First building of Rafael Moneo. Light entering through skylights is an
essential issue in this industrial building. Brick and steel work together to define a
cascade of volumes which produce a rich and varied profile.
1966
Bull Ring Extension
Pamplona, Spain
Open competition. First prize
Completed 1967
Gómez-Acebo Residence
Soto de la Moraleja (Madrid) Spain
Completed 1968
Escuelas
Tudela (Navarra) España
Completed 1972
1968
City Hall
Amsterdam, Netherlands
International open competition. Third prize
Urumea Residential Building
(pictured above)
with Marquet, Zulaica and Unzurrúnzaga
San Sebastián, Spain
Completed 1972
Condominium flats facing the Urumea River occupy half a block in a portion of
the city built in the 19th century. The idea of the regular facade is consistent with the
idea of the plan, when issues of typology are examined.
1972
Bankinter Bank
(pictured above)
with Ramón Bescós
Madrid, Spain
Completed 1977
Bankinter is the headquarters of a middle-sized bank on the most prominent
avenue of Madrid. The site conditions explain the meticulous geometry in which the
vertical plane of the principal facade becomes the backdrop for the existing 19th century
villa, while the oblique line allows the light to reach the apartment building to the
rear. The brick of the villa, a brick traditional to Madrid with an apparent dry joint, is
the determinant material. The openings, the windows cut precisely into the wall with
bronze lintels and sills become one of the most definitive features of the architecture.
Bas-relief by the sculptor Francisco López Hernández and a fresco by Pablo Palazuelo
enrich the building.
1973
Town Hall
(pictured above)
Logroño, Spain
Completed 1981
The new Town Hall is located within the 19th century grid, on a site previously
occupied by army barracks. Situated on a delicate position in the center of the city's
converging grids, the new Town Hall can be understood as a connecting point in the city
and a focus for local pedestrian movement toward the river front. As a building with an
important role in public celebrations a plaza-like open space was required and the
building took on the task of defining such a space without incorporating the edge
condition of the existing buildings. A fountain by Francisco López Hernández helps to
enliven an attractive urban space.
Residencial Building Paseo de la Habana
Madrid, Spain
Completed 1978
Galería Theo
Barcelona, Spain
con Elías Torres
Completed 1975. FAD Prize
1976
Polígono del Actur de Lacua
with Manuel de Solà-Morales
Vitoria, Spain
Competition by invitation. First prize.
The proposal for Lacua attempts to use residence to generate the level of a
complete urban life. A resonance of the `Siedlungen' can be detected and the idea of
merging nature and society is recalled in this proposal.
1978
Competition Cannaregio
Venice, Italy
Competition by invitation
Bank of Spain Extension
Madrid, Spain
Competition by invitation. First prize.
1980
National Museum of Roman Art
(pictured above)
Mérida, Spain
Completed 1986
Manuel de la Dehesa Prize 1994
Most significant public building in Spain 1983-1993. Awarded by the Ministry of Public
Works and the Council of Architectural Associations of Spain
Mérida became the most important city in Spain at the end of the Roman Empire.
Archaeological excavations have recovered numerous artifacts and monuments including a
Theater and Arena. Not far from these, over a portion of the buried Roman town, is the
site of the Museum. The first intention of the project was to build a museum which would
offer the people of Mérida an opportunity to understand the presence of the Roman town.
The use of a massive masonry bearing wall allows the materiality of the Roman brick wall
to become the most important architectural feature of the Museum. A system of parallel
walls is hollowed out by means of a large arch, forming a virtual perspective, a nave that
is the main space for the display of the Roman objects. The translucent white marble of
the relics may be seen in a dialectical interplay with the material presence of the brick
walls. Natural light, a critical preoccupation in the Museum's design, enters through
skylights marking the rhythm of the walls while windows high up in the outside walls admit
an indirect light which clarifies and explains the wish of enclosure which is always
present in the architecture of a museum.
(another view of the museum below)
Branch Office of the Bank of Spain
Jaén, Spain
Completed 1988
International Architecture of Stone Prize 1991
From the very start the idea was to fit the program into a single,
closed, perfect solid. The degree of diversity is achieved inside through a system of
voids connecting floors and spaces. The exterior volume remains unaffected, maintaining
the character of a fortress.
1982
Previsión Española
Seville, Spain
Insurance Company Headquarters
Completed 1988
The new branch of the insurance company Previsión Española
sought to blend into the architectural tradition of Seville by respecting the surrounding
city, integrating itself within the city's order and adapting itself to the scale of the
city. The formal structure of this building's horizontal, tripartite scheme maintains that
of the bulk of the city's public buildings, many of which follow a scheme consisting of a
plinth, a piano nobile and an upper floor. In structures of this kind, the main entrance
frequently assumes a vital role and this is particularly true with the Previsión
building.
1983
Olympic Stadium, Montjuic
Barcelona, Spain
with Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza
International competition by invitation
1984
Atocha Railway Station
Madrid, Spain
Competition by invitation 1984. First prize.
Completed 1992
The determination of the Spanish Ministry of Transportation to carry out a
total overhaul of the old Atocha Station and quadruple its capacity, and the proposal put
forward by City Hall in the Master Plan to free the Glorieta de Carlos V from an existing
traffic overpass, are the two poles around which the complex urban piece we might call
"Operation Atocha" revolves. The old canopy, the station square, the commuter
train station, and the long distance train station make up the principal elements of the
project. The roof of the long-distance train station is characterized by the slenderness
of the columns which support it, and the logic of its construction in a horizontal plane,
composed of thin slabs and beams, including skylights which guarantee adequate
illumination and ventilation.
(Pictured below are the canopies over parking area.)
1985
Architecture Association
Tarragona, Spain
Completed 1992
The architecture here, the bulk of the new building, is a result, on the one
hand, of the archeological condition of the site, and on the other hand, of the need to
create new relations with the existing surroundings. All of this implied respecting scales
and alignments as well as creating open spaces that would enhance the public character of
the building.
Bicocca
Milan, Italy
International competition by invitation.
Restructuring of the Campo di Marte, Insel della Guidecca
Venice, Italy
International competition by invitation of the IACP of Venice
Selected to build a portion.
1986
1992 World's Fair
Seville, Spain
Competition by invitation
Museumquartier-Messepalast
Vienna, Austria
Competition by invitation.
Diagonal Building, "L'Illa" (pictured above and below)
Barcelona, Spain
with Manuel de Solà-Morales
International competition by invitation 1986. First Prize
Completed 1994.
Manuel de la Dehesa Prize of the III Biennial of Spanish Architecture 1995 FAD Prize 1995
The filling of empty space between the freestanding buildings of
the sixties and seventies and the sector of the city that follows the Cerdá Plan,
transforming it into a nexus, became the premise which gave form to the project. It is
based on the construction of a longitudinal building of over 300 meters parallel to the
Diagonal Avenue with a park behind where a hotel was to have been erected and where a
convention center and some schools are now being built. In order that such an important
volume would not be perceived as an undifferentiated mass, both the plan and profile are
broken and segmented and the building is perforated by passageways in those places
responding to a variety of urban circumstances. The masses are designed with sculptural
control and importance has been given to a spatial vision apparent in the passageways as
well as in the gallery, where changes in scale along with a certain taste for
discontinuity and diversity predominate.
1987
San Pablo Airport
Seville, Spain
Completed in 1991
The perfection and lightness of flying machines have very little in common with
the complex, functional mechanisms behind airports. Airports belong to the world of things
built on land, and not to the sky, and are by definition places of transit. The immense
departure concourse, with the deep-blue color of the vaults as its main feature, is meant
to be the point of encounter between sky and land, the place materializing and
propitiating transit. The idea is for the space defined by the vaults to act as a
threshold to the sky, or in other words, as the new and true `gate to Seville'.
Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation
(a night view pictured above)
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Completed in 1992
After identifying an area close to Miró's studio with a gentle slope toward
the bay, it was decided that the new building should not be tall, but should react
energetically against the world built around it. The gallery, a key piece in the new
construction, is something of a military fortress defending itself from the enemies ahead.
Sharp and intense, the volume ignores its surroundings or, better still, answers with rage
the hostile buildings that have worn down the previously beautiful slope. Views are
centered exclusively on the Sert Studio, the Miró house, and the hills. Furthermore, the
roof of the gallery is transformed into a pool, which allows us to think that it is still
possible to recover the presence of the sea; literally to bring back the lost water of the
sea. Moreover, the water in the pool enhances the distance between the site and the
neighborhood. The gallery resists its medium, protecting itself from the hostile outdoor
atmosphere with concrete louvers. Windows orient our eyes towards the garden, a crucial
piece in this project, that completes the dialectic between the new construction and the
existing buildings. (interior view of the gallery below)
Auditorium
Barcelona, Spain
Under construction
1989 Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
(Rehabilitation of the Villahermosa Palace)
Madrid, Spain
Completed in 1992
City of Madrid VII Awards in Architecture 1992
When the negotiations with Baron von Thyssen on the temporary cession of his
art collection commenced, the palace served as a decisive asset for the Spanish
government. It was a matter of making room for a collection of almost eight hundred
paintings, a collection of extreme variety. From the very beginning the idea was a museum
adapted to the architecture of the old palace. The general concordance between facades,
access, courtyard and interior wall network is an attempt to decipher the hidden message
behind the contained geometry of Villahermosa Palace (pictured below).
1990
Auditorium and Cultural Center
Luzern, Switzerland
Second prize
Palazzo del Cinema
Lido (Venice) Italy
International competition by invitation.
First prize.
For all the beauty of the Lido beaches, it is the irresistible spell of this
enigmatic city that draws visitors from all nations to her. That explains why the proposed
building is oriented toward the city of canals rather than toward the sea. The
platform-terrace is in fact a key element in the project, conceived as a magnificent
horizontal plane suspended over the canal, from which to discern the splendor of Venice on
summer nights and also to provide protection for the boats. It creates the atmosphere
necessary for a Film Festival with such a glamorous history as the one held in Venice.
Davis Museum and Cultural Center
Wellesley College
(pictured above)
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Completed in 1993
The leitmotif of the project became the dialogue between the new center and the
Jewett building. Such a dialogue implied the creation of an open interstitial space, which
was then quickly conferred the role of a square. Presiding over the square is the new
museum, a vertical mass that confidently asserts its presence and becomes the dominant
element of the overall space, engaging in conversation with the keel of the Jewett
library.
For anyone who enters the building, the act of going to the top is like a
process of purification. The light comes down from the skylight, almost as if from heaven.
The softened light, invades the lower floors through a series of openings, which are
clearly perceived in the drawings for the project, but which are intended to be
inconspicuous to visitors in the actual building. So in ascending, the building becomes
progressively more open. The key is to arrive at this more complete moment, this moment of
epiphany at the top, where the feelings elicited by one's contact with the art at last
become clear.
(pictured below is an interior of the gallery)
Kursaal Auditorium and Congress Center
San Sebastián, Spain
International Competition by invitation. First prize.
Under construction
San Sebastián is a city lying in the midst of a complete
geography: hills, beaches and capes all live together with the urban fabric, creating a
world in itself. The Kursaal site still has the flavor of the geography and the proposal
tries to keep that after raising two gigantic rocks lying on the tidal wash where the
river meets the sea. One addresses Mount Urgull which protects the Concha beach. The other
looks toward Mount Ulía, a further promontory, which defines the city borders. They are
built with glass walls so that they will appear as translucent solids, able to withstand
the harsh weather conditions. These cold, frozen masses would change dramatically during
the night when they will become fans facing the open ocean. They do not belong to the
urban fabric, they belong to the landscape. Only the concert hall and congress hall will
emerge from a platform which holds all the other elements of the program. From the
platform people will enjoy wonderful views of the ocean . It was not an analysis of the
site, more a synthetic view of it that brought about the architectural solution.
1991
Museums of Modern Art and Architecture
Stockholm , Sweden
Competition. First prize.
The architecture proposed here is discontinuous and broken, just
as the city of Stockholm. The character and expression of the building evolved from
considerations for the content of the collections of the two museums. Diversity is the
most outstanding characteristic of the collections. In addition to this diversity, the
architecture of the new museums responds to the delicate surroundings and does not fall
into the temptation of "monumentality", while also establishing a dialogue -
always in a light and discrete manner - with an environment in which fragmentation and
minimal intervention are the most typical characteristics. The building mixes square and
rectangular halls with pyramidal ceilings, optimizing illumination and height, qualities
considered fundamental for a museum.
Cultural Center
Don Benito, Badajoz, Spain
Under construction.
City Hall (addition)
Murcia, Spain
Under construction
1992
Potsdamer Platz
Berlin, Germany
International competition by invitation
Museum of Fine Arts
Houston, Texas
Project
A new building for The Fine Arts Museum of Houston that will live together with
the Mies van der Rohe building.
Offices for Red Eléctrica de España
San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid) Spain
Under construction
1993
Potsdamer Platz Hotel and Office Building
Berlin, Germany
Under construction
1995
Tate Gallery Bankside
London, England
International competition by invitation. Finalist
Helsinki Railway Station Roof
Helsinki, Finland
Competition by invitation. Second prize
Teaching
1966-1970
Associate Professor
E.T.S.A.M. Madrid University School of Architecture
1970-1980
Professor in Architectural Theory
E.T.S.A.B. Barcelona University School of Architecture
1976-1977
Visiting Fellow
Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies Visiting Professor
The Cooper Union New York
1980-1985
Professor of Composition
E.T.S.A.M. Madrid University School of Architecture
1980
Visiting Professor
Swiss Federal Polytechnic University, Lausanne, Switzerland
1982
Visiting Professor
Princeton University
1985-1990
Chairman Department of Architecture
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
1991-
José Luis Sert Professor
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Lectures
1985
The Kenzo Tange Lecture
"The Solitude of Buidings"
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
1986
The Architectural Association, London
1987
The Graham Foundation, Chicago
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Swiss Federal Polytechnic University, Zürich
1989
Chanin Lecture
The Cooper Union
1990
The Walter Gropius Lecture
"Reflecting on Two Concert Halls. Gehry versus Venturi"
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
1991
ANYONE Conference
Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities
1992
ANYWHERE Conference, Japan
National Museum, Stockholm
Rothschild Foundation, Jerusalem
1993
Royal Institute of British Architects
Davis Visiting Critic, Tulane University
"On the City" Conference
Nihon University, Tokyo
ANYWAY Conference, Barcelona
Royal Academy, Copenhagen
1994
"Musées-Musées" Conference
Louvre, Paris
1995
Society of Engineers and Architects, Lugano
A.I.A. San Francisco
Pontificia University of Chile
III Biennal of Spanish Architecture
Lectures on Architecture
1996
The Louis Kahn Memorial Lecture
The Architecture Foundation, Philadelphia
International Union of Architects, Barcelona
Rafael Moneo lectures frequently in architecture schools all
over the world.
Exhibitions
1985
Biennal of Paris
Europalia, Brussels
Triennal of Milan
One man exhibit
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
1986
Biennal of Venice
1989
One man exhibit
Fondazione Angelo Masieri, Venice
1991
I Biennal of Spanish Architecture
1992
"Building a New Spain:
Contemporary Spanish Architecture"
Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Madrid
The Art Institute of Chicago
"Art and Architecture Museums"
Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano
"Oteiza-Moneo"
Navarra Pavillion, World's Fair, Seville
"Tradition and Change in the Architecture
of Six European Cities"
Madrid
1993
"Rafael Moneo. Bulding for the City"
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna
"Rafael Moneo. Building and Projects 1976-1992"
Architekturmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
"Rafael Moneo. Buildings and Projects 1973-1993"
Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm
1994
"Rafael Moneo. Buildings and Projects
1973-1993"
Architecture Museum, Helsinki, Finland
"Museums and Architecture. New Perspectives"
Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Environment Madrid
1995
III Biennal of Spanish Architecture
European Architecture 1984-1994
D.A.M. German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona
"Monolithic Architecture"
Heinz Architectural Center at the