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REHABILITATION. Dealing with history
Rehabilitar, en el sentido estricto de la palabra, es habilitar de nuevo, volver a habilitar, sólo que esa vuelta no es al pasado sino al futuro, una vuelta que garantice la continuidad de la vida del edificio en cuestión y que implica, con frecuencia, su completa modernización y, algunas veces, incluso, un cambio de uso. Cuando se trata de edificios modernistas, como la Casa Oller de Salvat i Espasa, el Palau Macaya de Puig i Cadafalch o el edificio en el que tenemos el despacho, la Casa Mayol, construida para la Exposición del 1888, nadie duda de la importancia del patrimonio sobre el que se interviene. Pero patrimonio es todo lo construido, y por eso aparecen intervenciones realizadas en un edificio Georgian en Londres, en diversos edificios del siglo XIX, en el Ensanche de Barcelona pero, también, en edificios “modernos” de los años 50-60 del siglo pasado, de destacados arquitectos, como la sede de Inmobiliaria Colonial, situada en un edificio de Busquets, el de la Mutua Madrileña de la Castellana de Madrid, obra de Gutierrez Soto, o el Auditorio y Centro de Formación de Winterthur, en el complejo de L’Illa Diagonal de Rafael Moneo y Solà-Morales.
144 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2015
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March 9, 2025
- "On why architecture is not being done in nearly every country in the world
Although architecture is not found in every country, one thing is construction and quite another architecture. Perhaps instead we should say that a can be found in very few places, although for rather different reasons. The endemic economic crises that many countries in Asia, Africa, and lattin America suffer, not to mention the case of political corruption (not always in the same package) clips the architecture's wings in many counties, except in honorable exceptions.
On the contrary, in a wealthy country such as the United States of America, the amount of insurance required to cover possible lawsuits I was told, when I was giving classes in Rhode Island, that to strike it rich in the United States you only needed to have something to sell or someone to sue) was so much that young architects would be too handicapped to ever start up their professional careers. Around 90% of buildings there, and many other parts of the world, are indeed built without architects. So where in the world can we truly be architects?"
- "The mystery
García Lorca, the poet vilely assassinated in the Spanish Civil War, once said "I know that I'm a poet, by the grace of God or the devil I don't know, but I know that I'm a poet. And not from writing poetry, but for knowing how to recognize a good poem". This gives me shivers down my spine because you and I might never be the architects we want or would like to be one day, but we will be, we can be architects as long as we know how to recognize good architecture. "Verde que te quiero verde, verde viento, verde mar"
On the other hand, Albert Einstein also said, in his search for the equation that would unify gravitational and electromagnetic forces and aside from his famous "God doesn't roll the dice", that "the most beautiful thing that man can feel is the mysterious side of life. There is the true birthplace of art and science". If, as Auden said "a rose is but a rose", perhaps he who smells it knows more that he who rips its petals off to analyze them under the microscope. This mystery - this fragrance - is what I'd like to share with you today and what has moved me most in writing this letter to you. Without any spirit to lecture anybody."
Although architecture is not found in every country, one thing is construction and quite another architecture. Perhaps instead we should say that a can be found in very few places, although for rather different reasons. The endemic economic crises that many countries in Asia, Africa, and lattin America suffer, not to mention the case of political corruption (not always in the same package) clips the architecture's wings in many counties, except in honorable exceptions.
On the contrary, in a wealthy country such as the United States of America, the amount of insurance required to cover possible lawsuits I was told, when I was giving classes in Rhode Island, that to strike it rich in the United States you only needed to have something to sell or someone to sue) was so much that young architects would be too handicapped to ever start up their professional careers. Around 90% of buildings there, and many other parts of the world, are indeed built without architects. So where in the world can we truly be architects?"
- "The mystery
García Lorca, the poet vilely assassinated in the Spanish Civil War, once said "I know that I'm a poet, by the grace of God or the devil I don't know, but I know that I'm a poet. And not from writing poetry, but for knowing how to recognize a good poem". This gives me shivers down my spine because you and I might never be the architects we want or would like to be one day, but we will be, we can be architects as long as we know how to recognize good architecture. "Verde que te quiero verde, verde viento, verde mar"
On the other hand, Albert Einstein also said, in his search for the equation that would unify gravitational and electromagnetic forces and aside from his famous "God doesn't roll the dice", that "the most beautiful thing that man can feel is the mysterious side of life. There is the true birthplace of art and science". If, as Auden said "a rose is but a rose", perhaps he who smells it knows more that he who rips its petals off to analyze them under the microscope. This mystery - this fragrance - is what I'd like to share with you today and what has moved me most in writing this letter to you. Without any spirit to lecture anybody."
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