Casa Luis Barragan in Mexico City

On a recent stay in Mexico City, I visited the Casa Luis Barragán, the former home of Mexico's most influential modern architect. Luis Barragán built the house in 1947 and lived there until his death in 1948. It is now operated as a museum by a nonprofit organization that gives tours to the public.

Born in Guadalajara in 1902, Luis Barragán trained as an engineer and later taught himself architecture. He was greatly influenced by the convents, haciendas, and provincial towns of Mexico as well as by the Moorish architecture of southern Spain and Morocco. Barragán was a lover of solitude and a deeply religious man. In keeping with these values, his house's interior is almost monastic in its simplicity. However, natural light and colour are everywhere, and the multilevel structure is full of architectural surprises, eclectic furnishings, plus carefully framed views of a semi-wild tropical garden.

In 2004, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the Casa Luis Barragán to its World Heritage List, making it the only single building in the world to have been awarded this honour.

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Casa Luis Barragan - Images by John Mitchell

The Casa Luis Barragán is located at Francisco Ramírez 14 in Mexico City’s Tacubaya district, not far from the Constituyentes metro (subway) station. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am-2pm and 4pm-6pm, as well as Saturday 10am-1pm. Tours of the house led by Spanish-speaking guides are given by appointment only. Admission is 100 Mexican pesos or about $10. E-mail informes@casaluisBarragán.org to arrange a visiting time.

Oswaldo Guayasamín Museum in Quito, Ecuador

Oswaldo Guayasamín isn’t exactly a household name in North America. In fact, I had never heard of him until I visited Ecuador last year. Guayasamín was born in Quito in 1919, the eldest of 10 children. His father was indigenous and his mother of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. Guayasamín rose from poverty to become Ecuador’s best known painter and sculpture. Throughout his life, he championed the rights of Ecuador’s indigenous peoples and criticized social inequities and oppression in his homeland and around the world. A museum dedicated to Guayasamín's life and work stands on a hillside in Bellavista, a hillside residential neighbourhood southeast of downtown Quito.



The complex, set in pleasant gardens adorned with Guayasamín’s modernistic sculptures, consists of three separate venues: the Museo Guayasamín showcasing 250 of the artist’s most important paintings, an archaeological museum with over 3000 pre-Columbian artifacts collected by Guayasamín, plus a museum of colonial art amassed by the artist. Guayasamín used bold colours in his paintings, and figures often seem to reach out from the canvasses in pain and anguish. His powerful works left me with the impression that he was an innovative and compassionate artist deeply concerned about the stark realities of the human condition. Oswaldo Guayasamín died on March 10, 1999, and Ecuadorans consider him a national treasure.



The Museo Guayasamín complex is located at Calle Bosmediano 543 in Bellavista. It can easily be reached by taxi or bus from new or old Quito. Opening hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission is US$2.

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