Barrágan, Luis (1902–1988)

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Winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in architecture (1980), Luis Barrágan is known for his bold use of color in the design of Mexican regionalism with Mediterranean flavor. He was particularly adept with the integration of landscape and architecture that responded to the environment of his native Mexico (Van Vynckt, 1993).

Born in Guadalajara, he received an engineering diploma with some experience in architectural studies. Aware of the modernist initiatives surfacing in Europe, he traveled to Paris to attend lectures by Le Corbusier. His year in Paris was part of a lifetime of travels, especially to Europe (the Mediterranean coast) and North Africa. The simple forms he observed in North Africa influenced his use of clean shapes constructed in concrete. He built small projects between 1927 and 1936 before starting speculative housing projects in 1936. Founder and director of the Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel, Mexico City (1945–1952), Barrágan opened private practice with Raul Ferrera ( Júlbez, Palomar and Eguiarte, 1996; Smith, 1967).

After the early 1940s, his projects were concerned with a blend of vernacular and international styles. He designed several churches such as the Convent of the Capuchinas Sacramentarias (1952–1955), but the buildings most representative of his work were the San Cristobal Stable and the Egerstrom House completed in 1967. This building complex makes use of his skill in landscape design and of massive walls of color. The large flat planes, in a shade of bright pink, have been contrasted by geometric fountains and pools.

Barrágan often sketched using color media. Many of his sketches are bold and abstract, where he employs a blunt lead for a heavy line or chooses media that will give him bright colors. Some of these sketches appear surprisingly minimal, using the fewest lines possible. This sketch represents a study for the Lomas Verdes Project. Beginning approximately 1965, Barrágan and Sordo Madaleno collaborated on various dwelling types and monumental entrances for the subdivision Lomas Verdes. In the early 1970s, streets were laid out and building sites were sold, although in the end little infrastructure was actually constructed (Zanco, 2001). Barrágan and Madaleno had planned for extensive gardens and landscaping, which has been reflected in this sketch.

The sketch exhibits bold vertical lines, accented by equally bold wavy ones. Sketched with a felt tipped pen, the image has been rendered in bright colors – blue for the sky, red and orange for the buildings, yellow and brown for the hillside in the foreground, and green abstractions to represent trees. The streaky lines have been drawn quickly, evidenced by the transparency and very straight strokes of the felt marker. The white showing through behind the color reveals how the ink skipped across the paper. This is unlike the dense saturation of color that happens when the marker rests on the surface. The buildings were drawn first and the sky later, giving the image background and context. The buildings have been set atop a mound, making them seem as though they have grown out of the hills. Each structure has been given a few strokes of the marker for windows. Without these indications of openings, the shards of buildings could have been interpreted as sheer-faced rock. Interestingly, the buildings have been treated very similarly to the background of the sky. This could be a factor of the medium’s properties or an intentional tactic to avoid differentiation between building and landscape. Barrágan’s architecture, although rectangular and regular, had a unique ability to appear integrated into the landscape. Considering the use of bold color in his architecture, it is fitting
that the sketched with bright colors.