Casa O'Gorman: 1929

Mexican architect and painter Juan O'Gorman (1905 82) had a spectacular debut as an architect, designing his own house at the age of 24. On the strength of this building, Diego Rivera commissioned O'Gorman to design a pair of studio-houses for himself and Frida Kahlo on contiguous lots, connected by a bridge. But O'Gorman was somewhat forgotten in histories of modern architecture, until the restoration of Rivera’s and Kahlo’s house in the late 1990s led to a rediscovery of the architect’s work and a reappraisal of his place in contemporary Mexican architecture. In 2013 O'Gorman’s own first house, which he began designing in 1929 and completed in 1931, was restored. Uncompromisingly radical and rigorously functional, this design reveals O'Gorman as a Mexican pioneer of avant-garde architecture. Casa O'Gorman 1929 tells the story of this unique building and how it was salvaged through beautiful colour photographs.