Rafael Moneo
Pritzker Architecture Prize
Laureate
1995
Rafael
Moneo of Spain
Named the 1996
Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
Los Angeles, CA - José Rafael Moneo, a 58 year old architect who
lives and works in Madrid, Spain, has been named the nineteenth Laureate
of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. In making the announcement, Jay A.
Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation, which established the award
in 1979, quoted from the jury's citation which describes Moneo as "an architect
with tremendous range, each of whose buildings is unique, but at the same
time, uniquely recognizable as being from his palette." Moneo is the first
Spanish architect to be selected for his profession's highest honor which
bestows a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion when the formal presentation
is made on June 12 in the construction site of The Getty Center in Los
Angeles.
Pritzker affirmed the jury's choice, saying, "Moneo not only practices
architecture in the most real sense of designing buildings, taking into
account all aspects of their construction, but also, he teaches his theories
utilizing all his experience and knowledge, in effect sustaining these
parallel efforts by enriching each with the other." Moneo has taught on
the faculties of Spain's finest schools of architecture, the Universities
of both Madrid and Barcelona, and for five years was the chairman of the
department of architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where
he remains on the faculty still, in addition to lecturing around the world
at major colleges and museums.
Most of Moneo's projects have been in his native country, but a fine example
of his work was completed in the United States in 1993: the Davis Museum
and Cultural Center at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Another project
in Houston, Texas is on his drawing board for an addition to that city's
Fine Arts Museum, an existing Mies van der Rohe structure.
In Spain, his most critically acclaimed work is the National Museum of
Roman Art in Mérida. Completed in 1986, the museum, which has been
praised for its architectural monumentality that enhances the exhibits
within, is constructed over the site of archaeological excavations of what
was the most important city in Spain during the Roman Empire.
From his first work, which Moneo describes as "a transformer factory whose
brick and steel volumes produce a rich and varied profile," to the minimalist
monument under construction at San Sebastian, two translucent cubes that
will house the Kursaal Auditorium and Congress Center. Between these two
examples is an enormous range of designs encompassing residences and apartments,
art museums, a railway station, an airport, a factory, a hotel, banks,
a city hall and other office buildings.
Bill Lacy, executive director of the prize, quoted further from the formal
citation from the jury which states, "Moneo takes on each new commission
as a fresh exercise. He draws on an incredible reservoir of concepts and
ideas which he filters through the circumstances of the project."
Lacy, who is an architect himself and president of the State University
of New York at Purchase, elaborated, "In many of his writings and lectures,
Moneo has made it clear that he does not consider architecture as merely
the brilliant expression of an idea in the form of a drawing. He considers
construction an essential part of the design process; architecture must
be perceived as a built work to be reality." In fact, Moneo has said, "Architecture
only reaches its true status when it is realized, when it acquires its
being as an object, and when it is transformed into material reality as
a building."
Of his built works, the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation which provides
a study center and exhibition space on the island of Mallorca is described
by Moneo as "reacting energetically against the world built around it.
(He refers to the encroaching construction of buildings nearby.) The gallery
is something of a military fortress." Another project for the housing of
art was the rehabilitation of the Villahermosa Palace in Madrid for the
collection of nearly 800 paintings of Baron von Thyssen. In this case,
Moneo tried to retain as much of the original architecture of the 18th
century structure as possible.
Another of Moneo's important projects that won an international competition
in 1986 is the Diagonal Building in collaboration with Manuel de Solá-Morales,
a mixed use structure for offices, apartment hotel, and commercial center
in Barcelona. The building, nearly a thousand feet long is parallel to
the Diagonal Avenue with a park behind. "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,"
explains Moneo.
Two of his major projects relate to air and rail transport. His first was
for the Spanish Ministry of Transportation which wanted a total overhaul
of the Atocha Railway Station in Madrid, quadrupling its capacity. The
old canopy which was retained with the addition of a clock tower is one
of the key elements of the project. Moneo's plan incorporated a station
square, the long distance and the commuter train stations. For his San
Pablo Airport in Seville, Moneo explains that 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 the sky and the land.
In Jaén, Spain, Moneo designed a branch office for the Bank of Spain
which was completed in 1988. He describes the project, "From the very start,
the idea was to fit the needs of the program into a single, closed, perfect
solid. The degree of diversity is achieved through a system of voids connecting
floors and spaces. The exterior maintains the character of a fortress."
Another project in Seville was a new branch office of the insurance company,
Previsión Española, a three story structure that fits into
the traditional architecture of the city.
In 1992, Moneo received the Spanish government's highest award, The Gold
Medal for Achievement in Fine Arts. The French Academy of Architecture's
Gold Medal and the International Union of Architects Gold Medal were both
presented this year. He received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from
the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1993; that same
year he was awarded the Schock Prize in Visual Arts in Sweden, adding to
a list of numerous other fellowships and prizes, including the Royal Institute
of British Architects.
The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living
architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities
of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant
contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of
architecture.
The distinguished jury that selected Rafael Moneo as the 1996 Laureate
consists of J. Carter Brown, director emeritus of the National Gallery
of Art in Washington, D.C. (who is chairman of the jury and a founding
member); and alphabetically, Giovanni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat from Torino,
Italy; Charles Correa, architect of Bombay, India; Ada Louise Huxtable,
author and architectural critic of New York; Toshio Nakamura, editor-in-chief
of A+U architectural publications of Tokyo, Japan; Jorge Silvetti, architect
and chairman of the department of architecture Harvard Graduate School
of Design; and juror emeritus, Lord Rothschild, chairman of the National
Heritage Memorial Fund of Great Britain and formerly the chairman of that
country's National Gallery of Art.
With the selection of Rafael Moneo, the number of Pritzker Laureates from
countries other than the United States is now ten; only nine have been
chosen from the United States. Last year, Tadao Ando of Japan was elected,
the third Japanese architect to be so honored. Kenzo Tange was the first
Japanese architect to receive the prize in 1987; Fumihiko Maki was the
second from Japan in 1993. One Laureate has been selected each year since
1979 with the exception of 1988 when two were named to celebrate the tenth
anniversary of the prize: the late Gordon Bunshaft of the United States
and Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil. Philip Johnson was the first Laureate in
1979. The late Luis Barragan of Mexico was named in 1980. The late James
Stirling of Great Britain was elected in 1981. The next three years saw
the election of three architects from the US: Kevin Roche in 1982, Ieoh
Ming Pei in 1983, and Richard Meier in 1984. Hans Hollein of Austria was
the 1985 Laureate. Gottfried Boehm of Germany received it in 1986. Frank
Gehry of the US was elected in 1989 and Aldo Rossi of Italy in 1990. Robert
Venturi received the honor in 1991. Alvaro Siza of Portugal was named in
1992. In 1994, Christian de Portzamparc of France was made a Laureate.
The field of architecture was chosen by the Pritzker family because of
their keen interest in building due to their involvement with developing
the Hyatt Hotels around the world. Architecture was also a creative endeavor
not included in the Nobel Prizes. The procedures were modeled after the
Nobels, with the final selection being made by the international jury with
all deliberations and voting in secret. Nominations are continuous from
year to year with over 500 nominees from more than forty countries being
considered each year.
The bronze medallion awarded to each Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture
Prize is based on designs of Louis Sullivan, famed Chicago architect generally
acknowledged as the father of the skyscraper. On one side is the name of
the prize. On the reverse, three words are inscribed, "firmness, commodity
and delight," These are the three conditions referred to by Henry Wotton
in his 1624 treatise, The Elements of Architecture, which was a translation
of thoughts originally set down nearly 2000 years ago by Marcus Vitruvius
in his Ten Books on Architecture, dedicated to the Roman Emperor Augustus.
Wotton, who did the translation when he was England's first ambassador
to Venice, used the complete quote as: "The end is to build well. Well-building
hath three conditions: commodity, firmness and delight."
Pritzker
Architecture Prize Ceremony Was Held at the Construction Site of The Getty
Center
On June 12, 1996, guests from around the world gathered at the construction
site of The Getty Center in Los Angeles for The Hyatt Foundation ceremony
presenting The Pritzker Architecture Prize to Rafael Moneo of Spain. The
prize consists of a bronze medallion and a $100,000 grant.
The site was particularly appropriate since The Getty Center was designed
by Richard Meier who received The Pritzker Prize in 1984 shortly before
he won the commission. The $733 million project is arguably one of the
most important architectural projects for the arts and humanities of the
twentieth century. Although the campus-like complex consisting of six low-lying
buildings providing nearly a million square feet of space is still very
much under construction, things are far enough along to give ceremony guests
a keen insight to its overall purpose, which is to unite the J. Paul Getty
Trust's programs in the visual arts and humanities, and provide a second
more central location for the J. Paul Getty Museum. Set amid 24 acres of
gardens and terraces on a hilltop with a commanding view of both the Pacific
Ocean and the city, The Getty Center is scheduled to open in the fall of
1997, but some facilities are nearing completion now and will be occupied
by Getty staff the end of the summer. Construction began in November of
1989.
"This unique opportunity," explained Jay A. Pritzker, president of The
Hyatt Foundation, "to see this complex in this stage of construction, with
some buildings still in their skeletal state, will be of extreme architectural
interest to the people who participate. This was a doubly historic event
because we not only honored one of the world's great architects, but also
because The Getty Center will have such significance over the coming years
as an architectural statement, and perhaps even more importantly, as a
cultural resource for Los Angeles and the entire global community. We are
indeed grateful to The J. Paul Getty Trust for this singular occasion."
Southern California was host to the Pritzker ceremony once before at the
Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino
in 1985, but the ceremonies have been held all over the world since the
prize was established in 1979. The first two were held in Washington, D.C.
at Dumbarton Oaks. The nation's capital was host twice again, once at the
National Gallery of Art and again at the National Building Museum. In New
York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was the site of the ceremony
in 1983. The proceedings have been held twice at The Art Institute of Chicago,
and once in that city's Harold Washington Library Center in the year of
its opening. Ft. Worth, Texas provided the Kimbell Art Museum. In 1994,
homage was paid to a whole community when Columbus, Indiana was the venue.
International sites have been The Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy; Goldsmiths
Hall in London, England; Todai-ji Buddhist Temple in Nara, Japan; Prague
Castle in the Czech Republic; Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City; and last
year, in France, the Palace of Versailles and the Grand Trianon.
According to J. Carter Brown, the jury chairman of the Pritzker Prize and
director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art, "By moving the ceremony
around the world to sites of architectural significance, the aims of the
Pritzker Prize are served beyond the primary purpose of singling out one
architect each year for the Pritzker honor. We are paying homage to architects
and builders from history, and this year, we look forward to the future
with this amazing complex that is not yet completed. It helps carry forward
the underlying goal of the prize: to focus the public's awareness on good
architecture and what it can mean to people's lives."
He recalled the words of the late Lord Clark of Saltwood, who, when he
was one of the founding jurors of the Pritzker Prize, said of the award:
"...it will focus public attention on a branch of human endeavor by which
our civilization will be judged in the future." Lord Clark, an art historian
perhaps best known for his television series and book, Civilisation,
said further: "A great historical episode can exist in our imaginations
almost entirely in the form of architecture. Very few of us have read the
texts of early Egyptian literature. Yet we feel we know those infinitely
remote people almost as well as our immediate ancestors, chiefly because
of their sculpture and architecture."
Never losing the focus of honoring the living Laureates of the Pritzker
Prize, each of the ceremony locations has provided its own unique significance.
Versailles is world famous as France's most lavish palace and gardens,
possibly the greatest monument to absolute monarchy and the culmination
of French classicism; Columbus, Indiana, boasts the greatest concentration
of buildings by architects of world renown of any other community of comparable
size. Todai-ji Buddhist Temple in Japan is the world's oldest and largest
wooden structure. In Prague, the 18th century "castle-in-air" that has
served as the Czech seat of government is the crowning glory of a city
that has preserved its architectural heritage over many centuries. In Fort
Worth, the late Louis Kahn, architect of the Kimbell Art Museum was praised
posthumously. Each of the previous sites has similar attributes.
# # #
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unique opportunities to more fully understand, experience, value and preserve
the world's art and cultural heritage.
Citation from the Jury
José Rafael Moneo is above all an architect of tremendous range.
As an eclectic, defined here as selecting and using what is best from all
sources, which includes his own creativity, his flexibility in varying
the appearance of his works based on their differing contexts is reflected
in the way he takes on each new commission as a fresh exercise. He draws
on an incredible reservoir of concepts and ideas which he filters through
the specifics of the site, the purpose, the form, the climate and other
circumstances of the project. As a result, each of his buildings is unique,
but at the same time, uniquely recognizable as being from his palette.
That palette has encompassed the ancient, the Museum of Roman Art at Merida,
which is one of his finest accomplishments, to the minimalist monument
planned for San Sebastián — two translucent cubes that will house
the Kursall Auditorium and Congress Center. There are infinite variations
between these two examples, embodied in everything from residences and
apartments, to art museums, a railway station, an airport, a factory, a
hotel, banks, a city hall and other office buildings. Each of his designs
has a confident and timeless quality indicative of a master architect whose
talent is obvious from the first concept to the last detail of the completed
building.
And the completed building is of utmost importance to Moneo, even to the
point of being self-effacing, he believes in the built work, and that once
built, the work must stand on its own, a reality that is far more
than a translation of the architect's drawings. He regards the materials
and techniques of construction to be just as important as the architect's
vision and concept, and therefore an integral part of making architecture
lasting — another the key attribute that he strives for in his work.
As a writer and critic, devoting almost as much time to education as he
does to design, he further shapes the future of architecture with his words.
His words as a teacher are most important, influencing faculties and students
alike with his steady commitment to the modernist tradition, both in the
United States and Spain. In the former, he served as Chairman of the Department
of Architecture Harvard Graduate School of Design for five years, and in
his native country, on the faculties of both the Madrid and and Barcelona
Universities.
Moneo's career is the ideal example of knowledge and experience enhancing
the mutual interaction of theory, practice and teaching. The Pritzker Architecture
Prize honors Moneo for these parallel efforts of the past, present and
future.
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