werk, bauen + wohnen 12-2024
Architecture of Experienced Time
We devote this issue to the Spanish architect Víctor López Cotelo, who is largely unknown in this country. Born in Madrid in 1947, López Cotelo belongs to the generation of architects, who from the 1980s onwards helped to design the Spain of the autonomous regions. Unlike many other well-known architecture practices today, he concentrated on making architecture and, as a professor, on disseminating his approach to architecture rather than on publicising his work. Those who search for literature about his buildings will find comparatively little.
The work of López Cotelo, one of Spain’s most important contemporary architects, reveals a deep examination of the specific site and its qualities. The everyday experience of space and its sensual perception are elementary aspects of his buildings, which have received numerous awards. It is well worthwhile visiting them, as photographs can never show the architectural density and the care taken in selecting materials to create spatial atmospheres. There is, however, one person who understood excellently how to present the work of López Cotelo in images: the Catalan photographer Lluís Casals, with whom he worked together for several decades. We devote an article to the photographer’s work with the architect.
López Cotelo himself says it is the temporal aspect of architecture that occupies him and that he wishes to express in his buildings. He does not distinguish between conversions and new building, as both build on what is permanent, as a basis for the future. Architecture, he believes, ought to make the experienced time appear rich, should enrich our own world of experience—an approach that is valid in every case.
Our thanks are due to those who inspired and supported the work on this issue: Christof Bedall, a former staff member of the School of Engineering and Design at the Technical University of Munich, and Ángel Panero, who opened doors for us in Santiago de Compostela. We also wish to thank the owners of the holiday house in Rodalquilar, the archive of the COAC in Barcelona for the patient support of our research work in the estate of Lluís Casals and, last but not least, Studio Víctor López Cotelo for providing plans and visual material and for the trust shown to us. — Lucia Gratz