Jardines del Pedregal

Jardines del Pedregal proposed a new way of expanding Mexico City without erasing the landscape it occupied. Developed through the master-planning phase of 1945–50, with Barragán’s work on the wider development continuing into 1952, it treated the lava fields not as empty land waiting to be developed, but as the defining material of the district. Carlos Contreras Elizondo collaborated as urban planner.

Roads, gardens, walls, public elements and houses were planned around the volcanic terrain rather than independently of it. Casa Estudio Max Cetto, Casa Prieto López and the Casas Muestra show how that idea shaped domestic architecture, while Animal del Pedregal at Plaza de las Fuentes extends it into public space. Although much of the original vision has since been altered, the project remains central to understanding how Barragán translated his ideas from the private garden to the scale of an entire neighbourhood.