西班牙建筑师and professor, Rafael Moneo is among the best known on the international scene. He has made numerous projects all over the world and is the first Spanish architect to have received the Pritzker Prize in 1996.
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Biography
José Rafael Moneowas born in Navarra,Spain, onMay 9, 1937. Growing up, he was first attracted to philosophy and painting. He did not have a clear mission to be an architect, but attributed his inclination towards the architecture of the father’s interest in the topic. In 1954, he left his family to go toMadridfor studyingarchitecture. In 1961, he qualified as an architect at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Madrid. His professor of architectural history,Leopoldo Torres Balbaswas one of his biggestinfluence. After finishing his studies, he went to Denmark to work with Jorn Utzon. Before returning to Spain in 1962, Moneo says, “I traveled around Scandinavia, where I was lucky enough to be received byAlvar Aaltoin Helsinki.” Once back in Madrid, Moneo won a competition to fill one of the architecture venues at the Spanish Academy inRome,Italy. This period of his life had a great influence on his later work. On his return to Madrid in 1965, he received his first large commission, Diestre design factory in Zaragoza. In 1972, he won the elements of the composition in ETSAB, which led him to live for almost ten years inBarcelona. From the late seventies and early eighties, he became a visiting professor in bothPrincetonandHarvardUniversity’s architectural schools, and University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
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In 1980, he obtained theprofessorshipat the School of Architecture in Madrid for five years. In 1984, Moneo was appointedDean of the Faculty of Architectureat the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, a position he held until 1990. He returned to Spain in 1990, with many new projects but his ties with Harvard University continued by teaching for two weeks each semester. In 1992, Rafael Moneo received theGold Medal of Merit in Fine Artsfrom the Spanish government. In 1996, he was awarded thePritzker Prize for Architecture,theGold Medal of the French Academy of Architectureand theGold Medal of the International Union of Architects. In 1997, he was nominated Academic of the Royal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid and received the honorary doctorate title of Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. In 1998, he received theFeltrinelli Prizeof the National Academia dei Lincei, Rome. He is a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academy of Saint Luke in Rome and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. In 2012, he is awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts.
Info source:https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1996
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Which Are His Most Notable Works?
- The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, USA
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The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angelsis designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo and opened in2002. Also known as the Cathedral of Los Angeles, the building occupies a space of 58,000 square meters as a monument to San Vibiana, a Roman martyr of the third century and patron saint of Los Angeles. The cathedral was designed in anunusual postmodern architectural styleand has a minimal exposure of the right angles, which looks more like animposing fortressthan a cozy place of worship. Manycriticsbelieved that the plans for the church weretoo elaborate, such as the cost of 3 million dollars for thelarge bronze doorsthat, instead of showing biblical scenes, presented symbolic images corresponding to the Christian mystical numbers.
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However, Cardinal Mahoney had great visions for the cathedral. With the themes of “Light” and “Journey” in mind, the architect Moneo has incorporated within itlarge windows of Spanish alabaster. As such, it is said that the cathedral shows the greatest use of alabaster in the United States. The cathedral was specially built to besix feet longerthan St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The lower level of the building features amodernandlight-filled mausoleumwith 6,000 crypts in the basement of the cathedral. The mausoleum featuresstained glass windowsof the original cathedral and Judson Studios, one of the oldest liturgical studios in North America.
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- The Church of Iesu in San Sebastian, Spain
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西班牙建筑师拉斐尔•芒尼奥赢得了VI编辑ion of the International Prize of Sacred Architecture, aimed at new religious buildings of Christian worship made throughout the world. His Church of Iesu, in San Sebastian (Spain), withcleanandcompactforms, alternatingfullandempty,won the Jury, which unanimously decided to award him the first prize. In balance betweenemotionandrigor, the Church of Iesu (inaugurated in 2011) is located in one of the most recent districts of the Basque city, where the religious building comes to a new reference point. The architecture, which Moneo himself defines as “generous in space and very modest in materials“, stands out for theabstractandminimalist whiteof thewalls, an element that recalls the dominant color of the flowers in the nearby park and above all the importantrationalist constructionspresent in San Sebastián. The complex consists of three elements: thechurch proper, placed inside a cubic volume and facing east; aL-shaped body, which houses several rooms including the parish center; awallthat closes the patio-garden located between the two buildings and filters the passage from the open space of the road to the mystical one of the temple.
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The nave of the church has across plan, created within a larger quadrilateral; in the spaces that complete the figure there are, on the left, the sacristy and the baptistery, and on the right, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and that of the Reconciliation. The cruciform system of the tradition is actualized through an asymmetric design, which gives a way to “reflect the tensions of today’s world“, according to what the architect himself says. A fundamental role is played bynatural lightwhich, by entering the interior in different ways, manages to connote each space in a peculiar way. In particular, thezenith lightingof the main nave emerges, due to the openings placed in the roof which highlight its cruciform structure and capable of immediately evoking the Gospel message and transporting the faithful into amystical dimension. Also worthy of note is thelarge stained glassdesigned by Moneo himself and made ofalabasterandglassinserts representing a cross, a sun and two moons in distinct phases.
“The site belongs to Architecture. Architecture must be adequate, which means that it must somehow recognize the attributes of the place. Understanding what these attributes are, feeling how they manifest themselves, this should be the architect’s first move to start thinking about building.”
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Rafael Moneo is still considered by many to beone of the greatest contemporary Spanish architects. In keeping with what has been calledcontextual rationalism, Moneo does not follow current European utilitarianism and Expressionism, but he reflects in his works a leveled version of theNordic styleand theDutch tradition.Moneo says to control with architectural dialogue with thedurationand thehistorical evolution. For all this, Moneo adds his vision of historical architecture. One of its principles was: “It isnotpossible today to present a single definition of architecture. Today, understanding of thearchitectural concept, as it could be with the concept of painting or sculpture, includes not only what architecture was before, but also includes many other marginal attempts and not in a marginal way to respond architecturally to different circumstances.“
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The Spanish architect wanted to explore the concepts ofnecessityandcontingencyin architecture. He noted that a field is needed in the architecture of the city, “where the architecture used to manifest all its splendor, where it still urgently needs discipline”. While lamenting the fact that those who care about architecture have greatly reduced. Moneo insists that “buildings arenotthe result of a design process or materialization“. “Once completed,” he continues, “buildings take on a life of their own. Of all the visual and plastic arts, architecture is probably one in which the distance between the artist and his work is the greatest. Architecture involvesdistance, so that in the end the product isleft alone, self-supporting.A work of architecture, if successful, it is possible to eliminate the architect“.
Info source:http://famosos.arquitectos.com/it/rafael-moneo-biografia/
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