Barragan - The Complete Works

Book excerpt: Mexican architect Luis Barragan (1902-88) was one of the twentieth centurys most creative designers and one of its best-known architects. Self-taught, he achieved international renown for his remarkable personal artistic vision. Using vegetation, water, primary geometric forms, and vivid colors, Barragan created a poetic and painterly yet elegantly simple architectural style that transformed the Mexican building tradition into an abstract architectural language. This revised edition of our best-selling monograph the first comprehensive compilation of Barragans work (102 buildings and 12 additional projects) contains new photographs and an updated bibliography. Its intelligent analyses and superb illustrations demonstrate the complexity and scope of this genius, as both an architect and a landscape designer. Barragan The Complete Works collects over 300 illustrations including Barragans drawings; photographs of his work; re-drawn plans, elevations, and scale models of important projects; texts by Alvaro Siza, Antonio Toca, and J. M. Buendia, as well as an essay by Barragan himself; and an unabridged transcription of his Pritzker Prize acceptance speech. this book is the essential compendium on the work of this great master architect.