To build for inhabit Nature and technique in the architecture of Alejandro de la Sota

Abstract

The role played by technique in Alejandro de la Sota's architecture is in line with José Ortega y Gasset's definition: 'the effort to save effort', that effort prior to action that allows us to overcome the difficulties and obstacles imposed by circumstances. Considering Nature as a 'circumstance' (the climate, the orography, etc.), technique turns out to be the mediating instrument between the human being and that Nature that does not offer the proper conditions for living. Since the second half of the 1950s, his architecture shows the will to emerge from the interpretation and modification of a reality imposed by Nature, making use of technical possibilities. The review of three projects carried out between 1957 and 1984 shows the tenacity and intellectual coherence of its author, and his desire to achieve beauty derived from constructive truth: modifying the terrain and organizing the work in the case of the Children's Residence in Miraflores de la Sierra, using prefabricated concrete panels to simultaneously solve the structure and the enclosure in Casa Varela, or accepting the formats determined by the manufacturer of the 'sandwich' panels of sheet metal in the houses in Alcudia.