There were no role models in the field of architecture in Julio Cano Lasso’s family. The architect claims he found his calling in the profession after he had enrolled in the Madrid School of Architecture, which he chose more through intuition than real conviction. The beginning of his professional career ─ he earned his degree in 1949 ─ coincided with the post-war period. At the time, the authorities advocated what was called “imperial architecture”, the highest ideal of which was Herrerian Renaissance architecture. Julio Cano Lasso admits to having shared those ideals before he realized that architecture was not suited to the historical moment. Rationalist architecture was not highly regarded during his time as a student, yet he recognized the influence of Italian architecture from the fascist era, such as the works of Giuseppe Terragni, Adalberto Libera, Giuseppe Vaccaro and Luigi Moretti and the projects for the EUR in Rome. During his time as a student, he also worked in the office of the classicist, aristocratic architect Manuel Cabañes. After finishing his studies, a visit to the Netherlands introduced him to the architecture of the Amsterdam School, especially the work of Hendrik Petrus Berlage and Willem Marinus Dudok. From that moment forward, exposed brick became one of the materials he used repeatedly in his career, combined with an affinity for juxtaposing volumes with abstract geometries. Some of the projects from the end of his career, especially the residential buildings of the 1980s, demonstrate this affinity with Dutch architecture as he discovered it in his youth.

His first built works aligned with the expressive language of modern architecture. His knowledge of and interest in classical architecture served as the foundation for an architecture dominated by functionality, order and proportion, consistent with architectural rationalism without leaving behind its traditional roots, but without making it too obvious through the introduction of elements adopting a historicist language. In his youth he worked at the National Institute of Industry under the orders of the architect Fernando Moreno Barberá.

Social housing was one of the typologies to which he devoted his attention in the early 1950s, participating in phase G of the construction of the Gran San Blas housing estate together with José Antonio Corrales Gutiérrez, Luis Gutiérrez Soto and Ramón Vázquez Molezún. On his own, he designed the Vite housing estate in Santiago de Compostela, where he introduced elements of traditional architecture. He also took on bourgeois housing projects, such as the building on calle Espalter in Madrid. His career as a whole was characterized by experimentation with multi-family residential buildings, which he often designed in collaboration with other architects. Over the years, however, he began receiving larger commissions, dedicating his time to a wide variety of typologies, including educational buildings such as the Labour Universities of Almería, Albacete and Lardero, among others.

In the 1960s, Cano Lasso became a regular collaborator with the telephone company; he built buildings to house infrastructure as well as corporate headquarters and offices. Over the years, his work has been recognized for its precision and its measured use of technology in construction, although he was working on commissions for buildings characterized precisely by programs involving the most advanced telecommunications technologies. He was also known for his ability to masterfully organize extensive functional programs.

His professional career continued until the early 1990s, nearly until the end of his life. His later work includes the Spanish Pavilion for the Seville Expo ’92, although he ended up withdrawing from the construction management due to disagreements with the organization. Throughout his professional career, he participated in more than a hundred competitions.

Cano Lasso was a talented artist; for example, he did a remarkable series of charcoal drawings of the skylines of Spanish cities. He participated actively in teaching and academic life as a professor at ETSAM. In 1982, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, reflecting his prestige in the fields of culture and architecture in Spain. In 1991, he received the National Architecture Award of Spain and the Gold Medal for Architecture from the CSCAE in recognition of his contribution to the development of a modern, contextual architecture.

Biography by Roger Subirà

Bibliography

MARTIN ROBLES, Inés, PANCORBO CUESTA, Luis, La tradición en Julio Cano Lasso, Rueda Editorial, Madrid, 2019.

CANO LASSO, Julio, Julio Cano Lasso, Naturalezas, Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Madrid, 2012.

AAVV, Cano Lasso. Medalla de Oro de Arquitectura 1991, Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España, Madrid, 1991.

CANO LASSO, Julio, La ciudad y su paisaje, author’s edition, Madrid, 1985.

AAVV, Cano Lasso: dibujos y notas. Julio Cano Lasso 1970-77, Taller Ediciones JB, Madrid, 1977.

CANO LASSO, Julio, RIDRUEJO, Juan, Fuentelarreina, tres propuestas de arquitectura naturalista, Taller Ediciones JB, Madrid, 1977.

Nueva Forma 72-73 [monography dedicated to Julio Cano Lasso], Madrid, 1972.