Luis Barragan, architect of solitude

Louis Kahn and Tadao Ando have cited Barragan's minimalist style as a great influence on their work.

His 1948 home in Mexico City, visited by 10,000 people a year (that's only 40/working day, so you won't be rushed or jostled), has just been placed on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, the only Latin American addition to this master roster of the world's most important and beautiful places.

Barragan's home is one of only a dozen or so 20th century sites on the list.

Barragan, born in Guadalajara in 1902, trained in engineering and never formerly studied architecture.

His home's facade has no color, and is deceptively simple from the outside, only revealing its beauty and tranquillity when entered.

No Barragan building exists outside Mexico.

He won architecture's highest award, the Pritzker Prize, in 1980.

Barragan said, in his acceptance speech, "It is alarming that publications have devoted to architecture have banished from their pages the words beauty, inspiration, magic, spellbound, enchantment, as well as the concepts of serenity, silence, intimacy and amazement."

"All these have nestled in my soul, and thought I am fully aware that have not done them complete justice in my work, they have never ceased to be my guiding lights."

Once past the concrete facade and inside his two-story brick home, Barragan's words begin to sink in.

The spacious rooms have high, wood-beamed ceilings, stairs with no support structure or handrails, floors of black volcanic rock, large windows and the occasional brightly painted wall.

Abstract paintings as well as sculptures and paintings of horses are scattered throughout the house.

A large metallic ball reflects passers-by as they go up the stairs to Barragan's bedroom.

The dominant image in the simple room is a large figure of Jesus Christ, which hangs over his small bed.

The garden is filled with trees and vines that spill over onto the pink and orange roof terrace.

At the side of the house is a secluded patio featuring a fountain, a small pool of water, and large, empty terra-cotta pots.

The 5,200-square-foot, four-bedroom house was restored after Barragan's death in 1988 and was opened to the public in 1994.

The trust, which owns the home, spends $26,000 annually to maintain the structure, whose furnishings and decor are arranged just as the architect left them.

UNESCO's recognition of Barragan's house will not only urge restoration of the few remaining houses, apartments and public monuments that he designed, but it will serve as a launching point for preserving modern architecture in Mexico in general, Morales said.

''This will allow us to figure out what we need to defend in the future, the day-to-day architecture, a lot of which is high quality but gets destroyed for lack of knowledge,'' Morales said.

[via Fiona Smith and the Associated Press; courtesy www.barragan-foundation.org; images © Barragan Foundation, Switzerland/ProLitteris, Zurich, Switzerland]