Tomás Bilbao Hospitalet
Bilbao, 1890-Ciudad de México, 1954
Tomás Bilbao Hospitalet earned his architecture degree in Madrid in 1918 and moved to Miranda de Ebro, where his wife grew up. He built several projects in different municipalities around Burgos, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, and especially in Bilbao, where he ultimately settled and where his father, Patricio Bilbao, was a building contractor.
Bilbao Hospitalet was one of the main players in the architectural development of Bilbao before the Spanish Civil War, and he is among the foremost representatives of the rationalist school from the Basque Country. In the early years, his work followed traditional forms and conceptions of architecture. At the time he combined the construction of multi-family houses, most of them luxury homes in the Bilbao expansion district, with the design of various affordable housing developments for cooperatives in the same city, such as Arabella, Zurbaran and Buena Vista.
Some of his designs that showed signs of approaching modern architecture include the Café Boulevard, in the residential and office building on Paseo del Arenal 5 in Bilbao, and the temporary glass pavilion for the company Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, designed for the Barcelona International Exhibition, with an Art Deco aesthetic.
He was a founding member of Acción Nacionalista Vasca and a deputy mayor of Bilbao from 1931 to 1934. At this stage in his career, his goal was to launch innovative housing projects and school buildings following rationalist lines. In that vein, he organized the Solokoetxe housing competition with the aim of defining a new model for social housing, while addressing the lack of affordable housing and the effects of workers’ unemployment. Some members of the GATEPAC participated in the competition. The following year he joined the organization’s Northern Group. Around the same time, he published “Instalación para Altos Hornos de Vizcaya en la Exposición de Barcelona”, Arquitectura XII, 1930, and “Problemas arquitectónicos”, Arquitectura moderna en Bilbao, Bilbao, 1924.
Similarly, he organized the competition for the educational complex San Francisco, which was intended to establish a model that could serve as a guide for other future interventions, in addition to responding to the demand for schools and social services in a marginal urban area that was slated for regeneration. At the same time, Tomás Bilbao built some of the first rationalist blocks of flats in Bilbao, starting with the residential and office building at Muelle de Ripa 6, where he also set up his own residence. After leaving politics, he focused on the construction of housing for the bourgeoisie in the Biscay capital, including the buildings at Henao 15, Alameda de Urquijo 58, Alameda Rekalde 7 and Licenciado Poza 5 and 7, in collaboration with Emiliano Amann.
During the Spanish Civil War, he was appointed Director General of Public Works for the Basque government. Under his direction, work began on the Artxanda Tunnel, which was used as an air raid shelter. He also collaborated with the General Directorate of Fine Arts of the regional government to organize spaces for heritage protection.
In 1937, the architect and his family went into exile in France, where he served as consul for the government of the Republic in Perpignan. After the war was over, he relocated to Paris. In 1942, he fled to Mexico with his family, where he worked for the Mexican Foreign Trade Company. In Mexico he completed various architectural projects, such as renovating the residence of the managing director of his company, Martín García Urtiaga, and the construction of the Loma Bonita factory in Veracruz. He took up residence in Mexico City. The writer Jon Juaristi is the grandnephew of Tomás Bilbao, and the Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao is the granddaughter of Tomás Bilbao.
Biography by María Iza
Bibliography
- SAN GINÉS VIZCAINO, Ignacio, Tomás Bilbao. Obras, 2ª Extended edition, Colección Arquitectos Contemporáneos 3, COAVN, Delegación en Bizkaia, Bilbao, 2023.
- VIAR FRAILE, Iñigo, “Tomás Bilbao y Juan de Madariaga: vínculo y contraste”, en GIL FOMBELLIDA, Carmen, ZABALA AGUIRRE, José Ramón, Científicos y científicas en el exilio de 1936-1939, Hamaika Bide Elkartea, 2019, pp. 361-382.
- MUÑOZ FERNÁNDEZ, Francisco Javier, “La arquitectura de los otros. Arquitectos vascos en el exilio mexicano: Tomás Bilbao y Juan de Madariaga”, in ERDOCIA CASTILLEJO, Carolina, coord., Arte y exilio (1936-1960), Hamaika Bide Elkartea, 2015, pp. 67-102.
- CUETO RUIZ-FUNES, Juan Ignacio, Arquitectos españoles exiliados en México, Ateneo español de México, Gobierno de España, México, 2014, p. 87-97.
- JUARISTI LINACERO, Jon, PINO, María, A cambio del olvido: una indagación republicana: 1872-1942, Tusquets, Barcelona, 2011.
- MÁS, Elías, “La casa Nº 6 del muelle de Ripa”, in Bilbao, noviembre de 2011, p. 8.
- AA VV, 11 Arquitectos de Bizkaia S.XX, COAVN, Delegación en Bizkaia, Bilbao, 2009.
- DOMINGO, María del Mar, Las Casas Baratas en Vizcaya, 1911- 1936, BBK, Bilbao, 2008.
- GOMEZ GOMEZ, Ana Julia, SAN MIGUEL, Javier Ruiz, Las casas baratas de Bilbao (1911-1936), Bilbao, 2004.
- CORTAZAR, Estíbaliz, “Arquitectos vascos en el exilio: Secundino Zuazo, Martín Dominguez, Tomás Bilbao y Arturo Sáez de la Calzada”, iin ABELLÁN, J. L., El exilio cultural de la guerra civil (1936-1939),Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, 2001, pp. 201-210.
- SAN GINÉS VIZCAINO, Ignacio, Tomás Bilbao. Obras, Colección Arquitectos Contemporáneos 3, COAVN, Delegación en Bizkaia, Bilbao, 1995.
- SANZ ESQUIDE, José Angel, El internacionalismo en la arquitectura vizcaína de la II República, Bilbao, 1985.
- “Tomás Bilbao”, in Nueva Forma 70, 1971, p. 55.
- “El progreso urbano en Bilbao. El racionalismo en Arquitectura: Casa Ultramoderna construida por don Tomás Bilbao”, in Propiedad y construccion 108, 1932.
Websites
Picture from the publication Tomás Bilbao. Obras, provided by the author.