Abstract
In 1957, the Italian liquor company Martini y Rossi commissioned a young Catalan architect based in the capital, Jaime Ferrater Ramoneda, to design its new factory in Madrid. Under the limitations imposed by the regime of the time through its programme of economic autarchy, Ferrater, with a markedly rationalist language, knew how to fit each and every one of the elements that the programme demanded of him into an irregular allotment, adapting brilliantly to the scarcity of materials. Notwithstanding of the precarious conditions in the mid-20th century in Spain, and in a historic moment marked by the timid opening up to foreign capital after years of ostracism, he was able to create an avant-garde and modern icon that is still valid today. The reasons to study the complete work of Jaime Ferrater was the lack of public recognition, both at professional and academic levels. How was it possible that, being the author of one of the best examples of industrial architecture in Madrid, with his Martini factory, he was not known? It was essential to investigate all the files of his work as an architect and then analyse each one of them. In his first Project, Ferrater gave evidence of his great ability to adapt himself to external circumstances. This ability of adaptation he applied throughout his whole professional career coinciding with a key period in the development of the city of Madrid. We witness a fragment of our own history through the wide range of projects executed and the way that he implemented his vision. From a cinema in the suburb of San Blas, with a capacity for more than 1,700 spectators in the year 58, to the first building constructed in Madrid with sandwich panels in the year 76, passing through a service station in the year 60, coinciding with the utilitarian revolution in Spain, marking the beginning of a new era. He projects and builds a wide range of social housing colonies where he shows a great interest in the trends of the time and the topics that are discussed outside our borders. Most of all by applying the postulates that the members of Team X defended from northern European countries and which barely prospered in Madrid, emphasizing the space between blocks, something unusual in the big urban interventions that were taking place by “La Obra Sindical del Hogar” during the 50s and 60s of the 20th century in Madrid. He treats the design of the colonies from the point of view of the person who live there. His projects reinforce the human scale, taking care of the common outdoor spaces and transforming the dry land into pleasant garden areas where children can play, with the firm purpose of creating a neighbourhood through the identity and the spirit of belonging of the people who form that community in clear parallelism to the ideas that Aldo Van Eyck applied both in his works and in his texts2. All this, under the pressure of a tight budget. He also received contracts from the Church and the Public Administration, carrying out for the latter a project that, if it had been built, would have provided the metropolis with a clear example of organicist architecture. In each and every one of his proyects, he shows a remarkable interest in the inhabitants who would live in his homes and in the land where they are located, optimizing the possibilities with the minimum resources. In short, appying a correct planning of the territory. In this chronological overview of his work, we discover Jaime Ferrater Ramoneda as a city builder, interpreting and shaping a cultural landscape framed between the 1950s and 1970s in Madrid, a period, moreover, that saw the emergence of brilliant figures and recognised and widely studied works. Ferrater interprets this cultural landscape by applying to his projects and reflecting in them the changes that were taking place, both in the economy and in society. At the same time, he shapes a landscape with the results obtained from this interpretation. He does not build milestones but a small sample of a living space in its entirety due to the great variety of orders received. Hence the sense and justification of the title of this doctoral thesis.
Access the thesis
