José Antonio Coderch y de Sentmenat was a Catalan architect born in Barcelona. He completed his architectural education at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Barcelona, in 1940, later teaching there as a professor between 1965 and 1968. From 1936 to 1939, he fought in the Spanish civil war. Until he established his own private architectural practice in 1947, he gained architectural experience at the offices of the Director-General of Architecture in Madrid; the City Architect in Sitges, Spain; Obra Sindical del Hogar in Barcelona; and Barcelona’s Naval Institute. He was an active participant in the architectural group Team X, which he joined in 1961. After an accomplished career in Spanish architecture, he died on 6 November 1984 in Barcelona.
Coderch was influenced by the work of Madrid architect Secundino Zuazu and greatly admired the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. He admired popular Mediterranean architecture, adapting it with a contemporary modern idiom. This combination prompted Kenneth Frampton in Modern Architecture: A Critical History to refer to him as a “Catalan Regionalist.” The first built example of this hybridization was Coderch’s eight-story ISM apartment block (1951) in Barcelona.
Arguably one of Coderch’s most significant contributions to 20th-century architectural thinking was his questioning of the importance of architectural geniuses. In his article “There Are No Geniuses That We Need Now,” Coderch contests the need for great leaders with absolute doctrines and universal principles. Rather, he argues for a transfer of responsibility to individual architects, empowered by their devotion, goodwill, and honor, all guided by the architect’s personal intuition. Similarly, he advocated for the return of an architectural “trade.”
More recently, Coderch has been recognized for his contributions to post-World War II Spanish architecture. For example, Barcelona architect Ignacio de Solà-Morales has reappraised Coderch’s work to demonstrate his lasting contributions. Although previously dismissed by some of his colleagues, Coderch has won new recognition among critics, leading to his receipt of the professional Merit Medal FAD, Barcelona, in 1977.
An important pursuit for Coderch was the deconstruction of pedagogical systems in architecture. His teaching and concern for the training of young Spanish architects were outlined most clearly in his “Letter to Young Architects” in Quaderns d’Arquitectura i urbanisme (174 [July–September 1987]). He contended that architectural students should engage with life rather than architectural history alone. His outspoken, aggressive, and reactionary position to architectural education is well known. His teaching has been characterized by his impatience with student laziness and ignorance. Despite this approach, he was forever hopeful of the impact of the independent architectural graduate.
Coderch’s work has been described as inquisitive and transgressive. His interest lay in architectural form and its plasticity. One of his most renowned domestic projects, the Casa Ugalde (1951), exemplifies this interest. Influenced by its location in Cadeques, an isolated beach town near Barcelona, the Casa Ugalde translates the local vernacular into a piece of “modern” abstract architecture. Characterized by its framed views, the house exploits the landscape. In plan it has been described as both poetic and arabesque. An enormous shaded terrace moderates the effects of the Mediterranean sun. This interest in climatic control is reflected in a number of other important housing projects designed by Coderch. These include the single-family dwellings Casa Catasus (1956) in Sitges and Casa Uriach (1961) in L’Ametlla del Vallès. The experimentation in climatic control by Coderch continued in a number of multifamily-housing schemes, including the ISM apartments (1951) in Barcelona, the Il Girasol apartments (1966; inspired and translated as the sunflower) in Madrid, and the Las Cocheras apartment building (1968) in Barcelona. These projects used hinged panels, louvers, roll-down screens, balconies, and stepped facades to allow, black, or filter light into interior rooms.
Not all Coderch’s work was residential. Two notable commercial projects that he designed are the Trade Office Building (1965) and Institute Frances (1972) in Barcelona. Both projects exploit the glass facade made famous by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Exhibitions were another important activity in Coderch’s career. His seven-by-eightmeter pavilion for the 1951 Ninth Trienniale in Milan sought to confirm the Spanish presence on the European architectural scene. A Spanish-made straw cloth sheet; a large, rotating natural finish timber shutter; and a table occupied the pavilion space and were decorated with sculptures, ceramics, and photographs of Spanish crafts. For this exhibition he was awarded a Gold Medal and a Grand Prize. He exhibited at the National Fine Art Exhibition in Madrid in 1960, received a Gold Medal for the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1978, and exhibited at the Transformations in Modern Architecture Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1979.
Coderch’s early architectural career was relatively unrecognized. Exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art toward the end of his career increased his profile, elevating acceptance of his work internationally and in his own country. The recently cited effect of his Casa Ugalde on the Cap Marinet House (1985–87) of Spanish architects Elias Torres and J.A.Martínez Lapeña in C.M.Arís’s article in El Croqius reaffirms his contribution. His strong opposition to pedagogical systems in architecture and his poetic, climate-responsive designs contributed significantly to 20th-century architecture.
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