Sunday, March 10, 2013

The New Organicism




The March issue of The Architectural Review (London) has published my article Concrete Arabesque on the Andalusian Space for Contemporary Creation in Córdoba, Spain by Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano. It's not on the web yet, but here's an excerpt:
"This repetitive cellular design, non-hierarchic and "isotropic" in the terminology of the architects, belongs to one of the more interesting developments in contemporary Spanish architecture, the return to organicism. Inspired by Bruno Zevi's 1945 book, Towards an Organic Architecture, and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto, Spanish organicists in the 1950's and 60's used many of the same ideas, as seen in José A. Corrales and Ramón V. Molezún's honeycomb-like Spanish Pavilion at the 1958 Universal Exhibition in Brussels, or the hypostyle hall of José María García de Paredes' 1964 Almendrales Church in Madrid."

"In the past decade, a number of Spanish architects have stepped away from functionalist or minimalist formulas to return to such ideas, most notably Luis Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón in their 2005 MUSAC Museum in León."

I'll be writing more on this theme elsewhere in the near future.



Concrete Arabesque
Andalusian Space for Contemporary Creation
Córdoba, Spain
Architects, Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano
The Architectural Review
Vol. CCXXXIII, No. 1383, March 2013, pages 62 - 73

2 comments:

  1. Do you know if this space is open yet? I'll be traveling through the area and I would consider stopping through? Thanks

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    1. There were no plans to open the building when I saw it early this year. I would not expect to see it open any time soon. If I hear otherwise, I'll post the news.

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