Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán is among the most famous architects in Mexico City history. This is despite the fact that very little of his work is of a public nature. Most of the projects he worked on were private residences that remain off limits to the crowds of visitors who wish to better understand his work.

The other factor seeming to work against Barragán's superstardom is that he was not from Mexico City nor even of the legions of alumni who came up from the UNAM architecture department under José Villagran Garcia. Barragán was certainly of their generation and he came to work with many of them.

Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (1902–1988) was also simultaneously an architect and engineer. His personal home and studio was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. This rare honor only opens the door to an appreciation of his extensive work. The work is still being studied today. His practice in architecture was based in Guadalajara from 1927 through 1936. But thereafter he worked from Mexico City.

Today, he is especially well known for his earliest work in the city beginning with the then-new Jardines del Pedregal neighborhood in 1945, although he worked on many other large and influential residential projects thereafter. Although clearly influenced by the functionalism that was predominant in the field, his own work became marked by the "emotional architecture" for which he is remembered today.

The listings below are just some of the more accessible of his surviving Mexico City projects.