Abstract
Near the Strait of Gibraltar, in the extension of the Costa del Sol, an architecture of great relevance and uniqueness was developed in the early 60s, until recently, scarcely recognized. Sotogrande is in this privileged location next to the Mediterranean Sea, on the estuary of the Guadiaro River. The research focuses on the genesis of the urbanization of Sotogrande del Guadiaro (San Roque, Cádiz), as a modern suburban town (1962-1977), and its architecture, analyzing and comparing it with other tourist models of a garden city. By examining modern architecture and urban planning in this chaotic, but at the same time cosmopolitan and globalized territory, he delves into the architectural criticism of the most representative buildings. The PhD thesis delves into the analysis of this architecture in the ‘60s and’ 70s, on the Sotogrande coast, and its relationship with the contemporary way of living. The relationship of the house with the Mediterranean landscape and the mixture between modern and vernacular architecture produce a singular experience, which will be an architectural adventure for Spanish architects Luis Gutiérrez Soto, José Antonio Corrales, Ramón Vázquez Molezún, Javier Carvajal and José Antonio Coderch, and others less recognized as José Ramón Azpiazu. The place as a source of inspiration and the use of elements of vernacular architecture in architectural construction demonstrate that the house, they projected was a pragmatic house, destined more for rest and leisure than for the Heideggerian conception of living. It was a summer house, as Bernard Rudofsky, a friend of Coderch, would comment about home in Frigiliana: “I made it thinking about summer”. From the moment of its conception, the house is dedicated to comfort and well-being. The pragmatic architect thinks of the summer house for hedonistic life and discovers the relationship between the landscape and the way of living nature. The design here represents the conquest of the landscape by modern architecture. In this privileged place on the coast, there is an interest in merging popular and Mediterranean architecture with the organic architecture of the Modern Movement. Within the austerity with which this seemingly simple architecture is shown, devoid of all kinds of superfluous elements, hides an incipient hedonistic experience, which today we detect through the critical analysis of architecture from a contemporary perspective. The investigation discovers an architecture rooted in the Mediterranean coastline, where both the house and the environment that surrounds it are inhabited. The hybridization between vernacular architecture and modern architecture takes place, which stands out for the absence of prominence of the artificial, for its sobriety, for its emphasis on the natural. A strong degree of pragmatism to satisfy the need of the city and architecture for tourism, for the pleasure that enjoyment by the sea gives, thus responding to a contemporary conception of inhabiting in search of the epicurean well-being of hedonism.
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