Luis Barragan, prominent twentieth-century Mexican architect, was born in 1902 in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Luis Barragan grew up near the village of Mazamitla in the northwestern section of Mexico near Guadalajara on a ranch that his family owned. This landscape with its heavy red clay earth, rolling hills, intense sunsets, and frequent heavy rainfall was to have a lasting impression upon his later work. The courtyard houses, each with a fountain and large overhanging eaves, and the churches and marketplaces of Mazamitla left an indelible mark on his memory. The ranches, horses, and haciendas (Luis Barragan was an accomplished horseman) became part of his creative genius in expressing architectural form in the landscape. An understanding of cultural traditions, of the positive-negative relationship between the public street and private introverted house, and of the use of a simple and very limited palette of materials are always recognizable in his work. These memories were crystallized in the house and studio he built for himself on calle Francisco Ramirez in Mexico City, and then rebuilt to test out ideas.
Often a solitary figure, Barragán spent most of his time there. His working day began with a 7.30am breakfast with his assistants, and ended at 4pm when they left the studio and he then moved to the house to spend his evening buried in art and architecture books. Barragán mulled over new projects for weeks, sometimes months, before making a rough sketch and refining the details while working with an artist on the architectural model.
Thanks to the MoMA exhibition and the Pritzker Prize in 1980, Barragán enjoyed a few years of the admiration and attention he deserved before his death in Mexico City in 1988. That year the house became a museum to be enjoyed by the public. The house became one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in 2004.
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