Luis Barragán Change this

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Luis Barragan (March 9th, 1902 – November 22nd, 1988) was a prominent twentieth - century Mexican architect and landscape architect. Highly impressed by with the writings of French landscape architect Ferdinand Bac, who wrote: "The soul of gardens contains the greatest amount of serenity in all of man's work", he situated many of his designs amidst natural backdrops, such as lava rock outcrops and groves of trees. His nderstanding of aesthetics allowed him to design urban landmarks as well as furniture and gardens.

A unique feature, as can be seen in many of his residential interiors and fountain features, is the typical tall (3.5m [12ft.] or more) coloured walls, which he borrowed and modified from traditional Mexican buildings rooted in the Moorish-influenced Spanish architecture.

Barragan said: "I believe in an emotional architecture. It is very important for humankind that architecture should move by its beauty; if there are many equally valid technical solutions to a problem the one which offers the user a message of beauty and emotion, that one is architecture... I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination towards the fine arts and other spiritual values."

Luis Barragan's best known works include the garden at El Pedregal (1945-1950), his own home in Mexico City (1947), the Chapel for the Capuchinas Sacramentarias del Purisimo Corazon de Maria (1952-1955)or the Towers of Satellite City (1957).

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