An Architect of Gardens

The next global early childhood conference following the World Forum is the 25^th World OMEP Congress in Mexico City on July 18-20. The World Assembly, OMEP’s governing council, meets on July 16 and 17. President Selma Simonstein, Chile, will chair her final World OMEP events.

In light of OMEP events in Mexico City and in connection with the Working Forum on Nature Edudcation for Young Children, it is also fitting to honor Luis Barragán (1902-1988) and his commitment to nature. An architect of great simplicity, Barragán designed and built structures that have influenced artists worldwide. In 1980, when Barragán received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was said that “[Barragán’s] work has been called minimalist, but it is nonetheless sumptuous in color and texture. Pure planes, be they walls of stucco, adobe, timbre, or even water, are his compositional elements, all interacting with Nature.”

In the catalog for a 1976 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he spoke of his early years: “My earliest childhood memories are related to a ranch my family owned near the village of Mazamitla [Mexico]. It was a pueblo with hills, formed by houses with tile roofs and immense eaves to shield passersby from the heavy rains.... Even the earth’s color was interesting because it was red earth. No, there are no photographs. I have only its memory.”

Barragán also wrote: “I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop the sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values.” Of gardens, the Pritzker Jury wrote: “We are honoring Luis Barragán for his commitment to architecture as a sublime act of the poetic imagination. He has created gardens, plazas, and fountains of haunting beauty — metaphysical landscapes for meditation and companionship.

In his acceptance speech for the Pritzker, the architect comments further on the natural world: “In the creation of a garden, the architect invites the partnership of the Kingdom of Nature. In a beautiful garden, the majesty of Nature is ever present, but Nature reduced to human proportions and thus transformed into the most efficient haven against the aggressiveness of contemporary life.”

To learn more about Luis Barragán: Visit www.pritzkerprize.com/barragan.htm or locate The Architecture of Luis Barragán, by Emilio Ambasz, The Museum of Modern Art, 1976. ISBN (paper) 0-87070-233-5.

Contributed by Edna Ranck

Working Forum on Nature Education II

In October, 2006, over 250 early childhood educators, landscape architects and environmentalists gathered at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska to share ideas and strategies for reconnecting the children of the world with nature. The next Working Forum on Nature Education for Young Children will again be held at the Arbor Day Farm from July 21 - 23, 2008. To learn more about what happened at the first Working Forum, go to www.worldforumfoundation.org/nature, and continue to watch ExchangeEveryDay for the announcement about the opening of registrations.

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