Calzada Madereros, Barragán acquired another piece of land in the vicinity of the historic neighborhood of San Ángel, bordering the Pedregal area, in a site known as El Cabrío.[3]​ Here he began to explore the possibilities offered by the wild landscape of volcanic lava with the installation of various structures such as walls and gardening interventions. This would inspire him to develop the area.

Gardens of Pedregal de San Ángel

El Pedregal was a peculiar area due to its origin in the explosion of the Xitle volcano 2000 years ago that created a unique landscape, with native flora and fauna and that had a certain mysticism due to the ruins of Copilco and Cuicuilco that bordered it and there were even popular references to witchcraft practices and the presence of spirits[3]​ and, although El Pedregal attracted the fascination of artists and scientists (relevantly Dr. Atl and Diego Rivera),[4]​ By the time Luis Barragán became interested in the area, it was a wild and inhospitable area considered home to snakes and criminals (who precisely took refuge there due to its isolation).

In 1944 he began to acquire land and, together with brothers Luis and José Alberto Bustamante, real estate entrepreneurs, bought a total of 865 acres (approximately 3,500,000 m²). He created the urbanization plan and initiated designs of streets, accesses, squares, parks and model houses.

The streets were outlined according to the lava formations (according to Keith Eggener,[3]​ Barragán himself attributed the layout of the streets to the urban planner Carlos Contreras and his collaborator, Alejandro Margáin, credits him with planning the urbanization project[5]​) and in the same way all the spaces were used to generate paths or pools. He developed three show gardens and two houses together with Max Cetto, whose house was the first erected in the area. The area would have several entrances delimited by bars in red and green colors, and two parks: Plaza de las Fuentes, which also had a sculpture by Mathias Goeritz, El animal del Pedregal, (which still survives on the corner of Avenida San Jerónimo and Avenida De las Fuentes) and the Fountain of the Patos.

Barragán established various regulations for construction in El Pedregal, probably following the essay that Diego Rivera had written on the matter ("Requirements for the organization of Pedregal") on the possibility of urbanizing that area,[3]​ but of which there is no greater evidence than what is collected by the historian and architecture critic Esther McCoy in four points:[3]​.

Jardines del Pedregal de San Ángel quickly became an exclusive area in high demand among the Mexican elite. Architects such as Artigas, Attolini, Buendía, Rosen, among others, turned Pedregal into an icon of modernism with their international style works. Over time, Barragán's work would be surpassed by that of other architects: as an example, Francisco Artigas carried out more than fifty works[6]​ and one of them, the house for Dr. Federico Gómez, would become an advertising icon of Pedregal (although demolished in 2004). Barragán built a single house, Casa Prieto López"), for the lawyer Eduardo Prieto López, to whom in 1946 he sold 15,000 square meters, well located on a main corner and under generous conditions. The work was delayed until 1949 due to various complications typical of the initial phase of the urbanization project and was completed in 1951.[7]​.

Studio House

Main article: Luis Barragán House.

By 1948 Barragán already lived at number 14 Francisco Ramírez Street (in a letter he received from Ignacio Díaz Morales[2]​), having sold the rest of the land he had acquired, probably to finance Pedregal. The house he built seems to have been originally intended for a client, Luz Escandón, as witnessed by a plan that accredits her as the owner.[2] This house will function as a permanent laboratory for Barragán and its distinctive elements will witness constant changes, such as in the color of the terrace.

Subdivisions in Atizapán: Las Arboledas, Los Clubes, Cuadra San Cristóbal and Casa Egerström

In 1957 he began a series of works in the municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, at that time a point far from the city, where he continued his activity as a real estate developer: Las Arboledas (1957) and Los Clubes (1961), and the Cuadra San Cristóbal with the Egerström House (1966), which were commissioned.[8]​.

Las Arboledas is an urban project aimed at horse riding activities, a vocation of the area that will be accentuated with the following developments of Los Clubes and, more markedly, with the Cuadra San Cristóbal. Barragán designed the streets, entrances and created various elements such as: the red wall that delimits the area, characterized by its length that creates the impression of merging with the horizon; the Paseo de los Gigantes with the Fountain of the Drinking Fountain, a composition between two walls of contrasting colors and a long drinking fountain that has resulted in one of the iconic images within Barragán's work, and the Fountain of the Campanario.

Los Clubes is a development located on the northern limit of Las Arboledas where Barragán built two public elements: the Fountain of the Lovers, which is a water space designed for resting horses, and the Service Gate.

Within Los Clubes Barragán created a complex for Folke Egeström, which is considered one of his masterpieces:[8]​ the Cuadra San Cristóbal and the family house. It is a monumental space created on the scale of a person riding a horse, where the pink, purple and ocher colors stand out with the white of the house and the large water mirror.

Other works

Inscribed within a post-revolutionary controversy about national identity, his later work is based on a rhetoric about universal vernacular architecture that Barragán formulates with antecedents from North Africa, Spain, and rural areas of his native state of Jalisco. This was enriched when he visited Morocco in 1951, which translated into a formal language of massive constructions, with thick walls and measured openings, where the finishes are markedly textured and with bright colors that Barragán believed he identified as popular extraction. Elements such as water and light play a fundamental role in his projects, almost always enriched by gardens.

Between 1955 and 1960 he restored the convent of the Capuchinas Sacramentarias in Tlalpan, in 1957 he carried out the urban sculpture project of the Torres de Satélite in collaboration with the sculptor Mathias Goeritz and the painter Jesús Reyes Ferreira. In 1955 he built the house for Antonio Gálvez, a work that survives in its original state. In 1966 he was consulted by Louis Kahn for the central courtyard of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, to which Barragán recommended leaving the open space without vegetation with only a fountain running through the space. [9] Subsequently, in 1976 he built the Gilardi House, of which the use of color and natural light in the dining room-pool stands out. His discourse on vernacular architecture coincided in the 60s and 70s with structuralist and architectural semiotics interests. Based on these interests, the New York architectural world launched him to international stardom through the Museum of Modern Art in New York's 1976 show called "The Architecture of Luis Barragán." From this exhibition arises the publication of the book of the same name by Emilio Ambasz, curator of the MoMA, which became the main reference on Barragán's work, however, it has generated some controversy due to its lack of criticism and historical analysis since it only reproduces the vision of the architect himself, which also results in his work being represented incorrectly ([1] see the sections by Enrique X. de Anda and Federica Zanco).

He was a member of the SAM and the AIA, and as a result of the 1976 exhibition, he won the national architecture prize in 1976, but his greatest recognition came in 1980 when he won the second Pritzker Prize in history, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Architecture. He died on November 22, 1988 suffering from Parkinson's disease. In homage to this architect, one of the workshops at the UNAM Faculty of Architecture bears his name.

In 1979 he created the Barragán+Ferrera office, the product of a partnership with the architect Raúl Ferrera Torres, who had already collaborated in his workshop some years before and who also worked with Ricardo Legorreta, thus beginning a less officially recognized professional stage, with representative works in the Mexican city of Monterrey and some unrealized projects such as offices for Francis Ford Coppola.[10]​[11]​.