The midday sun casts sharp shadows on an austere, almost secretive façade on a discreet street in western Mexico City. There, we stop in front of a wooden door with no visible signs or plaques. This is the home of Luis Barragán.
A few miles away, in San Miguel Chapultepec, another discreet door hides a different gem: Casa Gilardi, one of his most photographed works, but seeing it in pictures is like trying to understand a perfume through a description. Nothing can replace the moment when the traveler enters the magenta hallway, and the afternoon light transforms it into a tunnel of liquid color.
But the most surprising thing is the tree that grows from the dining room and an indoor pool illuminated by yellow windows. Everything is a game, but a wise, almost mystical game. Gilardi was not a conventional client, and Barragán responded with a work that seems to celebrate the miracle of color.
The south of the city offers a change of pace. The third stop on the tour is Casa Pedregal or Casa Prieto López, nestled in the volcanic terrain of Pedregal de San Ángel. Here, the black rocks of the landscape, the volcanic stone walls, and the dry gardens compose a setting where the wild and the human coexist in peace.
The house seems to rise from the earth. It is not difficult to imagine Barragán walking silently here at dawn, listening to how the environment dictates the rules of design.
Las Torres de Satélite (The Satellite Towers). Although designed in collaboration with sculptor Mathias Goeritz, it is impossible not to see Barragán’s hand in them, his taste for the monumental and the symbolic.
The Camino Real Hotel. A geometric oasis in the
midst of urban chaos, in Polanco. It was a project
by Ricardo Legorreta, but under the supervision—
and vision—of Barragán
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