Posts

Lomas de Chapultepec / Manuel Parra

Image
Private residence by Manuel Parra, located in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City. The owner of the house has lived there since he was a young child. His father commissioned Parra to design the home in the early 1960s. Manuel Parra (1911–1997) designed and built hundreds of houses, mostly in Mexico. Various sources state that he created anywhere from 100 to 500 residences. He was inspired to study architecture by his uncle, architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, who designed the Ángel de la Independencia on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. In addition to architecture, Parra was a sculptor, furniture designer, and ceramicist. He was active from the 1930s to the 1990s, and this house was built right in the middle of his career. I also visited a house he designed in the 1990s, which I will post separately. Parra's signature was the utilization of materials from colonial buildings, which he collected from all around Mexico. He salvaged these architectural elements and materials from demolis...
Read more

Weekend / Stuff

Image
Studio Chair Nessen Studios Eero Saarinen for Knoll
Read more

Casa-Estudio O'Gorman / Juan O’Gorman

Image
Casa-Estudio Juan O’Gorman (1933). The  Juan O’Gorman Residence and studio in San Angel, Mexico City. He built and lived in the house, moved out and eventually moved back in. He would end up taking his own life on the property.  Between 1928 and 1932, he built five houses. This includes the studio for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, in the same neighborhood of San Angel. He built the first "Functionalist" modern house in Mexico in 1928, for his father, Cecil. It's next to Frida and Diego buildings. You can see those, here . O'Gorman's own house is just a three minute walk away.  This was part of O'Gorman's Le Corbusier / International Style phase, which was popularized by the teachings of José Villagrán García in Mexico (whom O'Gorman worked for).  O'Gorman felt that Functionalism could help solve Mexico's housing problem. He worked on a number of prototypes in this style, like this apartment building for journalists. This is O'Gorman's f...
Read more

Conlon Nancarrow / Juan O'Gorman

Image
Casa Estudio Conlon Nancarrow, designed by Juan O'Gorman (1948,1972) Nancarrow was an  American composer who moved to Mexico City in 1940.  He joined the Communist Party in the United States in 1930 and in 1937 volunteered for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight Franco fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Facing political blacklisting upon returning to the United States, he moved to Mexico City.  His closest friend in Mexico was painter-architect Juan O'Gorman. The Nancarrow house and studio was designed by O'Gorman and built in two phases. The small front house and music studio came in 1948 and the second in 1972. O'Gorman designed the second building as a wedding present to his dear friend. This was O'Gorman's final architectural project. Conlon lived in the house until his passing in 1997. It's still owned by his family, although his music and most of his instruments are owned by a foundation in Switzerland. The stone mosaics or petro-murals were the second...
Read more