Mausoleums for Barragán, Goéritz and Reyes
The interior forgotten space of the Torres de Satélite in Mexico City, become mausoleums where could be located the remains of Luis Barragán, Mathías Goeritz and Chucho Reyes to commemorate their artistic legacy.
Collaborators: Raul Gomez and Isis Aparicio
Emotional architecture is a style of modernist architecture conceived in the 1950s that embraced space, colour and light, creating buildings that encouraged meditation and reflection. It was conceived by the mexican architect Luis Barragán and the sculptor and painter Mathias Goéritz who were frustrated by the cold functionalism of modernism. In 1954 Barragán and Goéritz published The Emotional Architecture Manifesto in which they argued that architecture needs to be spiritually uplifting.
The Torres de Satélite (Satellite Towers), Mexico's first urban sculptures and great example of emotional architecture, had its planning started in 1957 with the ideas of Luis Barragán, painter Jesús Reyes Ferreira and Mathias Goéritz. The project was originally planned to be composed of seven towers, with the tallest one reaching a height of 200 meters (about 650 feet),[citation needed] but a budget reduction forced the design to be composed of only five towers, with the tallest measuring 52 meters (170 feet) and the shortest 30 meters (98 feet).
With all this in mind, we propose to use the interior space of the Torres de Satélite (result of its construction process), as mausoleums for place the urns of Barragán, Goéritz and Reyes to commemorate their great artistic legacy.
For each tower of the urban sculpture is assigned an internal function that does not alter its artistic and social nature, but that activates a sequential procesion through the square. The lower tower (Tower of Silence) contains a chapel that keeps the mystical-religious spirit of its creators. Three towers (red, blue and white) are dedicated as mausoleums for Luis Barragan, Mathias Goeritz and Jesus Reyes (Towers of Remembrance) where their urns are located. The tallest tower (Tower of Sound) offers a place where people can see the entire city as symbol of mystical ascent.
The tower of silence
Tower of sound
The tower of remembrance
Construction process of the towers
Proposed program
Mystical ascent: the top