The architecture of Germán Rodríguez Arias in Ibiza
Same interest, two different approaches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/bac.2025.15..11930Keywords:
popular architecture, vernacular architecture, GATEPAC, Germán Rodríguez Arias, Ibiza, MediterráneoAbstract
This paper examines the work of modernist Catalan architect Germán Rodríguez Arias in Ibiza, both in the 1930s as a member of the GATCPAC group and after his return to Spain in the 1950s to his death in 1987. These are two periods separated by his exile in Chile (1939-56), between which continuities exist and asymmetries are revealed.
This study aims to explore these differences in detail. To this end, significant works from both periods are analysed, especially the house in Sant Antoni de Portmany (Ibiza), 1935, and the Churruca house in Portinatx (Ibiza), 1962. Their context, aspirations, and discourse are given special attention, as well as to the influence that the architect’s exile in Chile may have had on both. In sum, the paper offers an insight into this insufficiently studied figure of Spanish modernism, opening up a reflection on his different approaches to vernacular Mediterranean architecture: from the house as an image and paradigm to the house as a free life experience.
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