Barragán Outside Barragán: A Journey Through Books, Trips, Exhibitions and Friends

The life of Mexico's greatest 20th-century architect as told by Fernanda Canales, Mexico's rising star architect of the 21st century

Published with Barragan Foundation, Switzerland.

This publication is based on an illustrated talk presented by architect and historian Fernanda Canales in June 2024 at the Vitra Design Museum as part of the Barragán Lecture series. It focuses on the Mexican architect Luis Barragán (1902-88), whose work occupies a permanent place in the canon of 20th-century architecture and continues to fascinate architectural scholars, connoisseurs and enthusiasts.
Barragán strove for an "emotional architecture," claiming that "any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake." He used raw materials such as stone or wood, and his preference for hidden light sources gives his interiors a particularly subtle and lyrical atmosphere.
In her lecture, Canales deftly interweaves Barragán's biography with his major built works, which are characterized by a skillful approach to spatial and chromatic atmospheres and environments. Following the traces found in his extensive private library, his travels, the exhibitions he saw and his personal and professional friendships, she takes the audience on a multifaceted journey through space and time, providing a concentrated overview of Barragán's creative work from the late 1920s to the 1980s.
Fernanda Canales (born 1974) is the head of her eponymous architecture studio based in Mexico City, which was named as one of the world's 100 best architecture firms by DOMUS magazine. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University, and has authored books including Shared Structures, Private Space (2020) and Mi casa, tu ciudad (2021).