Spain
Modern Architectures in History
David CohnAn investigation of Spain’s remarkable yet little-known 20th-century architecture.
Spain’s remarkable twentieth-century architecture evolved against a turbulent background of revolution, civil war, dictatorship and transition to democracy. Architecture played a key role in Spain’s struggle out of poverty and isolation and its search for identity in the modern world. This new account examines Spanish architecture from the roots of modernism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present, analysing significant figures and their works in relation to their political, social and cultural contexts. From Madrid’s early, austere local modernism and Barcelona’s internationally influenced works to the ‘Organicist’ modernism of the 1960s and the flourishing public architecture of the late twentieth century and beyond, this book provides a penetrating account of the country’s rich and varied built environment.
An investigation of Spain’s remarkable yet little-known 20th-century architecture.
Spain’s remarkable twentieth-century architecture evolved against a turbulent background of revolution, civil war, dictatorship and transition to democracy. Architecture played a key role in Spain’s struggle out of poverty and isolation and its search for identity in the modern world. This new account examines Spanish architecture from the roots of modernism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present, analysing significant figures and their works in relation to their political, social and cultural contexts. From Madrid’s early, austere local modernism and Barcelona’s internationally influenced works to the ‘Organicist’ modernism of the 1960s and the flourishing public architecture of the late twentieth century and beyond, this book provides a penetrating account of the country’s rich and varied built environment.
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Cohn's engaging text examines the profound impact of national politics, regional cultures and ethical schools of thought on Spanish architecture. It also provides concise and evocative structural, spatial and experiential descriptions of key buildings exemplifying the consistently high-quality spaces and places that have been constructed in Spain over the last one hundred years.
'Robert McCarter, Professor of Architecture, Washington University, St. Louis
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A phenomenal achievement. Informative, balanced, and critical, David Cohn’s narrative places the architects and works of Spanish modernity in their political and social contexts, skillfully combining the big picture with revealing detail.
'Luis Fernández-Galiano, Editor, Arquitectura Viva magazine
Note on Translations
1 A Short History, 1750–1925
2 The First Modernists, 1910–25
3 The Generation of 1925 in Madrid, 1925–36
4 The Provinces and Barcelona: Stylists versus Revolutionaries, 1929–39
5 Modernism Expunged: The Civil War and Its Aftermath, 1936–50
6 The Return to Modernism, 1949–60
7 The Organicist Eden, 1960–75
8 Building Democracy, 1975–92
9 Over the Top, 1992–2015
Epilogue
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
David Cohn is an American architecture critic based in Madrid. His books include Young Spanish Architects (2000) and monographs on the Spanish architects Manuel Gallego and Francisco Mangado.