Drawing architecture in 1940s Spain: a study Based on the Revista Nacional de Arquitectura (original) (raw)
The continuous development of the Spanish economy, the large investments, the transformation of the society and the increase in international connections, had drawn public attention to contemporary Spanish architecture by the millennium. Through the medium of the press, the transformation of Spanish architecture is observable, with Spanish periodicals and monographs gaining ground among the international professional issues, headed by the Spanish-English magazine El Croquis. Moreover, we are eyewitnesses to the emergence of the new Spanish architect generation, whose young associates have attracted considerable international interest; their works being built all over the world, enriching their reputation. This paper searches for the answer to the question: how did Spanish architecture reach public awareness from the complete isolation, and what kind of social, cultural and economic factors played a part in this process.
When architecture wanted to be drawing
2018
Drawing has always been considered an instrument subordinated to the ultimate object of architecture: the real construction of the building. However, since the foundation of the discipline in the fifteenth century, this relationship has sometimes been questioned, altered, and even inverted, coming to confuse reality and its representation. Through the study of the Museum of Roman Art of Merida, by Rafael Moneo; the first urban projects carried out by Ricardo Bofill in France at the beginning of the 1980s; and the restoration project of the Chapel of San Isidro developed by Javier Velles between 1986 and 1990, this article delves into the last episode of this phenomenon. Due to the effort of its authors to carry out the liberal exercise of the profession, by means of the restitution of their specific instruments, these architectures would be conceived through the drawing, and it is possible to appreciate in their configuration the same types of illusions of the drawing. These works s...
Graphic Imprints, 2019
This paper, based on a fragment of my doctoral thesis, reveals the enormous number of historical documents available for the study of the Sevillian housing of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (about 2000 documents). In these lines it has been exposed and analyzed the different documentary sources—graphical and literary—that are conserved in the Sevillian historical archives. In addition, the important role of master builders (alarifes) in collecting data on buildings owned by the Cathedral and charity hospitals (Amor de Dios, Espíritu Santo, Bubas, Cinco Llagas and Cardenal), owners of about 30% of the buildings in those centuries, as well as their names and work, reflected in the form of literary surveys (16th century) and drawings or plans (17th century). In addition, it focuses on the contribution of a novel methodology in the translation of the description provided by the literary surveys to the graphic medium, resulting in plans, elevations and volumetries computer aided. Finally, data has been collected on the units of measurement used in both centuries by the alarifes in their works (surveys and plans).
EGA. Revista de expresión gráfica arquitectónica, 2017
aún por escribir. En este ensayo realizamos una primera aproximación al dibujo de los años cuarenta del siglo pasado, tomando como fuente para nuestra investigación las revistas de arquitectura. palabras clavE: rEprEsEntación arquitEctónica. España. siglo XX A study of the history of representation of architecture in Spain has yet to be written. This paper provides an initial approach to the drawing of architecture in the 1940s, using architectural journals as a source for the research.
Juan Bautista Villalpando and the Nature and Science of Architectural Drawing
Nexus Network Journal, 2010
In 1604, Jesuit priest and architect Juan Bautista Villalpando published In Ezechielem Explanationes, a massive three-volume scriptural exegesis on the Book of Ezekiel. Volume Two was dedicated to the reconstruction of Ezekiel's vision of the Temple of Solomon and consists of five books: on the prophecy on the Temple; its plan and reconstruction; the justification of the reconstruction; its bronzes and ornamentation, and an entire book on the nature and science of architectural drawing. Initially the latter appears out of place in a Scriptural exegesis but he explained that the purpose of this book was to provide a guide for theologians so that they can form a mental idea or image of Temple, for their understanding and enlightenment of the entire Temple. However, throughout the text he points to the utility of the book to architects. For Villalpando the laws of optics were essential to the norms of perspective. Moreover, the sense and structure of seeing was a crucial element to the norms of mathematic and architecture, it is also a central theme in his theology. This paper examines his theory and his proposal of perspective for architecture drawing.
Nexus Network Journal, 2014
This study contributes to the knowledge of architectural representation and the theory of architecture in Spain during the 17th century through the examination of a littleknown document that is highly important in the context of Spanish treatises of the 17th century: the manuscript ''Artes Exçelençias dela Perspectiba, 1688''. (''The excellent arts of perspective, 1688''). The importance of this document lies in its being a novel text of a pedagogical nature that served as a connecting link between geometrical trends in perspective in northern Europe in the 17th century and the traditions of Hispanic culture.