Writing the history of Spanish modern architecture: texts by Flores and Fullaondo from the 1960s

Abstract

It was in the 1960s when architects interested in organising the past had sufficient historical perspective to present different narratives for Spanish modern architecture. This paper discusses the writings of Carlos Flores and Juan Daniel Fullaondo, which were fundamental in the revision and reconstruction of the assimilation and evolution of modern architecture in Spain. Flores’s book Arquitectura Española Contemporánea stands out because of its spirited defence of modernity. Recognition of the iconographic value of architectural photography and the use of José Ortega y Gasset’s ‘The idea of the generations’ are the two main characteristics of this book. Whereas Fullaondo, who was in charge of a magazine, Nueva Forma, was a faithful advocate of the critical work of Bruno Zevi. He published different special issues in which he discussed the connection of German expressionism and Italian futurism in Spain, and defended organicism as the most influential tendency in Spanish architecture in the 1960s. This paper relates the main ideas of these authors with previous writings that began analysing modern buildings erected on Spanish soil, and with other remarkable books also published in the 1960s, such as those of Cesar Ortiz-Echagüe, Lluís Domènech and Oriol Bohigas. All in all, they established the principles of Spanish modern historiography, and influenced European magazines that were starting to pay attention to Spanish architecture by publishing special issues, such as the Swiss Werk or the Italian Zodiac.