Mexican architect (1902-1988)
Architects should make houses into gardens, and gardens into houses.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, "The Architect Who Became a Diamond", The New Yorker, July 25, 2016
Architecture is an art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere and when this enviroment produces well being.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, iDesign
The Art of Seeing. It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980
I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Metamorphosis: Creative Imagination in Fine Arts Between Life-Projects and Human Aesthetic Aspirations
A perfect garden, no matter its size, should enclose nothing less than the entire Universe.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980
Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Mexican Contemporary
Don't ask me about this building or that one, don't look at what I do, see what I see.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Thinking Color in Space: Positions, Projects, Potentials
Art is made by the alone for the alone.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, The Architects' Journal, 1976
Without the desire for God, our planet would be a sorry wasteland of ugliness.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980
Religion and Myth. It is impossible to understand Art and the glory of its history without avowing religious spirituality and the mythical roots that lead us to the very reason of being of the artistic phenomenon. Without the one or the other there would be no Egyptian pyramids, nor those of ancient Mexico. Would the Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals have existed? Would the amazing marvels of the Renaissance and the Baroque have come about?
LUIS BARRAGÁN
acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980
My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture, not a cold piece of convenience.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Contemporary Architects
I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Contemporary Architects
In the creation of a garden, the architect invites the partnership of the Kingdom of Nature. In a beautiful garden the majesty of nature is ever present, but it is nature reduced to human proportions and thus transformed into the most efficient haven against the aggressiveness of contemporary life.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
Barragan: The Complete Works
I believe in an "emotional architecture." It is very important for human kind that architecture should move by its beauty; if there are many equally valid technical solutions to a problem, the one which offers the user a message of beauty and emotion, that one is architecture.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Contemporary Architects
Art is memory's mise-en-scene.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
The Architecture of Luis Barragán
Life deprived of beauty is not worthy of being called human.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Artes de Mexico, 1994
Any work of architecture that does not express serenity is a mistake.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
Time Magazine, May 12, 1980
Where do you find more eroticism than in the cloister of a convent?
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, "The Architect Who Became a Diamond", The New Yorker, July 25, 2016
Silence. In the gardens and homes designed by me, I have always endeavored to allow for the interior placid murmur of silence, and in my fountains, silence sings.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
acceptance speech for Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980
Solitude is good company and my architecture is not for those who fear or shun it.
LUIS BARRAGÁN
attributed, Forbes Book of Quotations: 10,000 Thoughts on the Business of Life