Se vende la Cuadra San Cristóbal de Luis Barragán en México DF

Vía Arquitectura Viva / Departures.

Equestrian estate by famed architect Luis Barragán, for sale

by Paul Wheatley | September 22nd 2012 | 11:00 am

Luis Barragán is counted as one of the great names in Mexican and world architecture. Self-taught (he had trained as an engineer) and influenced to some degree by European Modernism – particularly Le Corbusier – in the post-Second World War period, he became noted for his ability to combine elements from Mexican tradition with his own ideas of progressive design.

One of Barragán’s most renowned creations is the fantastically colourful Cuadra San Cristóbal equestrian estate, located in Mexico City. Created when Barragán was in his mid-60s, it is considered one of the architect’s great late-period designs and is now up for sale for EUR 10 million.

The estate was completed in 1968, and it clearly owes a lot more than ‘architecture as design’ for its success. Indeed, what was so special about Barragán’s best works was his vision of architecture as a work of art, though this invariably included a high degree of functionality – Cuadra San Cristóbal was, and is, after all, a working equestrian estate.

The property covers more than seven acres of land, centred on the main house, and comprises stables, a three-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom guesthouse. Water – typically dropping waterfall-like – was a central element in Barragán’s design philosophy, and in this estate comes in the form of two L-shaped swimming pools, one for the horses with cascading water, and a smaller one for people. Highlighting the combination of functionality with artistic design, the horses enter their pool via a huge, rather minimalist rose-pink wall with scaled entrances. Additional walls in “deep purple, rust red and stark white” further showcase the architect’s focus on forms, colours and lights.

In 1980, Barragán won a Pritzker Architecture Prize, with the jury citing “his commitment to architecture as a sublime act of the poetic imagination.” Barragán’s 1948 House and Studio, now on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, was a major reason, as were innovative designs such as his Mexico City equestrian estate.