Perched on a lava field in southern Mexico City, Casa Pedregal (formerly known as Casa Prieto López) is the largest private residence designed by Luis Barragán, the country’s most prominent architect. Built between 1947 and 1950, the home was featured in advertising campaigns for urban development El Pedregal in Mexico City, a utopian solution initiated by Barragán to alleviate housing demands in one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

César Cervantes – founder of a successful local taco restaurant chain – purchased the property in 2014 and has been at the forefront of recovering the past glories of El Pedregal. He made a name for himself as an important contemporary art collector, before deciding to sell all the works, claiming that collecting had become “too much about speed, about ambition, about money, about needing more each time.” Cervantes explains that towards the end of Barragán’s professional career, the architect built an average of one private residency every ten years. “The results are here, the houses are all masterpieces.”

“I don’t believe in museums. I never want this house to become a museum or something similar,” says Cervantes. “Every single day, every single moment, every single ray of light is spectacular and unique.” Casa Pedregal also presents an uncommon scale in Barragán’s oeuvre. It was the architect himself who persuaded Eduardo Prieto López to commission the project and propel the urbanization of the area. There are also certain similarities with Barragan’s private home, as both were constructed simultaneously. The multi-leveled layout divides public and private rooms, and the engineered use of light, both natural and artificial, provides harmony.

Igor Ramirez Garcia-Peralta is Art Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.