Tag Archives: architecture

Mexico City Architecture: Luis Barragan House Photo Essay

Posted on Friday, May 12, 2017 | 10 comments

True Confession: In all the years I’ve been visiting Mexico City, I never made it to the Casa Luis Barragan in Colonia Condesa. One of the benefits of staying in this neighborhood is to make a pilgrimage to the home where this disciple of Corbusier lived. You MUST make a reservation in advance to visit. Only small groups go through the house and studio with a guide.

Textured and adjoining smooth walls add drama

Luis Barragan, winner of the Pritzker Prize, is one of Mexico’s most famed architects who influenced an entire generation of architects, including Ricardo Legorretta, has volumes written about him. His work is documented with great photography. I hope you read more.

What fascinates me is how he uses space — sometimes spare, sometimes cluttered, always calculated. His brilliant and punctuated use of color is incorporated into serene, cloistered rooms. I am surprised to move from small, intimate spaces into large living areas with high ceilings, walls, partitions, bringing the outdoors into the interior. There are design lessons to be learned here for how to live with a few, very meaningful objects.

Center piece. Lots of tables and niches and nooks to settle into throughout the house.

Twenty foot ceilings make small rooms larger.

Photo of Barragan, exceptionally tall, posing on floating staircase

The Miguelito Chair, designed by Barragan

Floating staircase leads to small study on second floor from library

Intimate, small library, cozy, comfortable

Painting by friend Mathias Goeritz is like a mirror

Color, louvered doors accentuates space transition

Rooftop terrace at Casa Luis Barragan

Stunning hot pink wall is backdrop to blooming vines

Mexican flowering vine Copa de Oro

Tonala, Guadalajara hand-blown glass globes reflect in every room

Luscious color in entry way, detail

One small lamp illuminates Barragan’s private dining room

Barragan, a very private man, loved his solitude. His small, dark, private dining room is like a cloister. Extremely tall, very religious, he designed spaces with small door frames and low ceilings, requiring him to bend as if in prayer, as he moved through his home and studio.

Reflection from inside to out, bringing the spaces together.

Collection of old ceramic mezcal jars are focal point of small patio

Patios have small water features, either fountains or large lava rock or ceramic bowls to collect water, that reflects nature.

Hot pink door opens to verdant green space.

My sister Barbara in the living room through the glass.

Warm colors of studio — he painted skylights and windows yellow

Outside a neighbor’s house, a whimsical sculpture

I love these globes. You can buy them in patio shops throughout the USA.

Sister Barbara in silhouette. Large windows bring green to interior.

Studio space is used as a gallery for featured shows now.

Where we are staying: In a penthouse apartment owned by Nai, with a terrace overlooking the treetops and rooftops of this walkable neighborhood. I highly recommend this location. See it on Air BnB.

We are getting around using UBER. Most rides are under $4 USD. Safe, on-time, dependable, secure.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexico City, Photography, Travel & Tourism

Tagged architecture, casa, house, Luis Barragan, Mexico City, photographs, studio

Wide Angle View: Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Posted on Monday, April 27, 2015 | 6 comments

Awesome. Inspiring. Surreal. Transformational. Meditative. Astonishing. Captivating. Beyond imagination. Crazy. No words can adequately describe the Basilica Sagrada Familia in Eixample, Barcelona, Spain.

You can learn more about this architectural wonder by reading works of art historians, cultural pundits and architects than you can from me. So, I won’t say much more than this is Gaudi’s interpretation of God’s majesty and homage to the sacred family of living beings who inhabit his kingdom.

Smack dab in the middle of this astonishing sculptural masterpiece is the Christ figure, arms outstretched, body on the cross, suspended under a canopy of lights. Is the architect asking us to suspend all disbelief? He floats above us, naked, exposed, soaring and protected under an umbrella or cloud of gold. Color dazzles the interior through stained glass windows.

The supporting columns are like tree trucks with limbs holding up the cavernous ceiling. It is a phantasmagorical dreamscape that can only conjure up what the imagination beholds.

I arch backward, look up, see the bones of dinosaurs, the hull of a ship, the backbone of man, the spines of sea coral, cut glass, anemones, the eye of god.

Gaudi lived and worked during the Art Nouveau-Modernism, Impressionism and Cubism eras. Once a strong supporter of the Anticleric movement in Spain, he embraced his renewed Catholicism with a fervor. The Basilica, unfinished, is his testimony to unwavering belief.

Sidebar: At about the same time that 19th Century anticlericalism gained a more solid footing in Europe, in Mexico, anticlericalism became the rallying cry of Mexican reformists with the confiscation of church property in 1824.

Before we left the USA, I put out a call for advice about which lens (or lenses) to take. I was inclined to take only the lighter weight 50mm prime for my Nikon D7000 camera. I am trying to learn how to travel lighter. Thanks to advice from Lynn Nichols and Steve Zavodny (who is a pro pho), I relented and brought along the Tamron 11-16mm and the 17-55mm. Thankfully!

Most of the photos on this post were taken with the wide angle Tamron lens so I could capture the magnitude of the space.

We bought tickets in advance from the USA in order to avoid lengthy waits in line and chose to visit the Passion Tower, one of two that is open to visitors. After spending about 45 minutes in the sanctuary we rode an elevator to the top of the tower (at our appointed time), then returned to spend another two hours inside for reflection and photographs.

By the time we left it was after 2 p.m. and time for tapas at La Catalana, just two blocks away.

Two Photo Workshops Coming Up in Southern Mexico!

October 2015–Day of the Dead Photography Workshop, Oaxaca
January 2016–Chiapas Faces and Festivals Photography Workshop

There is a lot of construction going on now. Huge cranes towering above are moving man and machinery as another tower is under construction. Many of the facade mosaic ornaments are covered in protective gauze. Heights are dizzying. Views from the tower top are magnificent. It’s like being in the turret of a medieval castle.

Compare and contrast with Mexico? The art nouveau movement spawned the European romanticism of Mexico City’s renaissance during the Porfiriata. Catalan architects designed and built here. Examples include stained glass ceilings and construction techniques in the Palacio de Hierro and the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico. Rivera brought his classical European training back to Mexico and adapted it to begin the Mexican muralism movement along with Siqueiros and Orozco.

Contact me if you are interested in a Mexico City art history tour:

Looking for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

Critics Sidebar: Our taxi driver had an opinion. He said the Sagrada Familia is a commercial tourism venture and not authentic to the original ideals of Gaudi. Since the building was unfinished when Gaudi died at age 74, it’s completion has been left to architectural interpretation of Gaudi’s original drawings which were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. He recommended we go to Montjuic to see the real Barcelona.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexico City, Photography, Travel & Tourism

Tagged Antoni Gaudi, architecture, art, art nouveau, Barcelona, Basilica, cubism, history, impressionism, Mexico, modernism, photography, religion, Sagrada Familia, sculpture, Spain, Spanish Civil War, surrealism

Street Life, Veracruz, Mexico

Posted on Saturday, October 18, 2014 | 2 comments

We are walking down a Veracruz street with guide Martin and I had this sudden feeling that I could be in Havana, Cuba. I’ve never been to Havana. But it’s a port town like this one, facing an unrelenting ocean and assaulted with the same kind of weather that beats up beautiful buildings so that overtime they become like dowagers who have lost their glamour and their inheritances, become shabby and unkempt if attention passes them by.

When I asked him, Martin said Yes, this area near the Zocalo is very much like Havana, and I had a sense of being in an exotic place filled with the wonder of a five hundred year old history, a blend of Afro-Caribbean music and steamy heat.

Restoration is underway. Buildings are undergoing renovation in preparation for the city’s five-hundred year anniversary in 2019. As we looked closer, we could see that many of the ancient walls were constructed with coral.

The morning started with mega-doses of lecheros at El Gran Cafe de La Perroquia on the Malecon. Now, there are two of these restaurants with the same name located next door to each other because years ago there was a split in the family. The real authentic, original with the silver coffee service imported from Italy is the first one you will come to.

We didn’t know that until we found ourselves at the other one, which was truly enjoyable nevertheless. While we ate huevos Mexicanos and huevos Moltuleños, and slurped rich, hot and milky coffee, we were entertained by dancers and musicians. This was easily an almost two-hour breakfast, filled with reverence for coffee preparation.

Then, we took one of those city tours in a double-decker vehicle, followed by a walk out to the pier to see the transport ship that carries two thousand Volkswagens made in Puebla, Mexico, to other parts of the world.

By three in the afternoon, Sheri and I are ready for a rest. Mary Anne is the energizer bunny and keeps on going. Looking forward to eating more seafood before we leave here on Sunday.

But, before we got back to the hotel, we made a stop at Galerias PopulArte Tlacihualli, Calle Mario Moline No. 23, Planta Alta, Centro, Tel (229) 931 9640. They are not always open, so we considered ourselves fortunate that we found it, and there was extraoardinary Veracruziana folk art to be found there. artepopular@secturveracruz.gob.mx

In addition to ceramics and jewelry, there is a good selection of finely embroidered textiles, including table cloths, runners and clothing.

Along the wharf there is a bas relief cement sculpture representing scenes of agricultural life in Veracruz and the importance of Africans as part of the region’s development. There, too, are classical Baroque-style Spanish buildings that served as the customs house, post office and telegraph office.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Photography, Travel & Tourism

Tagged architecture, artisan, crafts, folk art, food, history, Mexico, Veracruz

Extraordinary: Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca and Ceramic Artist Manuel Reyes

Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 | 8 comments

Off the beaten path and definitely a must-see, Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan is a small Mixtec pueblo located about an hour-and-a-half north of Oaxaca city, off the Carretera Nacional toll road to Mexico City.

It is the home of an extraordinary Dominican Church whose massive stone architecture is reminiscent of the finest European churches, complete with flying buttresses and elegant arched ceilings. Six thousand indigenous people constructed it beginning in the mid-16th century.

Ceramic artist, sculptor and painter Manuel Reyes lives here, too, with his wife Marisela, also an accomplished artist, and their two children. They are what draw us to this place since their work is not sold in Oaxaca city. They have been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States and recognized in numerous contemporary art journals and books.

Manuel understudied with potters from throughout Oaxaca state and has been working with clay for fifteen years. He uses a gas kiln and fires his work at 900-1,200 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, unusual for the region where most clay work is low fire, cooked in a shallow wood-fire kiln. Manuel gets his red clay from pits in San Jeronimo Silacayoapilla, not far from his home in Tlaxiaco. He says the clay from here is the strongest, the best.

Yanhuitlan is Marisela’s home. This is where they have created their life and work together. The children are also collaborating, making small clay figures and painting on canvas.

The clay is painted with natural mineral pigments that Manuel gets from the local region. Some of his work is primitive. Other pieces are highly polished polychrome with three or four colors.

Pre-Hispanic designs on clay come from pottery shards that Manuel finds in the region.

Marisela and Manuel invite us to join them for lunch. It is a homemade red mole with rice, black beans, fresh tortillas, and another type of tortilla, rougher, denser, made with wheat flour by Marisela’s mother. I pass on the mezcal because I’m driving! The head sculpture is a napkin holder. Magnifico.

The church is one of the most important colonial sites in Mexico. Why was it constructed in this tiny town that seems to have little or no importance today? Yanhuitlan was on a major pre-Hispanic trade route and the Mixtec temple there was a very important indigenous religious site.

The Spanish imported the European silk worm and Yanhuitlan became the center of silk cultivation for export. Silk, along with cochineal, made Yanhuitlan an important economic center. Hence, this imposing church — extraordinary and definitely worth the visit in its own right. Note the Mixtec carving embedded into the church wall. A practice for attracting and converting locals.

Couple the stop with a visit to the home studio of ceramic artist and sculptors Manuel and Marisela Reyes and you have a very satisfying day-long excursion to explore the art and creativity that is Oaxaca.

How to get there: Go north from Oaxaca on the Cuota–toll-road–to Mexico City. Exit at Nochixtlan. Turn left and go over the toll road bridge. Continue northwest. Follow the road signs to Yanhuitlan. The church can be seen from several miles away. To find Marisela and Manuel Reyes, go to Aldama Street which faces the side entrance of the church. Drive until the end. Their house is across from the Calvario church (metal dome), which is part of the original convent. coloresdeoaxaca@yahoo.com.mx or call 951-562-7008 for an appointment.

Special thanks to Francine, Jo Ann and Tom for guiding me there!

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Pottery

Tagged archeology, architecture, ceramics, Dominican Church, folk art, Manuel Reyes, Mexico, Oaxaca, pottery, Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan, Yanhuitlan

From the Hip: The Church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla, Puebla

Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012 | Comments Off

On the outskirts of the town of San Pablo Cholula, about 40 minutes from the City of Puebla, lies the Church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla. It is not to be missed and photography is verboten inside.

There are two parts to my story today. First, it is a mecca for several reasons. The church is rendered in an architectural style called Indigenous Baroque — a native interpretation of the famed Rosary Chapel (Capilla de Rosario) of Puebla’s Templo de Santo Domingo. Some also say it is an adaptation of Oaxaca’s famed Santo Domingo de Guzman church. In my opinion, Santo Domingo de Guzman is much tamer and Capilla de Rosario is a Spaniard’s dream. The Tonantzintla interior is so fantastically sculpted, carved and adorned in gold that it is difficult to take your eyes off it. It calls me back. That is my experience!

Exquisite Talavera and natural tile facade

Every square inch of wall and ceiling is covered in wood carved faces, none exactly like the other, some painted in cherubic white skin, others painted in darker native skin. Eyes and faces look down and follow you, it seems. It is difficult to believe that a spiritual deity is not omnipresent in this space.

The church proudly declares that it is not part of the archdiocese of Puebla and attends to its flock who follow the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint, independently. The interior is carefully guarded from negligent tourists who might take a photo with flash, therefore the rule is, No Cameras Allowed, at all. Zero. Nada. One can buy postcards of the interior ceiling, walls, and altar at a table by the entrance which does support the restoration. (Yes, I did that!)

When I visited for the first time in early March I was awestruck and took many photos of the exterior, stood at the entrance and tried to get as many clear interior shots as I could without luck. Then, in a data transfer, I lost all my Puebla photos. Perfect excuse for a return, YES?

Part Two: When I returned mid-week in late March with my sister, fortune called. We stumbled upon a mass in celebration of El Escapulario de La Virgen del Carmen. The church was packed. A gaggle of pre-teen girls adorned in white lacy wedding-style dresses and mantillas, each wearing a Maria embroidered hang-tag, assembled in the church yard. Not a Catholic, I thought it was a confirmation. I suppose it was, of sorts, the symbolic commitment of young women to Jesus and eternal life.

We entered and stood in the back with our cameras. There were many official church and family videographers and photographers, so I confess here that I took the chance to take a few interior shots from the hip myself.