One of the things that Luis Barragán believed was that if you want to be a great architect you need to be a garden designer. No building sits in isolation, it is surrounded by context that not only holds the building, but flows through it, drastically affecting how a building feels.

Where does the experience of a building begin and end? Certainly not with the exterior walls in Barragán's view.

In fact, it's interesting to note that it's mainly the architects who never qualified as architects - including Barragán (engineeering and real-estate developer), Peter Zumthor (cabinet-maker), Frank Lloyd Wright (civil engineering), Tadao Ando (self-taught) and Carlo Scarpa (academic) - who seemed to consider the adjacent factors that can affect the atmosphere of a place more widely, unencumbered by intellectual dogma.

Many of these architects went on to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, the highest award in the profession, which tells you something.

A Conversation with Luis BarragánPurchase hereI picked up this little book in the House and Studio of Luis Barragán in Mexico City. He never gave interviews and only a handful of lectures so it's a rare gem. It's a short book of an interview he gave in 1962, and he discusses his philosophy behind his work.

Four main points emerge, which you can see evidence of in the houses he designed. I'll add more pages here as and when I visit them.

The first point is the point about the importance of gardens.

The second concerns the amount of glass used in modern architecture. He believed this put the inhabitants too much on show, which alters their behaviour. While we now have strong environmental reasons to eschew too much glass, designing how you want to feel in any given place in the building for the activities you are going to do there should be the main driver. It's common sense but too often the emphasis is on form and shape and how something looks in a magazine.

Countries with sharp sun have exaggerated brightness, so an interior space needs more tempering: from glare, from heat, and from show. Transparency to him equalled exposure.

The Alhambra, Granada, SpainGetty ImagesHe was very inspired by Moorish architecture, especially the Alhambra in Grenada in southern Spain. Similar to the way typologies of other warmer climates revolve around courtyards and shadows, a dwelling should have places for serenity and privacy, as well as activity and transparency. In this regard he echoes the ethos of Junichiro Tanizaki with his seminal book, 'In Praise of Shadows'.

The third point concerns the seeking of delight in design. He has been known to favour emotional architecture, or probably more accurately an architecture of the senses - and in this he shares the view of the other architects above who also prioritise sensation over image.

The third point is about tradition and how it shouldn't represent the past

On the following pages we'll take a look at the two houses I visited in Mexico City and how he has presented and integrated his unique way of thinking into them.

Page 2 - House and Studio

Page 3 - Gilardi