Durana: la complejidad de una villa elemental. El ejercicio sincrético de Oíza en la casa Fernando Gómez

Abstract

The Fernando Gomez house (Durana, Alava, 1959-60) represents a turning point in the career of Francisco Javier Saenz de Oiza, both from a personal and professional point of view. A house that is born from an elementary idea – the refuge – in which the architect abandons the previous modern orthodoxy developed in the 50s and where explores a path that, beyond organic theories, suggests that architecture has to be a complex organism, alive, that arises from conciliating opposing attitudes, of uniting ‘the one and the other’, attending to Venturi’s both-and phenomenon. Although there is unanimity in placing this work as a key piece of his career, it has hardly been studied in depth. With this research we want to cover this gap, proposing a detailed study from a series of interpretations of complexity, thus verifying the hypothesis of understanding Durana as an exercise of syncretism between the cave and the tent, between open and closed spaces, between modernism and tradition, or between the city and the landscape. In its ambiguity lies its valuable contribution to the Spanish twentieth century domestic architecture.