Alejandro de la Sota

Alejandro de la Sota Martínez (Pontevedra, October 20, 1913-Madrid, February 14, 1996) was a Spanish architect.

Biography

Alejandro de la Sota was born in 1913 in the city of Pontevedra in a middle-class environment that would soon foster the development of his artistic qualities. He managed to finish his architecture studies at the Madrid School of Architecture in 1941, after the stoppage forced by the Spanish civil war. Although in order to see one of his most important projects one would have to wait a decade, appearing in 1951 his idea for the SAM Dairy Plant in Santander. Although the project was never executed, it is the first time that Alejandro de la Sota shows his interest in the modern movement, his concepts and approaches to architecture. From this moment on, our author will demonstrate his adherence to the modern movement in numerous works that he began to carry out from the fifties of the last century, such as the Miraflores Student Residence, the Maravillas College Gymnasium, the César Carlos College or the Government Citizen of Tarragona. Alejandro de la Sota is capable of representing in his buildings the conquests achieved by the architects and engineers of his time.

In 1960 he obtained a position as a civil servant in the General Post Office, and throughout that decade he explored the possibilities offered by new materials and developed a series of projects with a constructive approach based on the use of precast concrete panels for walls and slabs, which is being carried out at Casa Varela in Villalba.

At this time when so much is written about architecture and almost everything is justified, rereading Alejandro de la Sota is disturbing due to the simplicity of his writings, concise and direct. He does not claim to justify his works; he chooses the exact words to explain ideas, remember experiences and reflect; he shows us his complex personality and we feel closer to his architecture. His thinking is in a straight line, Alejandro de la Sota is clear about what he wants to convey and he does it with absolute clarity and lucidity. He always leaves a veiled space for suggestion, for discovery, to make a richer interpretation possible. He deliberately cultivates a certain ambiguity. He projects his conception of buildings with materials as was the case with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, this allowed him to forget architecture and stop the form in construction. But Alejandro goes a little further as he twists the materials, turns a rope into an umbrella. For Alejandro, architecture did not learn solutions and he takes Le Corbusier as a reference in which he said that "what can be taught is not worth learning" that is, it must have been necessary to make oneself and prepare deeply so that in the future time to look for solutions come out naturally

One of the aspects to take into account is his conception of architecture as entertainment, with his architecture, De la Sota seeks to surprise us and surprise himself with the result, renouncing what is already known. In the construction of his thoughts there is always something that causes surprise. His capacity for wonder is transmitted to us and causes that fascination to understand what surrounds us in a new way.

Since the lecture he gave at the School of Architecture of the Technishe Universität in Munich in 1978, his work has been internationally recognized. He has given numerous conferences in Spain and abroad and his work has been the subject of individual exhibitions at universities such as Harvard University, the Architectural Association of London, the ETH of Zurich, Karlsruhe, Aachen and Milan, as well as in numerous architecture schools in Spain.. Alejandro de la Sota will die on February 14, 1996 in Madrid. Both his work as a teacher and his work as an architect will be a unique ferment for subsequent architects from all over the world, making current critics consider him one of the great masters of twentieth-century Spanish architecture.

Civil Government of Tarragona. 1954-1957

Civil Government of Tarragona

The Civil Government of Tarragona was built from 1954 to 1957, it is one of the paradigmatic buildings of the architect Alejandro de la Sota and an outstanding work of what can be considered as the second modernity of Spanish architecture, which was developed during the fifties of the XX century. It represents a whole program of mixed needs, it is broken down into blocks according to use and contains obligatory axes, which is the most outstanding part. It is a neat and well-defined building, clarity related to representativeness and Administration. The axes start from a 6 x 6 m module, the building being made with carved and polished marble. We can say that Alejandro de la Sota starts from houses with informalism, breaking axes. He tried, without success, to build this same project in a more logical location. We will also say that this construction has not lost architectural interest over the years but, on the contrary, has achieved even greater appreciation among architects, historians and critics, an appreciation that, in the last two decades, has been extended to the international scene.

Regarding the structure, we can highlight the following: The urban outline is respected in terms of the limitation in more than its alignments give; the shape of the plot is dispensed with because they do not like wedge-shaped plants: those derived from the grid are preferred in this case. Tarragona favors the agreement of alignments of the Civil Government and work school. The curvature of the main façade is dispensed with because it is considered that it does not favor the project, although the curvature of the square is preserved in the position of the pillars on the façade. In the semi-basement floor we highlight a room for the guard, file, general store, heating, housing for the caretaker and driver, possible premises available, garage. On the ground floor there is a large lobby, guard, independent provincial commission of urban planning, ample space available. Toilets, switchboard, and cabins, information., etc. On the first floor we find the civil government itself. Next, on the second floor are the receptions and a bar, on the third floor is the guest of honor department. The fourth floor is the House of the owner. And finally, on the fifth and sixth floors, the House of the Hon. Mr. Governor. In the semi-basement floor was the armed police checkpoint. In immediate communication with the first floor: two ceiling heights corresponding to the guardroom, one to the apartment with double bunk beds and the bathroom. In conclusion, this building represented a great architectural advance on the date it was designed and built.

Plans of the Civil Government of Tarragona

Representative works

Esquivel district, Seville. 1952

It is a colonization town created in the vicinity of Seville in the fifties of the XX century. It is located in the Comarca de la Vega del Guadalquivir, in the province of Seville. The plan of the town presents streets with functional separation for people and animals, later for machinery. The streets form a kind of arch and create a square in an open meadow where the church (Parish of San José Obrero) and the municipal delegation of the district are located, this being a very original design for the time. It is a town New plant, has well-defined characteristics, and was considered an example for other towns. The layout is rigid, because Esquivel was born all at once, moreover, on a flat terrain with a symmetrical orientation with respect to the road. Its plaza fanned out towards the highway from Seville to Lora. An attempt was made to achieve Esquivel with narrow streets or lanes, its low houses, small holes, as large as possible the size of man. Following certain theories, the streets were rigidly divided into streets for men on foot and streets for men with cars. Simplicity was sought throughout the town by doing it with absolute simplicity. The church, due to its greater importance with simplistic, modern forms, with elements such as lime and mud. Inside, he tries to achieve a chiaroscuro effect to set the mood for recollection and adoration. In the Houses, an attempt was made to annul the passage of the architect in the presence of things, limiting him to superior vigilance. The Town Hall has as color notes a column and two ceramic cherubs and a clock that looks like a large alarm clock, placed on high and on an iron pedestal. As for the school, they took it outside the town, to a nearby olive grove. Flowers were put into almost the classrooms. There are a number of secondary elements in Esquivel: an open-air cinema, a tavern-casino, benches, promenades, fountains... The town entrance temple fulfills its role by becoming a term in the game of plans. In his coronation he will carry a large sign of Esquivel.

Homes in Calle del Prior, Salamanca. 1963

The building is located on an irregularly shaped plot made up of two angled blocks, one open to Calle de Prior and the other to Calle del Prado. When Calle de Prior ended in the Plaza Mayor, the regulations required the use of the characteristic stone of Villamayor. In this way, De la Sota frees himself by decree from the modern renunciation of noble materials and creates a work in which he can use the knowledge learned from his masters and from the built tradition. Despite this, the work is not without innovation because, if the treatment of the factory is that of old monuments, the object in which it is inserted, the weightless cube, is a form close to those of the classical avant-garde. The façade facing Calle del Prado, where the entrance to the houses is located, had a glass panel, practically lost today, which occupied a double floor and solved the ventilation with great delicacy by placing it under the top of the edge beams. two delicate oscillating glass slats. On Monday, October 5, 2015, World Architecture Day, the Docomomo Ibérico and the College of Architects of Salamanca, together with the Alejandro de la Sota Foundation, placed a plaque in memory of the architect inside the portal of the residential building of the Prior Street of Salamanca. One of the reasons for placing the commemorative plaque is that there was never any in said building that made mention of its authorship. In addition, the Community of Owners of the Prado and Prior streets placed another explanatory plate of the historical-artistic interest of the building on the outside of it, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its construction.

César Carlos Senior College, Madrid. 1967

This building represents one of the most original responses within the buildings dedicated in the sixties to Residence Halls in the Ciudad Universitaria. The composition of the set is based on the communication of two blocks through an underground passageway; one, the one with the largest volume, which lends its character to the College, is designed in a classical way, housing the library on the ground floor and half-buried on which two symmetrical towers rise at its ends that group the bedrooms around two separate communication centers, both crowned by the body of the gymnasium, light and glazed, which links them from above in a global image reminiscent of a triumphal arch. In the other block, with two floors and a semi-basement and a clear rationalist and horizontal resolution, the remaining common areas for relations and services are located. The complex is developed on platforms to adapt to the terrain, surrounded by terraces covered with vegetation that guarantee privacy. The treatment of the facades is used to unify the two opposite volumes, one monumental and symbolic and the other of an almost domestic nature, using the same ocher-greenish platelet cladding and the same types of openings and carpentry. Alejandro de la Sota demonstrates the clear desire to give meaning to a site, even beyond the buildings that occupy it. The architect teaches us how the idea of architecture is at the service of such a peculiar community, for which the architect seeks spaces presided over by seclusion, by the precise silence for each individual. But at the same time, an architectural complex that favors the links between the inhabitants. There is the manipulation of the terrain on different platforms, the will to disperse the volumes around the site, the importance of tree plantations, the location of each activity in the buildings, the roofs as privileged habitable terraces... and even such apparently minor issues. such as the underground passage between the buildings, the distribution of wooded masses and their scale with respect to the buildings, the landings at half height between floors of bedrooms, the staggered and hierarchical way in plan of the rooms, or the treatment of the ground plane in the outer enclosures.

Provincial Savings Bank Residence College, Orense. 1966-1967

We are facing a project in which the use of a repeated volumetric module for multiple uses prevails, built with concrete panels presented, differentiating them in their interior finish. The flat panels of this module are used as slabs, enclosing walls, roofs, etc. It is a good example of architecture in which simplicity is essential.

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  Pedanía de Esquivel, Alcalá del Río, Seville

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  Colegio Residencia Caja de Ahorros Provincial, Orense

Other representative works

Gymnasium of the Wonder College.

Pontevedra Municipal Sports Pavilion.

• Casa de la Avenida Doctor Arce n.o 20 (Madrid) (1953-1964) (demolida).
• Aeronautical Workshops TABSA (Madrid) (1957-1958).
• Gymnasium of the Colegio Maravillas (Madrid) (1962).
• Housing Block (Salamanca) (1963).
• Residencia de Verano Infantil (Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid) (1957-1959).
• Central Lechera CLESA (Madrid) (1963).
• Post Building, declared a Cultural Interest Good, (Ubeda) (1964).
• CENIM Industrial Building (1965-1967).
• Pontevedra Municipal Sports Pavilion (1966).
• Colegio Residencia Caja de Ahorros Provincial (Orense) (1966-1967).
• Aulas y Seminarios de la Universidad (current Faculty of Mathematics) (1972) (National Architecture Award).
• Centro de Cálculo de la Caja Postal (Madrid) (1973-1976).
• Pastoral Bank (Pontevedra) (1974).
• Casa Domínguez (Poio, Pontevedra) (1976).
• Post and Telecommunications Building (1980-1983).
• Caja Postal de Ahorros (Madrid) (1986-1989).
• University Library (Santiago de Compostela) (1990).
• Courts Building (Zaragoza) (1991-1993).
• Redesign and rehabilitation of the Building of the Cabildo Insular (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) (1994).
• Housing block (Zamora).

Awards and distinctions

• 1963 National Prize for Plastic Arts. Architecture Section, by the Gymnasium of the Wonder College.
• 1973 National Architecture Prize. General Directorate of Architecture.
• 1984 Gold Medal in Telecommunications.
• 1985 Gold Medal of the city of Pontevedra.
• 1986 Gold Medal to Merit of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.
• 1988 Gold Medal of the Higher Council of Schools of Architecture of Spain.
• 1988 Pinat-88 awards for the use of stone in Architecture.
• 1990 Premio Castelao-Junta de Galicia.
• 1992 Prize I Biennale Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo.
• 1993 Fenosa Award.
• 1993 V Antonio Camuñias Award. Fundación Antonio Camuñias.
• 1996 Gold Medal of the College of Architects of Catalonia.
• 1996 Golden badge of the Wonder College.