Victor Legorreta, Mexican architect, his father Ricardo Legorreta, who shared Luis Barragan's search for a contemporary Mexican architecture, They are best friends, both teachers and friends.founded the firm in 1965 and was joined in the early 1990s by his son Victor, when the firm became Legorreta + Legorreta. Victor Legorreta Architecture has been often labeled a high modernist, its buildings are rooted in the traditional architecture of its native Mexico.

In Víctor Legorreta’s Masterclass, he will give a short introduction on the office and relationship with luis Barragan under the theme of Multiple Thinking of Design. He also lists ten principles in the studio: architecture should have culture resource; geometry should be the base of any projects; suitable light is important; the use of color and water; the sense of mystery; the balance of function, budget and aesthetic; use more local materials; the significance of detail; create emotional architecture. Afterwards, he presents a wide range of projects from residences located not only in Mexico, but also in other parts of the world, which include the residential project he completes with Pritzker winner Richard Rogers. In his class, the art of design has been retrospected throughout the whole process. Its relationship with design also indicates the key point of his class content. 

Yinjispace：How do you cooperate with artists?

Víctor Legorreta：One thing we keep doing in all our projects is inviting artists. We believe that they have a different vision enriching the project than directly buying an art piece. And we think it is better when artists participate in. We usually do the design conception first and if we want to cooperate with artists in the courtyard, we would discuss with them in an early stage. We could still make changes during the construction for sometimes artists’ works surprise you to revise it, so I think have artists in our project is more desirable.

For example, once we discussed with Mexico artist Francisco Toledo about a courtyard. We thought he would do the wall tiling which turned out to be two platforms of soil in varied materials and colors with some very sculptural plants on them. He gives us a surprise, which makes me believe that cooperation with artist is very healthy for they have dissimilar thought. When you combine theirs with your own ones, you can produce something interesting and meaningful. 

Yinjispace：Where do you use the sense of mystery? How to develop it?

Víctor Legorreta：I think comparing architecture with story is interesting and accurate. To explain this sense of mystery, I would describe architecture as a people. For instance, you meet someone in your life, which could be your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. You won’t know him or her as you just meet them, it may be their appearance that appeal you at the first place, equaling to the facade of the architecture. Then, when you know them you learn more things about them or even more revealed when you live with them. I think architecture should be the same. 

A good architecture needs you to discover, and each time you go to the place you find something new of it. Maybe the same architecture is different in winter and summer, or even in the morning and the afternoon, which for me lies the sense of mystery. And a good architecture should not be a simple picture posted on Instagram or other media platforms, which lasts only for a mere 10 seconds. I think architecture should be more profound than this superficial phenomenon. If architecture is a story, then the sense of mystery must flow through the whole process. You must have a powerful ability of imagination to integrate this into the space, to achieve which you need and to imagine how you would live in that building. 

By saying this I mean you think about how you will live in that place, like where does the sunlight come from or different ways to use this space. And this architecture also depends on whether you live alone or with others. In a word, it is more than a mere model or composition, or people could have a bad experience in it. 

Yinjispace：How do you keep the colors of the walls? Your thinking mode of color?

Víctor Legorreta：As I have said, colors used in every culture are dissimilar. Sometimes people say that Mexican use color randomly and disorderly, but it is actually something in our deep heart. So I think the most important point is asking your clients about their thoughts and how they react to color. Every person have their reaction towards color and you have to have the supreme respect for that. 

Generally speaking, we try to make the external color matching the environment, which in most cases is the color of the ground or the stone existing in the nature formerly. We would use brighter colors in interior or a ‘surprising’ space like when you walk into a space or courtyard of entirely yellow or blue. This is one element that we prefer, which we use it to supplement the emotional elements to enhance the attitude of the architecture. We use varied materials to produce colors, most of which are traditional paintings without luster. We like colors have less luster and it could weather through the course of time. But for larger projects, you have to use more industrial paintings. 

Now we are having another kind of experimentation of mixing the color into the cement paste turning it into a lasting color. The red architecture in San Luis Potosi uses a painting made of natural pigments with the advantage of adding no extra color thereafter. In interior, my house or studio, that is the same case. We are used to changing the colors, for example, I use orange in a hall I like for two years, now I would have it blue. I think one interesting point of color is that you could have diversity in a small space. 

According to our knowledge, one thing noteworthy is people feel pessimistic about color in the first place, while they live in and get familiar with it, they would ask for more because they enjoy this colorful experience enlighten the building. But we do not apply this in all of our projects. In the hotel project cooperating with Roche, we used more pure and local colors just in the stone and neutral tone for we don’t want it too eye-catching. 

Yinjispace：Could you talk about Luis Barragan?

Víctor Legorreta：I knew Barragan when I was quite a young man, so it would be too diffficult for me to talk about personal relationship with him. I could talk about the friendship between him and my father. He is senior to my father and they are close friends. I think, what Barragan teaching me is that you need to create the architecture of feelings. He taught me multiple emotions of building and the ways o using shade, light and the sense of mystery. Barragan uses these elements in a comparatively small scale while my father could apply them in a larger and more complicated one. 

Luis Barragan taught me a lot when I visited his home or the project site I could always learn new things. He knew how to turn life into the richness and ingenuity of architecture. My father tells me that Barragan would walk into his courtyard at 5pm sometimes, for that’s when light shedding in a way he likes and the birds would resettle here to drink the water in the fountain. He grasps the complexity of life and enjoys it, which for me is also of great significance. 

Yinjispace：Could you give advice on how to research Chinese localised culture?

Víctor Legorreta：I think the issue you mention is not just existed in China, more over it is a tread that we could aware of all over the world now. For example, our country Mexico is next to a country with a much more prosperous economic: America. So in most of the cases, we would copy what it is doing or what the Europe is doing, which proves to be the same question that China meets with. I think it is not reasonable if we cut off our country from the outside world. We should learn from the international culture. But just as you say, the easiest way is to copy it, which for me is impractical. 

I believe that you should accept the voices from the outside and see things happening here in a critical way to analyze which part you could take advantage of in your own country , culture and your own approach. Then you could get a modern and international solution in your team work, which is also China-oriented. For me, this is a future challenge and a challenge for our architects nowadays. Here is a simple example: sometimes we would like to do a New York glass architecture, but in the condition of north Mexico desert climate. And then this would cost us much more expenses to buy AC for we haven’t considered it as a part in the local environment. Things just happen like this. I think everyone is influenced by other people and we all would copy things from others, while the matter is to know how to copy and adapt it into the native land and culture. There are many examples of this. When it happens in art industry, we could see modern Mexico artists are influenced by Picasso or Cubism in their paintings as they have multiple styles at the same time. You could aware of their Mexican colors or elements, and architecture fares likewise.