Arquitectura, mobiliario y proyecto pedagógico: El pabellón de la Residencia de Señoritas Estudiantes, 1932-1933

Abstract

The debate begun years ago on the relationship between furniture and architecture remains alive during the first decades of the twentieth century. In this context, they are becoming more and more common among the pages of the architectural journals in Europe designs which propose a typology of multifunctional furniture, generated by simple forms based on orthogonal planes that adhere to the new architecture. This furniture has a unique character because of its physical connection with architecture, in which it adopts a non-standard form. Some architects begin to design this type of furniture as a sign of modernity and as a new space strategy proper to architecture. Among this group of architects is Carlos Arniches, architect director of the works of Junta para the Ampliación de Estudios, who is contacted in 1932 by Maria de Maeztu, director of the Residencia de Señoritas, to be in charge of the construction of a new pavilion for students. The architect designed an avant-garde building appropriate to the modernity of the pedagogical project of the Junta. To do this, he proposed an integral project that includes a typology of multifunctional furniture that adapts to the forms of the new architecture. This initiative allowed the residents’ activities to be developed, turning them into the center of the project, following the same formative postulates dictated by the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, based on a comprehensive education. The architect approved the modernity of the pedagogical project of the Junta to apply this European model that incorporates other characteristic styles of the modernity linked to the production and the space. Therefore, this research analyzes the Pavilion of the Residencia de Estudiantes by Arniches, from architecture to furniture design, as an enabler of the modern pedagogical project of the Junta, and reconstruct the creation process from the documents found in the Archive of the Residencia de Señoritas and the architectural journals of the time.