GO HASEGAWA
PORTO ACADEMY VISITING BARRAGÁN
2019 MEXICO CITY
INDEX
03 04 10 23
Embodying Barragán Windows — Aleksandra Budaeva, Diego Saenz, Hanseul Ju Stairs — Daniela González, Esteban Hernández, Raymond Low, Tony Zhang Terraces — Alexa Burke, Kean Ho Lee, Meryem Sekhri
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EMBODYING BARRAGÁN
It is said that you can’t explain poetry, that Barragán is the ultimate mexican master. The fact is that very few try to go beyond the clichés regarding his work. The visual aspect of it that you see in beautiful pictures and in beautiful books. The most superficial and obvious explanations from guided tours. Through the exceptional opportunity of living in Barragán’s house for a week, rather than experiencing it merely as a museum, the studio aims toward comprehending the uniqueness of its propositions. In order to do that, we imposed upon ourselves the difficult task of unveiling the hows but mainly the whys of the choices he made. We accomplished this by extrapolating the most iconic spaces and elements of barragán’s work - stairs, windows, terraces. Rather than using our rational understanding which is embedded in preconceived notions we take the dimensions and emotions of our own body to explore the true meaning of what barragan was expressing, imagining what is evident.
03
WINDOWS
INTRO Consistency in windows Hypocrisy: pretending to be what you are not Some of his conceptions pretend to be something but at a closer look they are not.
WINDOW 1: THE MOST UNPRETENTIOUS PRETENTIOUS WINDOW Unpretentious / Pretentious Ugly/Beautiful Boring/Exciting Attempting to impress by giving greater importance; flashy and showing Ant. Diminishing importance; unaffected
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ALEKSANDRA BUDAEVA, DIEGO SAENZ, HANSEUL JU
WINDOW 2: THE MOST PERFECT IMPERFECT WINDOW Perfect/ Imperfect Beautiful/Ugly Boring/Exciting All required elements and qualities (as it is possible) Ant. Crude, rough, unpolished; partially solved
05
WINDOWS
WINDOW 3: THE MOST FLEXIBLE RIGID WINDOW Flexible/ Rigid Functional/Dysfunctional Exciting/Stupid Able to be modified easily to conditions; likely to succeed or be effective Ant. Unwilling to change or compromise; adapted to particular circumstances; insensible
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ALEKSANDRA BUDAEVA, DIEGO SAENZ, HANSEUL JU
WINDOW 4: THE MOST ADMIRABLE PATHETIC WINDOW Admirable/ Pathetic Absurd/Honest Ridiculous/Reasonable Sensible/Foolish Deserving respect and approval; excellent Ant.Miserably inadeaquate; bad in quality
07
WINDOWS
WINDOW 5: THE MOST PRESENT ABSENT WINDOW Present/ Absent; Visible/Invisible; Shy/Extravagant; Reachable/Unreachable In a particular place; fully focused on or involved in what one is doing or experiencing Ant. Not present in a place, at an occasion, or as a part of something; blank, empty
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ALEKSANDRA BUDAEVA, DIEGO SAENZ, HANSEUL JU
CONCLUSION “Luis Barragan is consistently inconsistent.” - Go Hasegawa Luis Barragan seeks: Imprecision (Imperfection) / Dissonance (Noisiness)
09
STAIRS
Are the stairs wood/Stone? Barragán is so aware of materials, but in his design you could almost feel that he is challenging or denying the materiality of the materials he used. Is it because that he wants to use them as elements of tension for the space? Are the stairs thin? Maybe the most important architectural intervention for Barragán’s architecture, is to turn things thin, refined, slender, fragile, but dense. The way he painted the stone stairs so that the stones reads almost thickness-less, yet he did not do the same thing to the wooden ones. Why is stone “thinner” than wood? Are the stairs criminal? Barragan rendered the stairs with a strong ornamental sense, and the fact that he used them as bookshelf himself also tells us that they are of very little functional needs, and “ornament is crime.” Furthermore, the lack of handrail and the doors right on top of the stairs makes the stair very dangerous to use, and in fact people did fall off the stairs and get injured.
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
Are the stairs real? Barragan as architect is very much inspired by his dreams and memories and it could be that he wants the stair to keep that dream-like surrealistic nature instead of being too real. Maybe the stairs in reality are nothing more than a trigger to his memories and dreams. Are the stairs sexual? Freud interpret the action of going up and down a stair in dreams as a distorted symbol of sexual intercourse; the action passing through narrow spaces is a symbol of giving birth, and that the smooth walls are symbols of male. When referring those interpretations back to Barragan’s stairs, they could define the using of staircase as a “rebirth” and an “orgasm” and renders the stairs with a very feminine quality.
11
STAIRS ARE THE STAIRS WOOD/STONE?
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
13
STAIRS ARE THE STAIRS THIN?
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
15
STAIRS ARE THE STAIRS A CRIME?
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
17
STAIRS ARE THE STAIRS REAL?
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
19
STAIRS ARE THE STAIRS SEXUAL?
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DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
21
STAIRS
LUIS BA IS AN HON GO HASEGAWA
DANIELA GONZÁLEZ, ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ, RAYMOND LOW, TONY ZHANG
ARRAGÁN NEST LIAR 23
TERRACE
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ALEXA BURKLE, KEAN HO LEE, MERYEM SEKHRI
We discovered a fresh interpretation of the rooftop terrace by avoiding the general preconception of it and sensing another space within. The proportion of the terrace related to the body creates a sense of complete enclosure without physically enclosing the space. The way the vegetation climbs down into the space reverts the sense of height; we are in a sunken garden instead of a rooftop terrace. Amidst smooth walls, the central chimney with its contrasting roughness stands out as a pillar against its surroundings. The subtle topography of the roof provides a threshold that can only be felt by strolling through the space. Finally, the creation of this metaphysical space on the rooftop terrace is evidenced by an obvious saturated color. Defining Barragan’s architecture as a mere visual conception, reduces the actual experience and awareness of the space. By understanding Barragan beyond vision, we inhabit a richer and more complex architecture that enhances our other neglected senses.
25
TERRACE
Casa Barragรกn: roof terrace
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ALEXA BURKLE, KEAN HO LEE, MERYEM SEKHRI
Chamber pink
27
TERRACE
Courtyard
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ALEXA BURKLE, KEAN HO LEE, MERYEM SEKHRI
Garden
29
TERRACE
Sanctuary
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ALEXA BURKLE, KEAN HO LEE, MERYEM SEKHRI
Terrace II
31
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ALEKSANDRA BUDAEVA ALEXA BURKLE BOZHAO ZHANG DANIELA GONZALEZ CERVANTES DIEGO SAENZ ESTEBAN HERNÁNDEZ MARTIN GO HASEGAWA HANSEUL JU KEON HO LEE MERYEM SEKHRI RAYMOND LOW RITA FURTADO SANTIAGO ESQUIVEL DEL BOSQUE
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