Mac Rating: 0.00 | Votes: | Date:

Built between 1940 and 1942 as the first house the architect Luis Barragan designed for himself, Casa Ortega in the Tacubaya district of Mexico City is regarded by many as one of his best-kept secrets, a place where his mature style first took shape. Barragan, who would go on to win the Pritzker Prize and become the most influential Mexican architect of the twentieth century, lived here until 1947 before selling it to the silversmith Alfredo Ortega and building the adjoining Casa Barragan, now a museum, next door. What sets Casa Ortega apart is its garden, which was the chief motivation for the whole project; Barragan drew on his memories of the haciendas of his childhood and of the gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife in Spain to create a lush, romantic and somewhat wild green space, and the experiments in landscape he made here shaped the celebrated Jardines del Pedregal and his later work. The house itself is a sequence of small, light-filled spaces full of visual surprises and shifting perspectives. Because the house is privately owned and lived in rather than run as a conventional museum, it can be seen only on guided tours booked in advance, and this limited access has helped preserve its intimate, almost secret atmosphere, with small groups led through the rooms and gardens by guides who explain Barragan's ideas and the history of the place. Visitors who come straight from the more famous and austere Casa Barragan next door often find Casa Ortega warmer and more romantic, its spaces a little less controlled, its garden allowed to grow lush and wild as if nature were quietly reclaiming the architecture. The interplay of light, colour and texture that would define Barragan's mature work, the play of bright walls against deep shadow, the framing of greenery through carefully placed openings, the use of water and local materials, can all be traced back to the experiments he made here for himself, without a client to please. The silversmith Alfredo Ortega, who bought the house, came from a family famous for its silverwork, and that craft heritage is woven into the story the tours tell. For admirers of one of the twentieth century's great architects, the house offers a rare and rewarding glimpse of the place where his distinctive vision first took root, away from the crowds of his better-known works.