In Search of the Photographic Architecture of Luis Barragán
Primeros Muros
Functionalism
Signature
2022
Research project
Architectural Association
Luis Barragán
(1902-1988) was a Mexican architect, active between the mid-1920s and late 1980s. His work became known internationally after being
displayed in a photo-slide exhibition
in the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA)
titled “The Architecture of Luis Barragán”1, directed by Emilio Ambasz in 1976; and soon after in 1980 for being the second
laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize2. His
architectural practice can be studied in three distinct periods. First, what
Juan Palomar calls his primeros muros3 or first
walls stage between 1927 and 1935, which is here studied through a 1935 article
in the Architectural Review (New York). Second, the rationalist stage between 1936 and 1940,
studied through the first and second issues of Arquitectura y Decoración (México); and finally, the Signature Architecture period
between 1940 to 1976,
studied through the August 1951 issue of Arts &
Architecture (Los
Ángeles).
The chronological division
presented here has been continually accepted in lectures and publications
regarding the architecture of Luis Barragán.4 It is a logical taxonomy that encapsulates the clear
succession of architectural languages and approaches seen in the work of
Barragán, while also reflecting important
turns of events in his personal life, which would reflect in the material qualities of his work and its
photographic portrayal.
In an attempt to answer
the course’s questions “is architecture defined by photographs”
and if so “when did
architects start designing for
photographs?” this essay will
explore the photographic depiction of the work of Barragán in its different
stages using three corresponding journal
articles as case studies.
It will be stated that his involvement in real estate development and
speculation were important elements for the conception of his earlier work in
Guadalajara and the canonical work of the Casa Estudio. The prior will be
demonstrated through a comparison of the photographs taken by Roberto Salcedo Magaña in the early
1930s and by Armando Salas Portugal
in 1950. I will attempt to establish a relationship between the
work of
Salcedo Magaña to the
last stage of Barragán’s career. In that sense, Signature Barragán
Architecture is said to be designed
from a synthesis first obtained
from a photographic image and built to replicate
that synthesis, as an observable architectural
characteristic.
For this essay to help understand the role of
architectural photography in the perception of the built environment, as well
as its production and historiography, the photographs, texts, and even the context of each journal and
magazine has to be taken into
consideration altogether as a unit. Removing them from their context and
analyzing them as detached illustrations is counterproductive for the argument
here established. Different elements
within the journals as a whole can be traced and compared with known historical
facts in order to contribute to a broader understanding, in this case,
of the architecture of Luis Barragán, the Mexican architectural, cultural, and
political scene of the 1950s and the overlapping histories of modernity as
represented in print publications.
From left to
right: Journal covers. The Architectural Record (1931), Arquitectura y
Decoración (1937) and Arts & Architecture (1951).
Three stages of the work of Luis
Barragán, Architect
Stage 1. Primero, los Primeros Muros
Guadalajara, Jalisco. 1924.
Luis Ramiro, the third son of the
Barragán Morfín family graduates from the Escuela Libre de Ingenieros. His father, the Licenciado Barragán, owns the Hacienda
de Corrales, or Corrales Estate, in Manzanilla de
la Paz, Jalisco, a town located 115
kilometers away from the city. The agricultural business of the
haciendas is suffering a series of
transformations after the supposed end of the Revolutionary War1 but continues with its operations. Even though
it’s still a thriving endeavor, it soon will come to an end, and the “extensive land ownership”2 of the Barragáns, along with their fortune,
will cease to exist in 1936. At this
moment, however, the family still
holds a comfortable position in the tapatío3 society and most relevantly in the economic
environment of central Mexico. It is therefore natural for the Licenciado to celebrate his son becoming
an engineer, and rewards
young Luis with a long trip
to Europe to “complement his experiences and give him a vision of the old world”.4 He is now the second professional engineer in
the family after his older brother Juan José. Luis will soon leave for the
Veracruz port, passing through Mexico City for the first time on his way to a France-bound ship. His future, both personal and professional,
awaits expectantly.
Back home from Europe, after some
small appointments, the young Luis Barragán received his first formal commission in 1927. He was
consigned by Mr. Robles de León for the
remodeling of his house in the Parroquia
neighborhood of Guadalajara. This was a
house built at the beginning of the century that followed the norms of the
typical Mexican houses: a zagúan or hallway
at the entrance, a central patio with rooms surrounding, and a second
patio on the rooftop for the service and domestic tasks. In essence, Barragán
re-directed the light that
entered the house in various ways. For the first time, he exploited the ideas he had been processing since his European
trip, particularly those from Ferdinand Bac’s Jardins Enchantés. He would further explore
these ideas on the following commissions, which are better known and very well documented. These are the
houses for Efraín González Luna (1928),for Gustavo R. Cristo (1929) and for
Enrique Aguilar (1931).
A few years later, in the early 1930s Juan José, Luis’
older brother, was awarded the
construction of a new park in the Escobedo Gardens, a piece of land neighboring
the Escobedo Penitentiary in
central Guadalajara. The
Penitentiary comprised an area of about 8 blocks. Due to its closeness to the Metropolitan Cathedral, it was an obstacle to the development of the western side of
the city. Therefore, the prison
began being deconstructed in 1911 and was definitely demolished in 1933.5 The land was freed for investors to develop housing and infrastructure.
Juan José Barragán decided to take
charge of the construction works of the
Park and partnered with his architect brother,
leaving him in charge of the architectural project. In 1934, Barragán
would also design and construct three houses in a block surrounding the park.
One was built for an unknown client6, a second, for Mr. and Mrs.
the Harper de Garibi, and the third, for a rental house for his first client, Mr.
Robles de León.
Kiosk in the González Luna House in Guadalajara, published under
" Carpeta de Arquitectura Mejicana"
or "Mexican Architecture Portfolio" in Nuestra Arquitectura (Buenos
Aires, 1932). This feature also shows the projects and photographs of the house
for Mr. Gustavo R. Cristo and for Mr. Enrique Aguilar. Also published in The
Architectural Record (September 1931) and House & Garden (October 1931).
Four spreads from the 1935 issue of The Architectural Record
featuring the Parque de la Revolución. Photographs by Roberto Salcedo Magaña.
The Parque de la Revolución was featured in a 1935 edition of the
Architectural Record in a Portfolio of Special
Building Types, and then again in a special
edition titled "The New Architecture
in México" in April of 1937.7 The photographs of the 1935 issue are credited to Roberto Salcedo Magaña, a young draftsman
that produced drawings for architectural projects, topographic studies,
and details of machinery.8 Salcedo Magaña shared an office on Corona Street with Juan José Barragán,
making him a comfortable choice for illustrating the Park.
In her recent study of the
photographers of tapatíomodern architecture, Dr. Claudia Rueda Velázquez makes an
interesting note that shines
a light on two issues
encountered in the research
done in anticipation of this essay.9 First, the lack of architectural photographers in Guadalajara before
the foundation of the School of Architecture of the Guadalajara
University in 1948.10 It was only after its first generations started to
graduate that the alumni became specialized photographers or architect-photographers. Before the foundation of the
School of Architecture, it can be presumed that architectural photography was
more a hobby or secondary profession than a full-time occupation for anyone in Guadalajara.
This fact makes the case of
Roberto Salcedo Magaña more interesting, especially because his work has been
hard to track down. Most
publications of the time would credit photographers in a list of contributors
on the first pages of the issue, making the task of determining the authorship of
each photographic image quite complicated, especially without an archive of the
work of such photographers. In the case of Salcedo Magaña, being an amateur
photographer also makes him less
available as a historical figure, even
when his images illustrate relevant buildings of early Mexican Modernity
in publications such as the Architectural Review and Domus.11
The photographs by Salcedo in the 1935 AR issue depict the Parque de la Revolución in a refreshing way. Despite his lack of professional
training, he had a photographic sense that allowed him to present architectural compositions enhancing geometry and
light. His images are an attempt at the new
vision style,
and he had a good grasp of
this approach, but
the Parque de la Revolución deemed it challenging to produce interesting details. Conversely, Barragán’s domestic works marked a great opportunity for
him to create impactful
photographs that were by themselves
very appealing, and, at the same time, he documented the architectural projects
in a way that successfully
communicated the architectural features that a journal cares to see.
For the January 1935 edition, a few months earlier than the Parque de la
Revolución was published, 16 of Salcedo Magaña’s
photographs were published under the title “Recent Work of
a Mexican Architect- Luis Barragan”. The
article featured images
of two houses around Parque de la Revolución, the Rental House for Mr. Robles de León and the Harper de Garibi’s, along with the remodeling of Barragán’s family house in the Chapala Lake.12
Page 27 of Domus, August 1937 featuring the Chapala, Harper de
Garibi and Robles de León houses. Photographs by Roberto Salcedo Magaña.
Courtesy of the RIBA Library.
Spread of The Architectural
Review, vol. 77. January 1935. Photographs by Roberto Salcedo Magaña.
After
studying the publication of the Parque de la
Revolución and the Recent Works together,
it’s notable that Barragán was attempting to
integrate ideas from his first
voyage to Europe, which were further consolidated in a second trip in 1931, after the death of his father. On the second trip, Barragán
passed through New York for a few days, and then made his way to France
where he finally met Ferdinand Bac, a key reference for
his past endeavors as a young architect. He apparently also met Corbusier and attended a couple of lectures.13
An additional result of his trip to Europe could have been the decision to keep Salcedo Magaña
as his photographer. Each of his
frames is carefully composed, showing very specific geometries at the exact moment of the day when the
light is strong enough to produce
the desired shadows. Salcedo Magaña’s interest
in the photography of the new vision,
which originated in Germany, is
palpable in the images included in the January of 1935 issue of the Architectural Record. On his side,
Barragán was probably trying to reconcile
functionalism and his interest in something that may be called “the ethics
of the rancher and the aesthetic of the rural”. “Before any given architectural problem, he would ask
himself ¿cómo lo haría un ranchero?” that is, “how would a rancher do this?”. According to Palomar, Barragán:
“Was referring to the traditional
collection of wisdom that can be found
in the rural constructions of diverse latitudes, where it is necessary to resolve constructive problems with physical
soundness, efficiency, and natural beauty.”14
Spread
of The Architectural Review, vol.
77. January 1935. Photographs by Roberto
Salcedo Magaña.
Spread of The Architectural
Review, vol. 77. January 1935. Photographs by Roberto Salcedo Magaña.
Arguably, the beauty Barragán was interested in
obtaining through architecture was more intricately linked with the relation of space and nature, or of
architecture and its context. This reveals the reasons behind the first layout of the feature, showing the Chapala
house. First, an image of the facade taken from the south, with the low
neighboring house to its right, and
a man wearing a sombrero walking in front. Second, a photograph taken from the north, where the south corner of the neighbouring
house is included,
but,
more
importantly, the two towers
of
the San Francisco parish can be observed in close proximity, encapsulating the traditional
context of this small
Mexican town through different elements. I believe the true relevance
this house had for Barragán was probably the direct relation it had to the
town
and the Lake. After all, Barragán was trained as a civil engineer and specialized in
hydraulics. Water was always important as
an element of
architecture and landscaping,
and would hold a privileged place later in his life. At this point, however, the best he could do was to remodel the rooftop of the family house
near a lake to hint at his interest in the element.
In parallel, the Harper de Garibi and Robles de León houses seem to be isolated from an urban context too, despite being in the centre of
Guadalajara. The high-contrast images show an intense
and empty sky and clear walls, probably achieved by the use of a filter to enhance the contrast.
This allows Salcedo Magaña to create
images of the open-air
stairs and empty door-frames on top, which could
suggest that the architectural elements are detached, almost sculptural
volumes. The photographs, in the new vision style of Salcedo Magaña,
focus on details of volumes and light. Only the facades and the images of the
staircases (also published in Domus) share hints of
the functionalist approach of the time. These photographs are
probably suggested by the architect,
who needed to communicate the
transitional elements of his design. For these shots, the photographer possibly
had to go through previous attempts in different angles (speculatively not different cameras, being that he was not a
professional photographer) and decided on one that presented the second flight of stairs connecting to the rooftop more clearly.
The Chapala, Harper de Garibi, and Robles de León houses, especially
seen through the lens of Salcedo Magaña in the Architectural Review, are refreshing views of Barragán ’s early work. The architect and the photographer are building, altogether, an image of a building that
doesn’t exist entirely as the physical construction nor as the photographic
image. Barragán will use the ideas derived from Salcedo’s work to feed
his later ventures, after going through an interesting and speculative phase
outside of his native Jalisco.
Continue reading full PDF here
1 See Emilio Ambasz, The
Architecture of Luis Barragán (New York :
Boston: Museum of Modern Art ; distributed by
New York Graphic Society, 1976).
2
The first laureate
of the prize given by the Hyatt Foundation was Phillip Johnson
in 1979. Barragán is, to this day, the
only Mexican architect to have been awarded the Pritzker Medal.
Another point of contact between
the Pritzker Prize and Mexico
was the 1991 award ceremony held in
the Palacio de Iturbide, a colonial palace in central Mexico City, where Robert Venturi received his own
medal. See “Laureates' ' in the Pritzker
Architecture Prize website.
https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates
(last consulted on January 2nd, 2023)
3
Juan Palomar Verea (1956)
is a Mexican architect, writer
and teacher in the
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios
Superiores de Occidente
in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He
collaborated with Alberto Kalach in the Vasconcelos Library from 2000-2007.
Palomar has been a devoted scholar of the architecture of Luis Barragán and
presided the Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán (1988-2001). He recently
published an anthology of texts that builds on the personal and professional
life of Barragán in a refreshing, poetic prose. See Juan Palomar, ‘Barragán por Palomar’, Diego Orduño ed.
(Guadalajara: Artlecta, Impronta Casa Editora,
2022).
4 The current state of Barragán’s
known ouvre is based on the 1995 book “Barragán: Obra Completa”, or its 1996 english edition “Barragán: The Complete Works”
which features texts by Alvaro
Siza, Antonio Toca Fernández, Juan
Palomar Verea and Luis Barragán
himself. It was the first publication to “encompass
the architect ’s entire range of
works and projects”. See Editor ’s Note in “Barragán: The Complete Works”, Raul Rispa, ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996) 5.
1 James D. Cockcroft, Precursores intelectuales de la revolución
mexicana, 1900-1913, 23a ed (México: Siglo Veintiuno, 2002).
2 “Chronology” Barragan Foundation, accessed January 2nd, 2022.
https://www.barragan-foundation.org/luis-barragan/chronology
3 Tapatío is the demonym of
Guadalajara, Jalisco. It
is used to
refer to anything related to Guadalajara and the Jalisco Highland
region. It comes from the nahuatl “tlapatiyōtl”,
the monetary unit used in the region before the Spanish invasion.
4 Palomar,
Juan, ‘Barragán por Palomar’, 39.
5 CMS, “La Guadalajara Que Se Fue,” El Informador, Noticias de Jalisco
(El Informador, October 6, 2017), https://www.informador.mx/cultura/La-Guadalajara- que-se-fue-20171005-0133.html.
6 Presumably, this house might have been a rental
for Barragán himself.
7 Park of the Revolution in The New Architecture in Mexico, Abril 1937. 40-41.
8 Claudia Rueda Velázquez, ‘Fotógrafos de La
Arquitectura Moderna Tapatía’, Bitácora
Arquitectura, no. 41 (13
September 2019): 38, https://doi. org/10.22201/fa.14058901p.2019.41.70673.
9 Rueda Velázquez, ‘Fotógrafos de La Arquitectura Moderna Tapatía’. 40.
10 Fernando González Gortázar, La fundación de un sueño: la Escuela
de Arquitectura de Guadalajara, (Guadalajara:
Universidad de Guadalajara, 1995) 144.
11 In these publications, for example, his name is mentioned in a
note, and repeated in a couple
more pictures, making the authorship of the remaining images an ambiguous fact.
12 Remodeled
in collaboration with Juan Palomar Arias.
13 Palomar, Juan, ‘Barragán por Palomar’. 48-49.
14 Ibid., 424.