Sáenz de Oíza, inventor. The unpublished patents of the architect

Abstract

This article aims to illuminate, as far as possible, a little-known facet of the brilliant architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, the inventor, with the publication of two of his Patents —registered for twenty years and throughout the Spanish territory—, which have remained unpublished until now. The first, a “new drawing device”, which provides, as an improvement, the accuracy in the drawing that double parallelogram devices did not offer. This invention was registered in January 1946 in the Registry of Industrial Property at twenty-eight years of age, still a student at the School of Architecture of Madrid. The second, which proposed “improvements for the manufacture of flat roof tiles”, registered in July 1960, at forty-two years of age, being already an assistant professor of Architectural Projects at ETSAM. His critical spirit and interest in technical advances accompanied him throughout his career. The architect did not stop considering the correct functioning of every thing that surrounded him, looking for innovative solutions for architecture, which would provide constructive advances, always at the lowest possible cost.