Barragán — The Complete Work
The Kalon Library Vol. 01
From our studio shelves — volumes that trace the ideas, influences, and cultural undercurrents behind our work.
Sumptuous in color and texture, Luis Barragán’s minimalist, deeply emotional architecture transformed modern design in Mexico and beyond. A master manipulator of light and space, landscape and color, Barragán created homes and gardens of solitude and stillness. His own residence, Casa Estudio Luis Barragán, is almost monastic in its restraint — its silence interrupted only by the sound of water, an element that recurs throughout his work. Barragán received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1980; Casa Barragán was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
Barragán — The Complete Work offers a comprehensive look at the architect’s practice, from the intimacy of his domestic spaces to the monumental abstractions of his late career. The reflections collected here speak to Barragán’s lifelong commitment to simplicity, humanity, and the expressive potential of natural materials.
“[Barragán] insisted that to create, it was essential to discover, observe and update what one judged to be valuable. This was the way, the only way, in which he worked. He demonstrated that high quality in architecture need not be a grand gesture. His work expresses a confidence in his architectural craft over and above the flamboyant displays of technology or resources, affirming that architecture does not have to be fashionable to be important and valued. And there is his patient knowledge that simplicity and humility in the deployment of resources and materials have a genuine role to play in the creation of an architecture with which society as a whole can identify. Barragán’s most important contribution was the way in which his architecture presented Mexico with another medium through which to recognize itself and to be recognized.” – Antonio Toca Fernández on Barragán
“And finally, let me remind you of what the great writer and landscape artist Ferdinand Mac believed: a garden holds within itself the entire universe. It is the prize of our work, and in the art of making gardens we can find all the serenity that man is capable of achieving.” – Luis Barragán in an address originally given before the California Council of Architects and Sierra Nevada Regional Conference, Coronado, California, October 6, 1951
We hope you’ll consider supporting local, independent bookstores. For architecture and design-related books, we love Stout Books in San Francisco. Explore their complete catalog, including some on Barragán.
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