CHAOS TO CALM AN INVESTIGATION OF BARRAGAN’S GILARDI HOUSE
THE HOUSE Barragan’s Gilardi House is a refuge from chaotic Mexico City. Inside its magenta walls, inhabitants are transported to walled-in sanctuaries open to the sky and heavens. Calmness envelops inhabitants as they travel deeper into the house. Elongated thresholds exaggerate the transition from chaos to calm, giving inhabitants time between the two. Bright colors combined with streaming rays of sunlight displace inhabitants from the city without removing its vibrancy.
SANCTUARIES
Concept Model: Tangled wire indicates the chaos of the city, cotton represents the calmness of the sanctuaries
Color, light, vertical space, and threshold coalesce in four areas of the Gilardi House. Each is
a sanctuary from the city, within the city; removed from everyday life yet connected to the world.
The Central Courtyard: guarded by high walls, shaded by a jacaranda tree, splashed with pink, yellow, and the blue sky. A long threshold leads to this defining part of the house.
The Private Patio: magenta in the morning, blue in the evening, thick tall walls, adjacent to bedrooms
The Public Patio: Low walls connect to the city, view of the central courtyard
The Pool: A slice of light from the raised roof dances across the blue walls and water.
VERTICAL SPACE
Barragan removes volumes from the city plot to create voids of exterior space. Remaining are exterior walled-in areas that open to the sky. These parts of the house integrate outside and in, reminding the inhabitant of the world around their refuge.
Model of Vertical Space: Cotton stuffing erupts from roofless areas, and is contained by the ceiling in other places.
THRESHOLD
Various threshold types in Barragan’s Gilardi house influence the spaces they both divide and connect. Long thresholds between inside and out blur contrast between the two. Many of the thresholds in the Gilardi house depend on a change in vertical space.
SUNLIGHT AND COLOR
Color seems like it would be the most important feature of this brightly painted house, yet it serves a secondary role. Sunlight and color work together to enhance sanctuaries within the house. Bright solid colors displace the inhabitant from the city without removing the vibrancy of city life. Sunlight changes the way colors appear in the house, reconnecting the inhabitant to the world and a sense of time.
WHAT I LEARNED
• How plaster behaves • Smaller scale diagrams have an innate tendency to be more abstract • Scale figures can aid in placing oneself inside a space • Space is difficult to depict, yet I enjoyed using watercolor and cotton stuffing to illustrate aspects of space • All spaces have a deep relationship to human emotion
WITH FURTHER INVESTIGATION
• I would attempt to understand this house from the viewpoint of a resident, I approached my comprehension more as a long-term guest. • Visit the actual house