Luis Barragán House and Studio

Casa Barragan is the former residence and studio of Mexican architect Luis Barragan in the Tacubaya district of Mexico City, completed in 1948 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004. The house was both home and laboratory: here Barragan worked out the personal language of coloured walls, filtered light, silent courtyards and water surfaces that earned him the 1980 Pritzker Prize. From the discreet street entrance through the red-volcanic-stone vestibule to the light-flooded library and the yellow-tiled rooftop water terrace, the house follows a deliberate sequence of compression and release. Visitors enter only by advance booking in small groups and see the original furniture, library and art collection essentially as left at his death in 1988.