One of my design folk-heroes is the great Mexican architect Luis Barragan, and today I've brought you some reminders of his work. Amazingly he remained virtually unknown outside his native country (and virtually forgotten within it) until he was 73 years old, when the New York Museum of Modern Art honoured him with a retrospective (evidence that you're never too old to be the person you always wanted to be!) Today some of his buildings are World Heritage sites.
Barragan once said that, 'Art is made by the alone for the alone', and he spoke of the need for buildings to express serenity. He showed how colours which were outrageous, idiosyncratic and often downright clashing could still create a contemplative quality with an air of mystery.
Luis Barragan gave us wondrous colour, graphic simplicity and a way with water and light. I don't think anyone could ask for more.
1 Fuente de los Amantes (Photo from Esparta Palma on Flickr under CC BY License)
2 and 3 Casa Giraldi (Photo from Ulises on Wikimedia under CC BY License)
