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AA Retro : Architectonic Politics, Spain 1970

April, May 1970: L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui was already dedicating an entire issue to Spanish architecture and included architect Pedro Nicolau Bover’s piece covering the links between the “architectonic” problems of policy and the problems of architecture in the development of society.

Following an introduction retracing the salient points of Spanish architectural history, this article in issue No.149 focuses on the theoretical problems of modernist movements in architecture within the historical, political and geographical context of Spain in the 1970s.

“It is not enough to revolutionize content, conditions, programs, we must be prepared for the revolution of language, and know how to give shape to ideas and things for the new structure of a society in constant development. We must be prepared to make architectural proposals which, like that of the Bauhaus, Le Corbusier or Gatepac, are capable of adapting the architectonic processes to society, being aware of the process of ideological struggle which they will necessarily introduce into the new system – which is necessarily a new sieve of cultural proposals … In short, the problems of architecture arise in our opinion from the compromise which exists with the concrete system in which it grows historically. Under current historical circumstances, the current problems of the present architecture can only be solved by a transformation of the present system. “

47 years later in 2017, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui once again dedicates a number to Spain. This time, to highlight the young actors of the Spanish scene who  like a phoenix  are reborn from the ashes of a thundering economic crisis, divert the constraints imposed on them and ultimately redefine their practice.

To read the rest of the article, click on the cover.
And if you want to complete your collection of old issues, click here.

AA n°149
AA n°149

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