The Coliseum: architectural fantasy, by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza
12/02/2022.
[MAD] Spain
metalocus, CARLOS GONZÁLEZ
metalocus, CARLOS GONZÁLEZ
The exhibition "El Colisevm, architectural fantasy", dedicated to the Coliseum building, its architecture and its development as a scenic space, is presented to coincide with the Madrid Design Festival and the 90th anniversary of the inauguration of the theater, held on December 10, 1932 The exhibition has been organized by the Fundación Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero and curated by Alberto González Lapuente.
The Coliseum building is a unique example of Gran Vía architecture in its third section, designed by the architects Casto Fernández-Shaw and Pedro Muguruza. It was built on the initiative of the composer Jacinto Guerrero who wanted to provide the capital with a comfortable, modern and technically bold theater.
The Coliseum building is a unique example of Gran Vía architecture in its third section, designed by the architects Casto Fernández-Shaw and Pedro Muguruza. It was built on the initiative of the composer Jacinto Guerrero who wanted to provide the capital with a comfortable, modern and technically bold theater.
Façade to Gran Vía. Coliseum Building: Monographic article in Cortijos y Rascacielos magazine, number 11, Winter 1931-1932, p. 14.
Access. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza. New Form magazine, no. 45, 1969
View of the stalls in the theater hall of the Coliseum building. Coliseum Building: Monographic article in Cortijos y Rascacielos magazine, number 11, Winter 1931-1932, p. 29
Façade to Gran Vía. Coliseum Building: Monographic article in Cortijos y Rascacielos magazine, number 11, Winter 1931-1932, p. 44.
Seating area of the theater hall of the Coliseum building. Coliseum Building: Monographic article in Cortijos y Rascacielos magazine, number 11, Winter 1931-1932, p. 29
The stalls seen from the theater stage of the Coliseum building. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
The main amphitheater and the acoustic vault. Façade to Gran Vía. Coliseum Building: Monographic article of Cortijos y Rascacielos magazine, No. 11, Winter 1931-1932, p. 31
View of the stage. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza. Architecture Magazine, no. 189, 1974
Detail. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Original drawing. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Floor plan and cross section. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Floor plan of the stalls and elevation. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Longitudinal section. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Inside rendering. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Inside rendering. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Main elevation. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Poster. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Exhibition room. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
Exhibition room. The Coliseum: by Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
The look to New York, very accentuated in the second section of the Gran Vía, is also transferred to this building defining its formal composition, a set of houses and offices that on the ground floor facilitate access to the show room. Its plan, forced by the singularity of the site, is an exercise in compositional skill.
The participation of the architects was comprehensive and can be seen in the decorative details close to art deco and in the integration of avant-garde elements such as tubular steel furniture.
The exhibition proposes a first space dedicated to contextualizing the background of the building: the layout of the last section of the Gran Vía, Madrid's theatrical reality in the first decades of the 20th century, and the aesthetic and professional baggage of Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
The second space delves into the construction and its peculiarities, coinciding with events that altered its development: specifically, the strikes during the Republic and the outbreak of the Civil War, with disastrous consequences for the Colisevm.
Finally, a third space delves into the world of entertainment: with a first and thriving stage during the thirties; becoming almost exclusively a movie theater after the war, which made the Coliseum a reference stage, and, finally, integrating it into the heyday of the musical that has been consolidated as a defining element of the Gran Vía.
The participation of the architects was comprehensive and can be seen in the decorative details close to art deco and in the integration of avant-garde elements such as tubular steel furniture.
The exhibition proposes a first space dedicated to contextualizing the background of the building: the layout of the last section of the Gran Vía, Madrid's theatrical reality in the first decades of the 20th century, and the aesthetic and professional baggage of Fernández-Shaw and Muguruza.
The second space delves into the construction and its peculiarities, coinciding with events that altered its development: specifically, the strikes during the Republic and the outbreak of the Civil War, with disastrous consequences for the Colisevm.
Finally, a third space delves into the world of entertainment: with a first and thriving stage during the thirties; becoming almost exclusively a movie theater after the war, which made the Coliseum a reference stage, and, finally, integrating it into the heyday of the musical that has been consolidated as a defining element of the Gran Vía.
More information
Architects
Casto Fernández-Shaw Iturralde, Pedro Muguruza Otaño.
Curators
Alberto Gonz lez Lapuente.
Venue
Museo Cerralbo. C/ Ventura Rodr guez, 17. 28008 Madrid, Spain.
Dates
Construction.- 1931 - 1933.
Exhibition.- January 26 to March 18, 2022.
From Tuesday to Saturday from 09:30 to 15:00. Thursday afternoon from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sundays and holidays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Exhibition.- January 26 to March 18, 2022.
From Tuesday to Saturday from 09:30 to 15:00. Thursday afternoon from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sundays and holidays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Exhibition Team
Documentation.- Alberto Honrado Pinilla.
Exhibition design.- Ruiz Ampuero Arquitectos.
Assembly.- Amar XXI.
Exhibition design.- Ruiz Ampuero Arquitectos.
Assembly.- Amar XXI.
Organizer
Casto Fernández-Shaw Iturralde
Casto Fernández-Shaw Iturralde. (b. Madrid, April 13, 1896 – d. San Lorenzo de El Escorial, April 29, 1978). He is the son of the writer Carlos Fernández Shaw, who died in 1911. He entered the School of Architecture in 1913, finishing his degree at the age of twenty-three, in a class made up of seventeen architects. In 1917 he joined the studio of one of his professors, Antonio Palacios. With Palacios he will participate in the project for the headquarters of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. In the studio he would coincide with Pedro Muguruza, with whom he would partner to carry out the Coliseum Building on Madrid's Gran Vía. He will work with the Otamendi brothers, who included him in their Compañía Madrileña Urbanizadora, where he won a position as architect in collaboration with Julián Otamendi, on the project for one of the buildings on Reina Victoria avenue (Edificios Titanic, 1919-21) and on a neighborhood of hotels.
In 1920 he presented the Monument to Civilization Project at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, achieving third place with a bronze medal.
Working with Carlos Otamendi, he would receive the commission for the El Salto dam in El Carpio, which was completed in 1922. In 1924 he was commissioned for the Alcalá del Río Dam and the Encinarejo Reservoir, and intervened in the architectural part of the Salto del Jándula. In 1925, at the Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, he was struck by the USSR Pavilion by the architect Konstantin Melnikov, an example of constructivist architecture.
In 1927, he joined the Board of the Central Society of Architects as an accountant; he projects the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia, in collaboration with J.M. Castell, and the new church of Tetuán de las Victorias.
His most important early work is the Petróleos Porto Pí gas station, 4 at Calle de Alberto Aguilera núm 18 in 1927. He founded the magazine Cortijos y Rascacielos (1930-1954), which came to issue 80 issues in two stages interrupted by The spanish civil war. He is elected Vocal of Architecture of the Board of Directors of the Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid, in 1930.
He had a period of time in which he only dedicated himself to the construction of the Coliseum building on Madrid's Gran Vía (1930-1933), carried out in collaboration with Pedro Muguruza. Between 1934 and 1935 he carried out the Residential Building, on Menéndez Pelayo Avenue. After the Civil War he built different office and residential buildings, among which the façade of the Banco Hispano de Edificación on Gran Vía in Madrid (1943-44), and the San Fernando Market on Calle de Embajadores stand out.
He died in Madrid at the age of 83.
In 1920 he presented the Monument to Civilization Project at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid, achieving third place with a bronze medal.
Working with Carlos Otamendi, he would receive the commission for the El Salto dam in El Carpio, which was completed in 1922. In 1924 he was commissioned for the Alcalá del Río Dam and the Encinarejo Reservoir, and intervened in the architectural part of the Salto del Jándula. In 1925, at the Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, he was struck by the USSR Pavilion by the architect Konstantin Melnikov, an example of constructivist architecture.
In 1927, he joined the Board of the Central Society of Architects as an accountant; he projects the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia, in collaboration with J.M. Castell, and the new church of Tetuán de las Victorias.
His most important early work is the Petróleos Porto Pí gas station, 4 at Calle de Alberto Aguilera núm 18 in 1927. He founded the magazine Cortijos y Rascacielos (1930-1954), which came to issue 80 issues in two stages interrupted by The spanish civil war. He is elected Vocal of Architecture of the Board of Directors of the Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid, in 1930.
He had a period of time in which he only dedicated himself to the construction of the Coliseum building on Madrid's Gran Vía (1930-1933), carried out in collaboration with Pedro Muguruza. Between 1934 and 1935 he carried out the Residential Building, on Menéndez Pelayo Avenue. After the Civil War he built different office and residential buildings, among which the façade of the Banco Hispano de Edificación on Gran Vía in Madrid (1943-44), and the San Fernando Market on Calle de Embajadores stand out.
He died in Madrid at the age of 83.
Pedro Muguruza Otaño
Pedro Muguruza Otaño. (1893-1952). Born in Madrid on May 25, 1893, his family came from Elgoibar (Gipuzkoa). He graduated as an architect from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid in 1916, where he coincidentally coincided with other future prominent architects such as Secundino Zuazo, Leopoldo Torres Balbás or Luis Gutiérrez Soto.
In 1917, shortly after graduating, Muguruza began working as a professor at the School of Architecture thanks to a proposal from Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, and in March 1920 he obtained the Chair of "Projects of Architectural and Ornamental Details".
Among the projects he carried out in the 1920s: the Estación de Francia in Barcelona (1923), the Palacio de la Prensa on Gran Vía (1924), the 40-meter-high monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Bilbao (topped by a sculpture by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera) or the housing project for the square by Rubén Darío (1929). He also led the restoration projects for the El Paular Monastery and the Prado Museum.
He projects, with Casto Fernández Shaw, the Coliseum Building on the Gran Vía in 1931 and is in charge of the reconstruction of the Lope de Vega House on Cervantes Street in 1932 and the following year he would carry out the reforms of the Ice Palace and the Automobile to convert it into the Center for Historical Studies. During that period he is the author of some markets, such as Santa María de las Cabezas (1933) or Maravillas (1935).
After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, Muguruza joined the Francoist side. The General Directorate of Architecture, which the Falange would take over, was under the direction of Pedro Muguruza, who maintained very good relations with the dictator. In June 1939 he presided over the Madrid Assembly of Architects, laying the ideological foundations for the architecture of the new regime. As Head of the Architecture Services of FET and of the JONS, he was responsible for the leadership of the General Directorate of Architecture, structured along totalitarian lines. Muguruza held the position from September 30, 1939 to March 8, 1946.
Muguruza was also, along with his disciple Diego Méndez, one of the two author architects of the Valley of the Fallen; the goal behind the design was for the site to become an eternal metaphor for the regime's ideology. He directed the construction works until 1949. He died on February 3, 1952 in Madrid.
In 1917, shortly after graduating, Muguruza began working as a professor at the School of Architecture thanks to a proposal from Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, and in March 1920 he obtained the Chair of "Projects of Architectural and Ornamental Details".
Among the projects he carried out in the 1920s: the Estación de Francia in Barcelona (1923), the Palacio de la Prensa on Gran Vía (1924), the 40-meter-high monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Bilbao (topped by a sculpture by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera) or the housing project for the square by Rubén Darío (1929). He also led the restoration projects for the El Paular Monastery and the Prado Museum.
He projects, with Casto Fernández Shaw, the Coliseum Building on the Gran Vía in 1931 and is in charge of the reconstruction of the Lope de Vega House on Cervantes Street in 1932 and the following year he would carry out the reforms of the Ice Palace and the Automobile to convert it into the Center for Historical Studies. During that period he is the author of some markets, such as Santa María de las Cabezas (1933) or Maravillas (1935).
After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, Muguruza joined the Francoist side. The General Directorate of Architecture, which the Falange would take over, was under the direction of Pedro Muguruza, who maintained very good relations with the dictator. In June 1939 he presided over the Madrid Assembly of Architects, laying the ideological foundations for the architecture of the new regime. As Head of the Architecture Services of FET and of the JONS, he was responsible for the leadership of the General Directorate of Architecture, structured along totalitarian lines. Muguruza held the position from September 30, 1939 to March 8, 1946.
Muguruza was also, along with his disciple Diego Méndez, one of the two author architects of the Valley of the Fallen; the goal behind the design was for the site to become an eternal metaphor for the regime's ideology. He directed the construction works until 1949. He died on February 3, 1952 in Madrid.
