Customer Reviews

Mexican Contemporary (World Design Series)

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3 star:		(2)
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While this is a nice enough book, there isn't a whole lot here. Photos are lovely, but they don't show a lot. I should explain that, as a designer, I use books constantly to spur my own inspiration, so I prefer to see more images, more details, more graphics showing how spaces work and flow together.

While the color reproduction is excellent, and in fact the photos are beautiful, as an inspirational tool I would have to put it way behind many other books on the subject. "Mexican Color" and "Mexicolor" are both better, and showcase equally excellent photography and reproduction but with more images and more ideas. The best books I have ever seen on old and new Mexican architecture and gardens are in a series by Patricia O'Gorman ( I own two, "Patios & Gardens of Mexico, and "Tradition of Craftsmanship in Mexican Homes", but there are more in the series). These are great design source books, stuffed with ideas. Photography is black and white, though, so you miss out on the wonderful colors.

I find "Mexican Contemporary" a pretty book but rather a pretentious and superficial one; mostly the reader is given only vignette photos, close ups, highly mannered interior set ups, squeaky clean views into the homes of some of Mexico's super-wealthy. There are some contexural shots: a palm tree against a blue wall, black and white details of pyramics, a 2 page spread of sunflowers and bougainvillea, and a few nice photos of traditional azuelos.

For me, there's just not enough content here.

Another stunning pictorial of Mexican architecture, in the tradition of Casa Mexicana by Tim Street-Porter. The photography throughout this book is stunning, an inspirational source book of Mexican spaces, forms, colors and workmanship. Focusing on contemporary classics by Yturbe and Mestre, among others, Mexican Contemporary expands upon the contemporary chapters of Casa Mexicana. The only downside to this book is the repetition of much material already so well presented in Casa Mexicana (though the additional photographic glimpses into Mexican architecture are always welcome).

Never have I seen such incredible collection of unique architecture in Mexico. Not only was I inspired by the color, but it also provided me with a much better understanding of how significant the influence of Luis Barragan has been far reaching in today's modern world. Simply inspirational..

Very good book, straight to the point. Good photography, but this is not a coffee table book. this book analyses the influence of the traditional in the architecture by some of the best architects, and does it well. Read it from beginning to end in two days, I am probably going back for another read.

Bought this because the excellent photos of wall colors/textures were helpful for some interior painting ideas. Over the past 5 years, I've pulled the book out at times when I feel a bit low, just to disappear into the gorgeous photos; it always lifts me up, though tinged with envy. I admit, I never read a word of it. Pure eye candy.

So when the architect I was interviewing recently for a massive home remodel listened to all my ideas and confusion, and said, "Ah! Barragan!" I was startled and then delighted to discover Luis Barragan was the maestro and his style was the inspiration for the wonderful homes in this book. It had quietly re-shaped my ideas about residential architecture and design more completely than I realized.

So now I am reading the book, and it gives a very simple, clear sense of the principles that guide this group of minimalist-colorist architects -- in a way that's useful to a lay reader. I understand that schematics and plans and so on are also important and 'real' designers and builders will bemoan their absence -- but that's some other book. There are books that will give you an arcane academic dissection of this approach to light, line, space, color, man, and nature -- but not this one.

This book is for dreaming.