Photography and memory in the construction of modern imagery. The Guadalaviar Garden School (Valencia, 1959)

Abstract

The Guadalaviar Garden School, the emblematic work of the young Fernando M. García-Ordóñez, is today an architectural point of reference –one of the nine buildings from the Autonomous Community of Valencia to be included as part of the Iberian chapter of Docomomo. Bursting onto the languishing local scene of the 1950’s, it gave rise to formal sincerity, special fluidity and bioclimatism in architecture. Following a somewhat lukewarm initial reception, the positive impact of the design could be seen by the international dissemination through publications –L’architecture d’aujourd d’hui; The Architect & Building News, etc.– and in the consolidation of modernism in Valencia. The paper analyses the Garden School using primary unparalleled sources: the series of photographs used to document the construction and the professional memoirs of the architect. Together with the original documents, we now have at our disposal the most comprehensive interpretive framework. Lastly, consideration should be given to the cultural role of Guadalaviar, due to the continued existence of its imagery and despite the disappearance of many of the original architectural elements. And it is precisely through this photographic-based construct that the Guadalaviar Garden School has disappeared but at the same time has managed to survive its own demise.