Navarre’s Architectural Gems: Moneo and Sáenz de Oiza
Navarre’s Contemporary Architects: Moneo and Sáenz de Oiza
Sáenz de Oiza: An Eclectic Vision
Sáenz de Oiza’s architecture is notable for its eclecticism, earning him the reputation of “an architect without style.” His work features a unique kind of genius: he transforms styles, rather than copying them, providing a new vision that makes his works original.
- Search for Universal Forms: Oiza’s work is dominated by rigor and accuracy in measurements, emphasizing harmony between elements.
- Stylistic Influences:
- Historicist References: Greco-Roman classical art and the Renaissance.
- Rationalism: Influenced by the American avant-garde architecture related to functionalism.
- Organicism: Recreating the architectural language of Wright.
Key Works
- White Towers: A “special building” or vertical model home, reinterpreting the organicist model. This town-garden concept features a self-supporting tower with a curvilinear swastika-shaped plant, accommodating four houses per floor. It embodies aesthetic organicism.
- BBVA Building: A building-tower that reflects architectural rationalism. It features a 30-story elevation formed by the superposition of blocks, a metal frame, and small pillars. The material is “cut” steel, with open windows creating a colored glass surface, showcasing a functionalist formal language.
- Universidad Pública de Navarra: A university complex with a rational and functional language. This “university city” connects buildings through plazas, streets, walks, and gardens. It imposes geometric order and serenity, separating buildings by function (library, classrooms, rectory, and apartments). All are organized around a central library, with a formal language typical of rationalism: rectangular floors, simple shapes, straight, bare concrete walls, rows of windows, and rows of tree stump columns.
Moneo: Reinterpreting Rationalism and Organicism
Moneo is considered one of the world’s great architects, recognized through major architectural awards, the relevance of his works, and his influence on younger generations through teaching. Moneo produces a distinctive architecture that reinterprets the criteria of rationalism and organicism.
Principles
- Complicity: Moneo emphasizes the importance of precise, strict, and regular shapes and volumes, isolating a diverse and independent interior.
- Three Principles: Moneo sees the building based on adapting to the place, respecting the past, and ensuring the functionality of the work.
- Structure: Great importance is given to the building’s structure, which defines and constructs space, ensures functionality, and becomes a decorative element.
Key Works
- Museum of Roman Art in Mérida: Moneo develops the principles of Roman architecture, seeking an analogy with the past. This includes a vaulted system, primacy of the Roman sense of interior space (large open space), traditional materials (concrete and brick), and the importance of structure with a strong predominance of walls and decorative restraint.
- The Kursaal: An auditorium and conference room seeking seamless integration into the coastal landscape. These are two cubic masses on platforms, intended to simulate two stranded giant rocks, using a rationalist formal language. Materials include concrete covered with curved glass to lighten and reduce the hardness of the cubes, creating a plurality of perceptions.
- Other Notable Projects:
- Remodeling of Atocha Station
- Cleaning Services
- Cathedral of Los Angeles
- Archivo General de Navarra: Constructed from the structure and recovering the remains of the medieval palace of the kings of Navarra. It has an L-shaped plant with two wings revolving around an arcaded courtyard conservatory. The plant has been preserved, pre-Gothic buttresses remain, and a tower was added. Prevalent straight lines and refined details are used, with stone from the Pamplona basin. Muraria mass is combined with narrow glass paintings.
- Extension of the Prado Museum