Jose Antonio Coderch

Torres Trade (1965-1969), by José Antonio Coderch and Manuel Valls.

José Antonio Coderch y de Sentmenat (Barcelona, November 25, 1913-Espolla, November 6, 1984) was a Spanish architect. In post-war Spain, Coderch stood out as the architect of modernity. With a complex personality and close to Francoism, he was relegated to oblivion for many years, despite being an architect with a unique work.

Biography

He studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture, where he was taught by Josep Maria Jujol. He began working in Madrid with Pedro Muguruza and later with Secundino Zuazo. Recently graduated, he was appointed municipal architect of Sitges, a town for which he designed the Civil Guard barracks and some private houses such as the Terrés-Camaló house (1941). Two years after finishing his studies, Coderch established his architecture office in Barcelona together with Manuel Valls. In the following years he designed numerous buildings, some of which were already representative of his work as a whole, such as Casa Ugalde, and the Housing Building on Johann Sebastian Bach street in Barcelona. He received several architecture and design awards and Josep Lluís Sert nominated him as a representative member of Spain at CIAM, the International Congress of Modern Architects. One of his most significant works was the DISA or Coderch lamp, which has been awarded multiple times. This reflects his way of working, he constantly thought about how to improve his projects despite being in use and how to make better use of the materials used.

His Spanish Pavilion for the IX Milan Triennale was a great critical acclaim.

In 1965 Coderch began his activity as a professor at the School of Architecture of Barcelona.

He was a member of Team 10 participating in discussions with Peter Smithson, Alison Smithson, Aldo Van Eyck and others.

House building on Johann Sebastian Bach street in Barcelona.

Housing building Sunflowerin Madrid (1966).

Renowned architects and critics in the field of architecture, such as Ricardo Bofill and Vittorio Gregotti, consider him, above all, the authentic protagonist of the renaissance of Spanish architecture in the post-war era.

Selected Works

Coderch is an architect who integrates the rationalist currents of the moment with the organic revisions promoted in the 1960s, especially from Great Britain. He develops and investigates organic parameters with his participation in Team 10. Two works that represent this rationalist and organic symbiosis are the Edificio Girasol and Casa Ugalde, built in Madrid and Barcelona respectively. This fusion of influences gives the personal key to the work designed and built by Coderch, an architecture in dialogue with the environment that anticipates the concepts of urban environmental sustainability by integrating bioclimatic parameters.

Most important works