Iconoclast, visionary, painter, musician and photographer, dazzling genius, the architect Fernando Higueras (Madrid, 1930-2008) has left as an inheritance in the history of Spanish architecture an emotional way of considering architecture from its most essential quality.
The exhibition proposes a chronological and highly visual journey throughout the work of Fernando Higueras, with original models of the time, photographs, plans and audios in which the architect talks about their buildings and their conception of architecture. In addition, on the ground floor will be a recreation of his studio in his house, the famous "rascainfiernos".
Fernando Higueras belongs to a generation of Madrid architects who were aware of participating in a renewed process of Spanish architecture, did not recognize limits to their architectural activity and lacked the historical memory of the generation that had elaborated the proposals of the Regime in the 40s This is a true generational change marked by the new needs for the opening of the Regime and by the attempts of the cultural sector to reform positions in the context of a political process without expectations of change.
In 1960, Fernando Higueras carried out the first work with the concept of housing, competing for the National Architecture Prize under the theme Ten residences of artists on the Mount of El Pardo. He begins to build houses for artists from the house of César Manrique, passing through those of Lucio Muñoz, the guitarist Andrés Segovia, La Macarrona, Nuria Espert or his own underground house, a maternal terrestrial cloister illuminated overhead which he would call the "rascainfiernos".
In 1961 he won the National Architecture Prize with his project for the Artistic Restoration Center, 'La Corona de Espinas', in the University City of Madrid, in collaboration with Rafael Moneo and Luis Roig d'Alós. A definitive work in its trajectory will be the construction of the Colegio Estudio in Aravaca (1962), from where all the invariants of later architectures leave. In this school he begins to develop his furniture design and interior design proposals, which he will continue to expand throughout his work.
The most moving intervention of Higueras in this stage is the housing for the Unidad Vecinal de Absorción en Hortaleza (1963), a characteristic exponent of the public action in the matter of housing of first necessity. The housing project for the Patronato de Casas Militares (1967-1975) in the Glorieta de Ruiz Jiménez in Madrid.
In 1963 he was commissioned for an Urban Planning and Development Plan in Playa Blanca, in the south of Lanzarote. He travels to the island with César Manrique and finds a wealth of natural elements for the development of his work that fill him with enthusiasm. Build the masterpiece of the Hotel Las Salinas in Lanzarote, tourist reference architecture at the edge of the sea. His work on the island and on the Costa del Sol would achieve great media coverage and would influence the architectural plastic of the moment inside and outside our country.
In 2001 the great study of the avenue of America, 14, is undone and he moves it to his house, the now famous "rascainfiernos". They are years of creativity with projects as bold as their proposal for the Zero Zone of New York or the Horizontal Skyscraper for Shanghai. In 2007, Fernando Higueras is the foundation that bears his name and has kept his presence alive since then.
The exhibition proposes a chronological and highly visual journey throughout the work of Fernando Higueras, with original models of the time, photographs, plans and audios in which the architect talks about their buildings and their conception of architecture. In addition, on the ground floor will be a recreation of his studio in his house, the famous "rascainfiernos".
Fernando Higueras belongs to a generation of Madrid architects who were aware of participating in a renewed process of Spanish architecture, did not recognize limits to their architectural activity and lacked the historical memory of the generation that had elaborated the proposals of the Regime in the 40s This is a true generational change marked by the new needs for the opening of the Regime and by the attempts of the cultural sector to reform positions in the context of a political process without expectations of change.
In 1960, Fernando Higueras carried out the first work with the concept of housing, competing for the National Architecture Prize under the theme Ten residences of artists on the Mount of El Pardo. He begins to build houses for artists from the house of César Manrique, passing through those of Lucio Muñoz, the guitarist Andrés Segovia, La Macarrona, Nuria Espert or his own underground house, a maternal terrestrial cloister illuminated overhead which he would call the "rascainfiernos".
In 1961 he won the National Architecture Prize with his project for the Artistic Restoration Center, 'La Corona de Espinas', in the University City of Madrid, in collaboration with Rafael Moneo and Luis Roig d'Alós. A definitive work in its trajectory will be the construction of the Colegio Estudio in Aravaca (1962), from where all the invariants of later architectures leave. In this school he begins to develop his furniture design and interior design proposals, which he will continue to expand throughout his work.
The most moving intervention of Higueras in this stage is the housing for the Unidad Vecinal de Absorción en Hortaleza (1963), a characteristic exponent of the public action in the matter of housing of first necessity. The housing project for the Patronato de Casas Militares (1967-1975) in the Glorieta de Ruiz Jiménez in Madrid.
In 1963 he was commissioned for an Urban Planning and Development Plan in Playa Blanca, in the south of Lanzarote. He travels to the island with César Manrique and finds a wealth of natural elements for the development of his work that fill him with enthusiasm. Build the masterpiece of the Hotel Las Salinas in Lanzarote, tourist reference architecture at the edge of the sea. His work on the island and on the Costa del Sol would achieve great media coverage and would influence the architectural plastic of the moment inside and outside our country.
In 2001 the great study of the avenue of America, 14, is undone and he moves it to his house, the now famous "rascainfiernos". They are years of creativity with projects as bold as their proposal for the Zero Zone of New York or the Horizontal Skyscraper for Shanghai. In 2007, Fernando Higueras is the foundation that bears his name and has kept his presence alive since then.
