5 Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, Second edition, Paris, Les Éditions C. Cres, 1924. P. 85. “La maison est une machine à habiter », TdeA. 6 Reprinted in Essays and Notes for a Critical Sketch, Luis Barragán, Mexico, Tamayo Museum, 1985. P. 10. 7 Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea, Helsinki, Alvar Aalto Foundation, 1998. “Archi- tecture has an ulterior motive… the thought of creation paradise. It is the only purpose of our houses”, taken from a lecture given in Malmö in 1957, “The Architects Conception for Paradise”. P. 2. 8 See Louise Noelle, Luis Barragán, Research and Creativity, Mexico, UNAM, 1996; Antonio Riggen Martínez L uis Barragán. Mexico´s Modern Master, 1902-1988, New York, The Monacelli Press, 1996; & Luis Barragán. The Quiet Revolution, Federica Zanco Publisher, Milán, Skira, 2001. Attractive residences of that period come to mind, such as the studio house built by Charles Garnier in Bordighera, or Victor Horta's own in Brussels, as well as those designed by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona for the Vicens family or the Batló family, and those of Frank Lloyd Wright in the Chica- go suburbs. It is not surprising that, at the end of the First World War, the presence of private houses, with a particular stamp, was exponentially multiplied; at the beginning of the Modern Movement, the pioneers wanted to build a series of paradigmatic houses for themselves that they proposed in a manifesto-like way; that was the case, among others, of Rudolf M. Schindler's and Richard Neutra's houses, both were in Los Angeles, Konstantin Menlikov in Moscow, Alvar Aalto in Muuratsalo, or Jean Prouvé's prefabricated house in Nancy. Not to mention a good number of precursor examples of Le Corbusier in France, or the houses that Walter Gropius built for the director and professors of the Bauhaus in Dessau, as well as the early examples of Latin American masters such as Juan O'Gorman, Carlos Raúl Villanueva or Lucio Costa. In any case, it is an accepted fact that the house is an archi- tectural genre that, in the first half of the twentieth century, was able to integrate avant-garde concepts while promoting novel ideas to achieve excellent examples of creativity. In a certain way, by studying that century's domestic spaces, it is possible to trace its development and its undoubted contributions to architecture in general. We must not only analyze the topic of habitability, which Le Corbusier promoted with "The House is a Machine for Living", 5 accompanied by his "Housing Manual", as well as the various physical aspects of the dwellings, to become a fundamental architectural typology. In addition, determining factors such as climate and economy are fundamental in the results of many of the advanced projects. Luis Barragán's First Houses In his speech to receive the Pritzker Prize in 1982, Luis Barragán established his concepts about the work he had been doing since the mid-twentieth century: "From most architectural publications, the words beauty, poetry, bewitched, magic, spell, enchantment have disappeared. The words, serenity, silence, mystery, astonishment, and wonder. All of them are very dear to me”. 6 In his work, domestic buildings occupy a prominent place, a genre that another great architect of that time, Alvar Aalto, defined as "Architecture has a second intention... the idea of creating paradise...”. 7 Both architects pursued this ideal in the houses they designed. The work of Luis Barragán (1902-1988) 8 has become very important and has achieved exceptional diffusion, especially since he was awarded the UNESCO World Heritage Prize and his house was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. However, it is surprising to note the few number of works he built during his prime, a dozen, mostly houses; this contrasts with the large number of residences built earlier, first in Gua- dalajara and later in Mexico City, which have not been widely disseminated. Therefore, it is necessary to point out that he
Q Planta casa- estudio Barragán. Q Casa-Estudio Barragan plan.
4 Eugène Emanuel Viollet-le Duc, Historia de la habitación humana, Buenos Aires, Editorial Victor Leru, 1945, publicado originalmente en 1875 en París, como Histoire de l´habitation humaine. Ver también a Joseph Rykwert, On Adams House in Paradise: The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History, Nueva York, MoMA, 1972. En todo caso, es un hecho aceptado que la casa es un género arquitectónico que, en la primera mitad del siglo XX, fue capaz de integrar los conceptos de vanguardia al tiempo que promovía ideas novedosas, para lograr excelentes ejem- plos de creatividad. De cierta forma, al estudiar los espacios domésticos de ese siglo, es posible trazar su desarrollo y sus indudables contribuciones a la arquitectura en general. cierta forma, era de esperar que un año después, en 1875, publicara la controvertida Histoire de l´habitation humaine, 4 para dar cuenta de las diversas formas de habitar a lo ancho del planeta desde tiempos remotos. Vienen a la mente atractivas residencias del periodo, como la casa estudio que se construyó Charles Garnier, en Bordighe- ra, o la propia de Victor Horta en Bruselas, así como las que Antoni Gaudí proyectó en Barcelona, para la familia Vicens o la familia Batló, y las de Frank Lloyd Wright en los alrededo- res de Chicago. No es de extrañar que, a la conclusión de la Primera Guerra Mundial, la presencia de casas privadas, con un sello particular, se viera exponencialmente multiplicada; en los inicios del Movimiento Moderno, los pioneros buscaron construir, para sí mismos, una serie de casas paradigmáticas que plantearon a la manera de sendos manifiestos; es el caso, entre otros, de las casas de Rudolf M. Schindler y de Richard Neutra, ambas en Los Angeles, de Konstantin Menlikov en Moscú, de Alvar Aalto en Muuratsalo, o la prefabricada de Jean Prouvé en Nancy. Sin olvidar un buen número de ejem- plos precursores de Le Corbusier en Francia, o las viviendas que Walter Gropius hizo para el director y los profesores de la Bauhaus en Dessau, así como los tempranos ejemplos de maestros latinoamericanos como Juan O´Gorman, Carlos Raúl Villanueva o Lucio Costa.
100 ←
AOA / n°49
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator