One of Luis Barragán’s finest masterpieces—a vast pink-walled hacienda on the outskirts of Mexico City—will from August become a centre for architecture and art. La Cuadra San Cristobal will encompass a permanent exhibition about the life and work of Mexico’s best-known architect, plus gallery spaces, artists’ studios, a library, gift shop and café.
The project is the brainchild of the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, who says Barragán (1902-88) was his biggest influence as a young student. “My best education was visiting Barragán’s work,” he says. “And now I hope this project will mean we can share his extraordinary legacy even more widely.”
The project, seven years in the making, aims to marry architecture and art in the same way Barragán did in his lifetime. “It’s an echo of the relationship he himself had with artists, including Mathias Goeritz [with whom he designed the urban sculpture Torres de Satélite] and Dr Atl, who we call the Mexican Van Gogh,” Romero says. La Cuadra will encompass an artist residency programme and temporary exhibitions.
Marina Abramović spurs launch
Mexico City Art Week in early February saw La Cuadra’s inaugural artistic collaboration, with Marina Abramović, who spent two days making a film there, her first work in Mexico since the 1990s. An annual “artist experience” will be an ongoing element of La Cuadra, and Abramović’s contribution included an intervention for invited guests and a panel discussion.
Marina Abramović intervention at La Cuadra Photo: Fabian Martinez
Barragán, the foremost Mexican architect of the 20th century, combined tradition and Modernism to produce buildings both of their moment and timeless. Born in Guadalajara, he travelled extensively in Europe before returning to Mexico City, where he worked in new neighbourhoods including Cuauhtémoc, Roma and Condesa before moving on to the work for which he is best known, Casa Luis Barragán, his residence for four decades and now a museum and Unesco World Heritage site. Other masterpieces include his Capuchin Convent Chapel in Tlalpan, as well as La Cuadra San Cristobal, which he designed in the late 1960s for the Egerström family, from whom the Fernando Romero Foundation purchased the property in 2024. The 30,000 sq. m site includes the main house, gardens, a plaza, swimming pool, stables and even a pool for the horses.
Abramović’s new film involves horses, but the equestrian element is only one uniting factor between the performance artist and the architect. “Marina’s focus on peace and ending violence connects her to Barragán, who like her had silence and humanity at the core of his work,” Romero says. “We couldn’t think of anyone better than her for this project.”
Exterior courtyard and stables at La Cuadra Photo by Yannik Wegner.
Courtesy of Fundación Fernando Romero.
For Romero, this is another major landmark project for Mexico City. He designed the Museo Soumaya, home to more than 66,000 works including the largest Rodin collection outside France, and objects ranging from pre-Hispanic pieces to European Renaissance works to paintings by the Mexican muralists. The museum opened in its current location in 2011, having been built in tribute to Romero’s late mother-in-law Soumaya Domit, who was the wife of business magnate Carlos Slim, the richest person in Latin America.
Romero’s studio is also behind projects including El Salvador’s planned Bitcoin City and Aeropuerto Internacional del Pacifico.
The first phase of the reimagined La Cuadra will open in August, consisting of a permanent exhibition focusing on Barragán’s life and including maquettes and drawings. Romero says he hopes La Cuadra will become “a dynamic cultural hub that encourages new possibilities at the intersection of art and architecture” and says that while no figure is being released for the cost of the project, the ambition is that it will break even within seven to ten years of opening.
- La Cuadra San Cristobal is due to open fully in October