THE MASTER OF COLORS : CASA LUIS BARRÁGAN

Words by Aliecia Cindy

Luis Barragán is widely regarded as one of the most influential modernist architects of the 20th century. He is best known for his signature style of architecture, explemified in his famous Barragan House. Built-in 1948 in Mexico City, the Barragan House has become a symbol of Mexican modernist architecture and has been studied and admired by architecture scholars and enthusiasts across the globe. In this post, we will conceptualize the history of the iconic Barragan House and explore why it is such a crucial part of modernist architecture.

I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery.

Luis Barragán

Assembled in the early 1940s, in a trendy old neighborhood of Takubaya, Mexico, Barragan architecture was known for its color, light, and form experimentation. The architecture is unusual, relating to the interior atmosphere of Casa Barrágan. From the exterior, you can see that solid predominates over windows, dosed with the library’s reticular and translucent window openings which shows a crucial role in the facade. The silhouette of the house tears against the sky as vertical white towers emerge from behind it--they seem to rise out of nowhere.

Entering the building, Barragán created a waiting room for visitors to enter before entering his own studio/house that was adjacent to this one. Stone slabs on walls come into contact with sight, smell, torch, and hearing. The vestibule/foyer is the room after the entrance. Solid planes articulate around it to contain space. The prehispanic platforms pursued to be pointed out by volcanic stone on the floor. The lighting that enters this area of the room saturates in different volumes, creating a modern and fluid space, but carved in an inherited way.

Casa Gilardi by Luis Barragán: Color and Light

The window in the dining room provides a more abstract view of the Garden. The window is much smaller than the living room window, giving the room a little privacy. The guest room is on the second floor of the house. All furniture within the Barragan house, interior included and the tones are exceptional. Serene character is given to these spaces by sacred art home decor and equestrian motifs. The dressing room, also known as the Christ room, inventing a one-of-a-kind sequence that begins in the house’s underground. The accent to the outside shows behind the dressing room; this route drives the visitor into a state of introspection or a feeling of loneliness and the perfect hiding spot. The terrace, bordered by a series of raised walls above the roof level, and the chimney volumes emerge, as does that of a white tower serving a water reservoir, the Denman of the house’s complex and poetic constructions appears. Barrágan uses it as a chromatic laboratory. The terrace has many origins and formulates in many ways, from Mediterranean tradition to the modern facade concept designed by Le Corbusier.