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For
me to be sharing this evening with you, in this magnificent room
with
our exhibition as a backdrop, has a profound significance. It is a
dream
come true, something that would have been unthinkable for our work
team
just a few years ago.
And at an event such as this, what feeds the illusion and confidence in
our
project called “WOMEN WHO BUILD”, from the interest in explaining
our
architecture for the creation of links between professionals,
wishing to take part in the construction of the part of the world where
we
have to live and want to take care of. We understand the practice of
architecture as a service to society, who
we
should theoretically serve but from whom sometimes we find ourselves
detached.
INTRODUCTION
I would like to take advantage of this moment, which is much awaited and
unrepeatable
for me to transmit to you a multitude of ideas but time is
limited and, while preparing this small chat, I asked myself where
should
I begin, how could this initial bridge be stretched between you
m and
me, what would I like you to remember that had something to do with
Spanish
architecture, with Spanish lady architects.
Modernity?
Our evolved society? Our past? Our history? Our roots?... our
colleagues
Marta Dalmau and Carmen Fiol will speak about modernity
tomorrow,
Cristina has already spoken about the roots we have in common.
I am going to begin with something that we always share, something that
has
remained unchangeable for centuries, I shall start by speaking about
LIGHT
The light of the Mediterranean, our Mediterranean, about which Alberti
would
say:
Sparkling blue, sacred cradle of light, of precise profile, of plastic
arts,
of harmony...
That light that shrouds this city, the one that, from the first moment I
set
foot here, I felt at home...
And Alberti went on:
"On the Mediterranean coasts, out of all the five senses, sight and
touch
are the most acute, deeper, flatter. To see, see and see even
more:
Painting, to see and touch: sculpture. To see, feel and penetrate,
even
more that by touching with your hand, with the incisive edge of the
retina:
Architecture".
Let
us talk about the Mediterranean light, about the architecture that
shapes
this light, joined by poetry, of the intangible and everyday
occurrences
that take place in the spaces that we construct...
DEMOCRATIC
SPAIN: BUILDING A COUNTRY
Professionally I have had the privilege of developing my career through
a
very interesting moment in the History of Spain.
When I finished studying, my country began to consolidate democracy,
after
40 years of dictatorship, and society was firmly marching towards
a
promising future.
These were complicated years but also years full of new ideas and
enthusiasm
and I believe that between us all, we helped to build the
modern
and democratic country that Spain is today.
The
Public Institutions, from both the Central Government and the 17
autonomous
governments that form the Spanish State, initiated policies
directed
to providing public support for all the services pertaining to
modern
society.
This
included the development of an important activity concerning the
design
and construction of public buildings in all sectors: education,
health,
justice, social housing, as well as public spaces, cultural
spaces,
restoration of national heritage, etc. And those that would be
destined
to housing newly launched institutions: Town Halls, Councils,
Autonomous
Governments, etc.
Although
this was not our intention, the exhibition “Women Who Build”
presents
a great majority of works promoted by public institutions.
All
this activity was accompanied, in a good many cases, with concern
about
providing quality architecture.
Numerous
autonomous governments drew up design guidelines and good
practices
for the development of not only social housing, but also
education
and health welfare projects.
Different
autonomous government institutions, headed by the Ministry of
Public
Works, through its Department for Architecture, initiated in the
80s
a policy supporting architecture, consolidated through more than
twenty
years of promotion and funding of exhibitions, contests and
publications
that are already classics in the Spanish cultural panorama.
Thanks to the continuity of this policy, we are here today.
During these years I left my home city of Madrid and moved to
Andalusia,
in the south of Spain, to take part in pioneering experiences
that
began with designs for those responsible of the Autonomous
Community
of Andalusia.
Young
eager architects were needed to become involved in
autoconstruction
programmes, the restoration of historical buildings
such
as social housing, new housing as well as the construction of
Centres
for Social, Cultural and Health Services to organise a network
of
primary care in all the important municipalities.
It was by accident, without any preconceived idea, that I opened a
studio
in a small inland city where no architects ready to work on such
projects
were to be found.
I
already knew this part of Spain but it is not the same to visit a
place
as to live there.
A
TRIP TO THE PAST: ANDALUSIA
The magic of Andalusia fascinated me, the "duende" (magnetism)
as the
people
from Seville call it, and I reckon this has a lot to do with its
profound
Arab inheritance.
Evidently, the areas without any architects were the small inland towns
of
provinces such as Granada and Jaén, brimming with History and with an
impressive
Architectural and Cultural Heritage. Regions that, in those
times,
were very backward in some aspects compared to the rest of Spain.
From
that moment I changed the bustling streets of Madrid for the dry
landscape
of the olive groves in Jaén, those olive groves that, by
multiplying
themselves until infinity, cover the hills of Sierra Mágina
and
Sierra Morena with their geometric tapestry; the olive groves whose
happy
silence captivates in the summer nights the singing of crickets,
the
hooting of owls or the scent coming from jasmine planted in the
courtyard
of one of the very white farmhouses that are scattered
there...
The
summers are torrid and blinding, the winters, harsh. Its history and
architecture,
the most beautiful.
Absolutely
filled with enthusiasm I approached my first commission: To
locate
and negotiate the purchase of run-down historical buildings and
then
to proceed with their restoration, converting them into social
dwellings,
destined for people with limited economic resources.
The
company could not be more interesting, the buildings themselves that
had
filtered through the elapse of centuries and the challenge of giving
them
a new use.
Before
me were two magnificent cities, Úbeda and Baeza, full of vast
heritage
from both the 10th Century, in the Arab era, up to the 18th
Century
that marked the decadence of them both.
LISTENING
TO SILENCE
I transported myself from the great city to the silence of buildings
that
had been abandoned for years, courtyards covered with undergrowth,
wells,
orchards with their former Arab treadmills ... it was a trip that
took
me back in time and a magnificent lesson of architecture.
I learned to listen in the places, to search for something secret, in
the
not evident, in the not immediate, to look for whatever was
essential
and not to destroy it...
I
visited and studied more than forty buildings for sale in both cities
and
finally proposed the purchase and restoration of three of them,
which met several acceptable conditions regarding typology and price.
One of them is the “Palacio de los Marqueses de Villarreal” (the
Palace
of
the Marquis of Villarreal), a project that I have chosen to present
at
this exhibition because of the fond character the whole process has
for
me. It was a team effort in which not only politicians, agents and
architects
but also the teachers and pupils of the Baeza School
Workshop,
did our utmost in preserving a beautiful building that would
have
been lost forever if an imaginative policy had not converted its
destiny
into such a singular use as social housing.
The
building represents an example of Baeza-style architecture between
the
16th and 17th Centuries, by constructed different rooms side-by-side
on
the former Arab plot division in the heart of the old city, next to
its
imposing Cathedral.
There
are two bays, the second of which opened onto the courtyard -
interior
garden, in typical Baeza-style, with no perimetral gallery
surrounding
it but with an area of rear orchard on a higher level.
The
streets are narrow, life is understood from within. The entrance
hall,
an intermediate room between the courtyard and the street is
placed
at an angle in order to preserve privacy.
A gallery with columns, orientated to the south, finishes off the top
floor.
After
several years of work, restoration was finalised and 12 dwellings
that
had been projected were handed over. The building quickly came back
to
the life that had been kept in suspense over the last decades.
All our efforts were recognized when we were awarded one of the Europa
Nostra
prizes that Spain received in 1992 and that the European Council
grants
every year to the most interesting restoration works.
Another
building that was refurbished was the “Casa de los Morales”
(House
of the Morales Family or House of the Mulberry trees), a typical
16th
Century Úbeda building, that had maintained its typology intact,
with
regard to a closed courtyard with its wooden gallery.
Six social dwellings and a craftsman’s workshop were projected for this
property.
Operations
of this type were undertaken by different teams of
architects
from all over Andalusia and that I reflected in research work
funded
by a scholarship from the Ministry of Public Works entitled
"Restoration
as an Instrument in the Creation of Housing".
In
parallel with these restoration projects, I have undertaken several
autoconstruction
works in different villages in the province, in which
the
neighbours contribute with their own work in building their houses.
The
“Junta de Andalucía” (Governing Body of Andalusia) finances the
materials
and the architects’ fees and this money is refunded by the
users
through loans at very low interest rates.
For
many years a magnificent Lebanese architect called Camile Nahara has
been
at the head of the Autoconstruction Service of the Andalusian
government.
Likewise
I have constructed Health and Social Services Centres in other
towns
in the province of Jaén:
- The Centre for Social Services at La Carolina.
- The Health Centre at Martos.
THOSE
INTANGIBLE AND EVERYDAY ISSUES
After having been employed for so many uninterrupted years in such
fields,
and especially, after having returned to the buildings at a
later
date, having spoken with the occupants, I would recommend
something
to many companions in this profession, because of its healthy
cure
for humility. It is the fact that I realized just how important and
necessary
it is for architects to analyze the repercussion of our
decisions
when actually drawing up projects, asking ourselves why and
for
what reason are we creating these shapes.
Sometimes
I think that we have forgotten our best kept secret, that
secret
transmitted to us by our masters and, by concealing it so
proudly,
we are unable to remember those formulae that allow us to build
with
limited means, magic spaces where the protagonist was not the
architect
but the inhabitant, affordable places for everyone and that
arose
from the understanding of what is vital in permanent communication
with
the emotional and affective world.
Andalusia
has spoken to me about entrance hallways, about courtyards,
about
galleries, about walls, about small gardens... vine arbours,
jasmine,
syringa (orange blossom), lilies ... wells, fountains, vaults
of
stone, churns used for keeping oil and wine, sunny areas in which to
hang
out the washing...
Spaces
that belong to the domestic domain, spaces in which the tension
between
indoors and outdoors is solved so pleasantly.
-
Spaces
that are not imposing but that suggest the essence of
architecture,
the meeting between function, being and beauty, places
with
their own microclimate, their own light, their own life ...
- Spaces
that
invite you to dream, to reminisce, to reflect... features that are
so
present in traditional architecture and sometimes so forgotten by
modern
architects.
- Spaces
where the house, the building, start to appear, allowing us to
become
aware of its mystery although it is not explained to us...
At
our Faculty of Architecture nobody told me about it, but it was all
there
and I received the most interesting lesson in architecture from
the
past.
I
am interested in architecture that is deeply rooted to the land, to
the
place itself, to the inhabitants living there.
Holderlin said that “man inhabits this land only as a poet”.
This concern in searching for a poetical sense of space is the gift,
given
to me by such a fantastic land, the land called Andalusia.
MEMORY
I believe that modernity cannot devastate our memory, because human
beings
need to bury their roots in History. Culture is our heritage, it
is
the inheritance bequeathed by those who went before us, the fruit
from
the effort of many men and women who worked to open new paths of
thought,
new ways of understanding the world, new forms of life...
We
have a commitment with our era: to take care, to enrich and to
deliver
to those who come after us a better world than the one we
ourselves
have known.
And
it is within this reflection about the social duty of both male and
female
architects, that has led me to motivate, together with Cristina
García-Rosales
and other lady architects, a project on the issues of
WOMEN
WHO BUILD.
We
are in line with understanding the research on the habitat as a
contribution
to the evolution of a culture, trying to distance ourselves
from
aesthetic conceptions that exclusively appreciate formal values,
moving
away from inventing whatever the cost, looking for what is
original,
in the sense of what has never been seen before.
We
want to invent in order to solve authentic problems; to build a
thought
based on the approach of architectural practice, from a few
ethical
values, within a rational comprehension of the resources
available.
MODERNITY
My landscape has changed, I no longer live in Andalusia, I am now living
and
work in Tres Cantos, a nearly created town on the outskirts of
. Madrid,
a town that was designed in three stages, by the Autonomous
Community
of Madrid, in the seventies.
My
everyday landscape is now made up of green public spaces, walkways,
co-operative
societies promoting the sale of houses and important
educational
and cultural establishments. Quality of life is high, due to
the
fact that great effort was taken in planning with regard to the idea
of
CREATING A TOWN.
The
existence of this important volume of establishments deeply
influences
the integration of people from different levels of social
life.
I
am going to end this presentation by showing my last work that was
inaugurated
last October and it is the Municipal Centre 21st March at
Tres
Cantos.
Work consisted of providing 4,500 square metres of open-plan areas for
housing
various municipal establishments such as the School of Dance,
the
local radio, the Youth Centre, Employment Centre as well as the
headquarters
of several local associations.
When I enter these courtyards that articulate the building, I think
about
my Andalusian courtyards and wish that, with the passage of time,
they
will also ... keep the
secrets of every afternoon hidden within
their
walls.
And
this is how I believe that there are WOMEN WHO BUILD.
Ana
Estirado Gorría, architect.
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