th

55 SAH Annual Meeting.

Richmond, Virginia 2002.
Session: Tradition and Innovation in
Contemporary Latin American Architecture

The legacy of Luis Barragán Morfin in Ricardo Legorreta and Antonio Attolini architecture.
Lucia Santa Ana
Graduate School of Architecture
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

I. Introduction.

The architecture of Luis Barragán is an interesting phenomenon in Mexican architecture. He

started to develop his third stage of architecture, the one by which he is mainly known in the world

around 1940 with the construction of the Ortega house and his own house in Tacubaya. Barragán

began to develop his atemporal and personal architecture, while most of the famous and known

architects of Mexico were designing buildings in international style, some others were creating

colonial Spanish houses and very few were still using the Neocolonial style.

II. Luis Barragán Architecture.

Barragán as engineer and “foreigner”, coming from Guadalajara Jalisco, was hardly noticed by the

important architects that were building in Mexico City. He was accused of constructing

scenography “using those great walls that had no function”. Only the architects that co-worked with

him received some influence, but in general he was hardly notice at the 50’s and beginnings of 60’s.

For Barragán architecture must fulfill the spirit. He developed this concept using elements like

walls, water, vegetation, light and color; creating timeless spaces in which we can feel the passing

of time or the seasons from year. He confine space, creating “spaces within spaces” that give us

different sensations as we walk thru them.

Barragán architecture get its influenced from different parts of the world; from Mexico take elements

from monasteries and vernacular houses, from southern Spain and the north of Africa takes lots of
elements from the Arabic culture and finally from France he gets a great influence from Ferdinand

Bac’s gardens. The mixture of all this elements with out living aside the international style elements

help Barragán to materialize his architecture, obtaining buildings like the Convent in Tlalpan the

Galvez House or the Ghilarde House.

In all this buildings we can see how Barragán gives worth and a new meaning to Mexican crafts,

using decorative elements like great crystal blow spheres, big clay jars (the ones use to put pulque

in), ceramic of talavera and furniture made of savin with cushions of heavy cotton cloth. This is a

really important point as in this period all this kind of decoration and architecture was despise by the

intellectual or high society of Mexico.

From these elements Ricardo Legorreta and Antonio Attolini start to build up their architecture, they

represent the first generation of architects from the central region of Mexico that started to develop

this style around the end of the 60’s decade.

III. Ricardo Legorreta Architecture.

Ricardo Legorreta more known outside of Mexico than Attolini Lack, started working with Jose

Villagran García in 1953 where he developed buildings into the International Style. In 1960 he

establishes by himself and we can appreciate how gradually he started to change from the

international style influence architecture until he finally gets into what we can call regionalism. One

of the first works in which we can see this change of style is the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico City

from 1968. In this building Barragán worked as landscape consultant.

The elements in Legorreta´s architecture are color, light, water and walls. With this elements

Legorreta develops his architecture. By using light and color, Legorreta creates different moods in

spaces. The sources of light can be windows or artificial sources, which gives a game between

light and shadow. The colors in his architecture vary from building to building, but generally in
Mexico he uses brighter colors in exteriors that in buildings made in foreign countries. Also bright

colors like magenta or canary yellow are used as details to emphasize an specific detail or part of

the work and can be used in inner or outer parts of the building. Legorreta’s architecture finds its

inspiration in convents, haciendas and pre-Hispanic architecture. In each building we can find

elements taken from this sources in the scheme that generates the building or in details that

conform the building.

In his first works Legorreta took more care in the relation of his buildings with it’s surroundings but

as he becomes more famous he start to give himself lot of concessions, letting aside environmental

conditions in the design of his work, being sometimes the formal conception what leads building’s

composition.

Along his career Legorreta has built in many different architectural genders: houses, hotels,

factories, schools, office buildings, exhibition pavilions in Mexico and in foreign countries. Also in

this regional style he has gone through two different periods the one that goes from 1968-1991 and

a second one that goes from 1991 till the present in which his son Victor becomes associate of the

architectural firm. In this second period Legorreta’s architecture starts to transform, introducing

elements like barrel vaults or domes that some times doesn’t give much to space. Also in some of

it’s projects he let aside basic functional considerations, making buildings inappropriate for the use

they were made for.

One of the buildings that are representative of his earlier work is the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico

City, built in 1968 for the Olympic games. In this hotel, Legorreta use Barragán elements like walls

and color, but introduces new elements and conceptions. For example he change in a successful

way scale; Barragán mostly worked domestic architecture, Legorreta on other hand has worked

domestic architecture but also has worked in great scale projects adapting and using this language

on them.
Other architectural posture that he changed with this building is the concept of hotel design, instead

of being a vertical element he made a horizontal building that surrounds courtyards that are to be

lived in and not just a contemplation spaces like in Barragán’s work. Using this concept cause

some problems like giving as result long corridors that make guests walk a considerable distances

and creates the feeling of being lost. Also with this change of scheme from traditional hotels,

Legorreta enter in some other functional problems. For instance, when you enter into the hotel

what you find first is a lobby, where there is no reception; to find the reception you have to descend

by some quite hidden stairs to find finally the reception.

In this building Legorreta uses water but not the way Barragán has done, instead of it he creates a

fountain that resemble the movement of sea waves. This is a new concept as Barragán has only

used water to create a murmur in space. This fountain is not to be lived directly by user, as it is in

the motor lobby and you just see it from a distance. Also in this hotel Legorreta started with what

has become as a signature in his works and is the use of big decorative elements done in plaster.

In this case he use big apples, bananas and oranges at the entrance of the cafeteria. In some

other of his projects he use this elements but just as big spheres like in the Modern Art Museum in

Monterrey or the San Antonio Public Library.

In this building Legorreta use lot of vibrant colors, for example the entrance to the hotel is define by

a magenta screen (meshrebeeyeh) that contrast with a huge yellow wall. When we enter in the

lobby and although walls are in white plaster, the furniture, carpets and works of art are the ones

that add color to space. Also he design special spaces for works of art like a lobby where an

sculpture of Alexander Calder stand.

The concept of creating a horizontal hotel would be use by Legorreta in other hotel buildings like the

Camino Real Cancun, Camino Real Ixtapa, Club Mediterranée in Huatulco, introducing new

elements that in the last two cases allowed the buildings to merge with landscape.
IV: Antonio Attolini Lack architecture.

Antonio Attolini Lack belongs also to the first generation that received the influence from Barragán,

with which he worked just once designing some houses for a new residential area that were not

built. When he finished school he worked with an important architect of the time Francisco Artigas,

from which he received a great influence dealing with International style.

In 1955 Attolini starts his own firm, still designing in International Style with a great influence of

Richard Neutra; but is in 1968 that Attolini start to see architecture in another way with the design

and construction of the Holly Cross Church in Mexico City. Here we find the turning point in its

architecture, where he start to be conscious of what Mexico has as country in its architectural and

handcraft tradition. He started to analyze the elements of traditional architecture mainly convents

from the XVI and XVII century and the work produced by our artisans like textiles, ceramic, or

silversmith in which we can see the melting of our pre-Hispanic and Spanish tradition.

For Attolini there are two important elements in architecture, light and air. Light is obtained through

different sources like domes, courtyards or windows with views to landscape. Air is obtained by the

use of different levels in its architecture, which give us as result double height spaces in which air

can move. Colors that are important for architect are violet-blue, ochre and burn red, many of them

taken of our cultural tradition from convents. Color is only used in the exterior of buildings; the

interior is white as the architect search that the user finds peace in inner space looking at white

walls.

Attolini architecture is guided by the monachal concept of having very few elements and just the

necessary for living, which reflects on his buildings and principally, at his houses. Every element in

the building is designed by him furniture, carpets, lamps and decoration is set by the architect so he
can create a complete effect on space. He is worried with the relation of building and its

surroundings; also he considered environmental conditions to set buildings. For him the relation

between indoor and outdoor is very important, so he opens windows in specific points to create

outlooks that take advantage of the surrounding landscape. Also he uses lot water, because he

considers that water is “the wine of architecture”.

An important fact on Attolini’s architecture is that he gives different responses depending on the use

that the building is going to have. The elements he uses in buildings are different if they are for a

house than for an office building. For instance in houses he uses wood beams as structural

elements (something not very common in Mexico) but for the construction of office buildings he

works with precast concrete.

For the architect the more important part is inner space, from then on everything starts to happen.

He mention that inner space is important because there is where people lives, and that when we

have a good inner space we can get a well design building in its facades. For Attolini Lack the clue

to get a good design is to believe and being convinced in what you are doing; also to learn to say

no to a client, because if you can not establish a good relation with him you are not going to get a

good building.

Attolini tries to listen to his client, to learn the way in which he lives, to give him the space in which

he can live happy by developing the activities he likes in that space. Also through his architecture

he unconsciously make that the habitants of that house start changing their way of life living with

what is just necessary to do so. Along this second stage of his career, the architect has evolved

making his architecture even more simple leaving just the space to be lived, taking away

unnecessary elements.

As it has been mention Attolini has made designs for different type of buildings and in different

scales; houses, office buildings, stores, convents, churches. Taking care in all of them in form but
also in function, resembling most of them like small jewel boxes in which through elements like split

levels and intersection of geometries we go little by little discovering spaces with different functions.

An excellent example of this is the architect’s atelier in which lots of the principles of Attolini’s

architecture are followed. The building is settle in a position in which he obstruct the view of the

neighbors house, creating the sense that the limits of the site are endless and the garden continue

farther than it really gets, also by setting in this way the building the architect can open windows in

specific places that give prospects to the inner space, creating the sensation that the outer space

flow into the inner space.

The building follows the topography, allowing the architect to play with split levels, the ones that

create spaces with different heights letting also introduce light by domes in the ceiling. This levels

help to create the effect of letting see with out been seen that is increased with the play that the

architect make with the intersection of two different set of axes.

Color is used but only on the exterior, which is painted in an ochre color that contrast with the green

from garden. Al the inner walls are painted in white color and just in the wall of an exterior court are

painted with a violet-blue color. This exterior court is used like a center of the lobby and is a focal

point from the entrance.

All the materials used in the construction of the building comes from Mexican building tradition,

floors are made of clay tiles, thick walls are covered with white plaster and the ceiling is form by

structural wood beams. All the decoration is made of simple furniture made in white pine and some

handmade rugs.

When we enter into the workshop we feel a sensation of peace and tranquility, this is achieved by

the use of heavy walls that conform different spaces and by the use of generous heights. It is

divided in two different parts, the working and designing area on the left side and the office of the
architect, the secretary area and an meeting room on the right area of the building. The designing

area is formed by two different sections, the drawing area and a resting area from which you can

look to the garden. The architect office as it follows the levels of the site, has two different parts,

the entrance which is a resting area with a sofa and the area where the architect receive the clients

with a big desk made of white pine and naturally varnish, a chaise long and a fire place. In this

office the architect plays with light, letting it to enter from a dome and also from windows, creating in

this way different moods in space, as in the morning the light from the dome fills the space and by

the evening when the lights are not yet turned on the glimmer from the dome creates a mysterious

atmosphere.

IV. Conclusions.

As we have seen Legorreta and Attolini start to develop their architecture into the regionalist style

by the influence of Barragán in first instance and by other influences like Manuel Parra or Mathias

Goëritz, which were looking for a new style in architecture that respond and oppose in a way to the

International Style.

Barragán in particular was a catalytic element that had allowed things to happen in Mexican

architecture, with the development of el pedregal he set the site for the building of new type of

houses based in the international style principles. On the other hand with the building of his house

and Ortega house, he called the attention on some elements that had been set aside and

depreciate by academic architects like ancient Mexican manifestations of architecture like convents,

haciendas or vernacular architecture. Barragán also help other architects to realize that the game

with light and color can create special ambience; he helped revalue Mexican crafts traditions and

the use of traditional materials.

In Barragán, Legorreta and Attolini we can see the influence of the International Style in their

architecture as they don’t use any ornament in architecture, they follow the principle “less is more”,
their architecture is of a great severity sometimes resembling to the Mexican convents of XVI

century.

Legorreta and Attolini use elements used by Barragán to develop their architecture, but as they

progress in their careers they let that elements to evolve in different ways and also they started to

introduce new designing elements from their personal inspiration. Attolini for example not only use

orthogonal axes, also he manage in his compositions the intersection of axes with different angles

or he mixed rectangular with circular elements in the composition of his buildings. Legorreta in

other instance, introduces new types of roofs like sloped roofs, barrel vaults or domes.

In the use of materials, they take Barragán’s materials as foundation but each of the architects start

to introduce new elements to their pallet; Attolini uses paver tiles or Spanish tile supported by

concrete beams and Legorreta uses marble floors or mosaic tiles to cover walls.

Through the play of light and color Barragán obtained mysterious and emotional spaces; Attolini

manage also this talent, creating different atmospheres as long as the day pass that goes from the

cheerful to the quiet or mysterious ambiance. But Legorreta and Attolini represents the first

generation that recovers de legacy of Barragán and recovered all the traditional values that has this

architecture in itself.
References
Ayala Alonso, Enrique, La casa en la Ciudad de México, México, Dirección General de Publicaciones del CNCA, 1996,
280 pp., ISBN 968-29-8776-8.
Montellano, Francisco, C.B. Waite, fotógrafo. Una mirada diversa sobre el México de principios del siglo XX, presentación
de Aurelio de los Reyes, México, Dirección General de Publicaciones del CNCA/Grijalbo, 1994, 224 pp., ISBN 968-29-7613-
8, ISBN Grijalbo 970-05-0565-0.
Alfaro, Alfonso, Voces de tinta dormida. Itinerarios espirituales de Luis Barragán, México, Dirección General de
Publicaciones del CNCA/Artes de México, 1996, 96 pp., ISBN CNCA 968-29- 8428-9, ISBN Artes de México 968-6533-36-2.