Casa Moderna: Half a Century of Colombian Domestic Architecture - Hardcover

Saldarriaga Roa, Alberto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9589393241 ISBN 13: 9789589393246

Publisher: Villegas Editores, 2013

Synopsis

The past half-century of domestic architecture in Colombia involves the works of Rogelio Salmona, Dicken Castro, Hernán Vieco, and Fernando Martínez Sanabria, creators who have given unique identities to their interpretations of the modern home. This tribute reveals the challenges they faced and their remarkable solutions: houses which blend functionalism, creativity, and simplicity in the forging of spaces which are a pleasure to inhabit.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

As the twentieth century draws to a close, it is timely to consider the term "modern house." Among other things, it brings to mind what a house offers in terms of comfort and ease of living. We all live in a modern way, but all of us do not inhabit a modern house.

To speak of a modern house in Colombia in the 1940s would have been to speak of change, adventure, and accepting what modernization had to offer-- to welcome the house of the future. There were, fortunately, a number of individuals with a sufficient understanding of the new, exciting movement in architecture who not only had the requisite funds but also the willingness to challenge accepted norms, and who created the foundation for our modern architecture. Much of what is recorded in this volume came to be through several farsighted people open-minded enough to accept the principles of modern architecture as stated by European architects such as Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto and the great American master architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

With remarkable sensitivity toward local raw materials, a sober understanding of the expectations of their clients, and the rigorous discipline imposed by the climate, Colombian architects of the 1940s and 1950s designed and erected houses of an integrity and stylistic vision difficult to comprehend in our own materialistic time.

The houses featured in this book have a few things in common: their design principles are modern beyond a doubt, they are testimony to skilled and dedicated craftsmanship, they exhibit an enduring commitment to principle on the part of the owners, and they display a level of comfort and functionality that will surprise and delight anyone seeking quality in design today. This volume offers a panorama of modern architectural design of unexpected courage and vision-- as relevant today as in its time of creation.

Alberto Saldarriaga Roa was born in Bogotá, 1941. He graduated in architecture at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 1965 and is presently Academic Coordinator of the History and Theory of Art, Architecture and Design at the Facultad de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He works in research and architectural design at the Centro de Estudios de Architectura y Medio Ambiente (CEAM). He is also guest lecturer at the Facultades de Arquitectura of Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Cartagena and Universidad San Buenaventura in Cali. Since 1976, he has published numerous books on architecture, Habitabilidad, Arquitectura y Cultura en Colombia, Arquitectura para Todos los Días and Arquitectura Fin de Siglo, to name but a few, and some in joint authorship with Lorenzo Fonseca Martínez, such as Arquitectura Popular en Colombia: Herencia y Tradiciones, which have earned awards in Colombia and abroad.

Antonio Castañeda Buraglia was born in Bogotá in 1947. He has worked as a photography and film restorer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Service National des Archives du Film in Bois d'Arcy, France, 1986. His photographs have been published in many books including Anuarios de la Arquitectura en Colombia, El Señor Ladrillo, Museos de Bogotá, Chiquinquirá Arte y Milagro, Casa Colombiana, Casa Campesina, Espacios Comerciales, and Casa Republicana. His photographs have also appeared in magazines and have been exhibited at the 33rd and 34th Salón Nacional de Artistas and at the Colombian Consulate in Miami. Antonio Castañeda Buraglia presently teaches Photography at the Facultades de Arquitectura of the Universidad de Los Andes and Universidad Católica.

About the Author

Alberto Saldarriaga Roa is an award-winning architect who has developed research studies on urban and architecture topics in Colombia and Latin America. He has written, among others, Casa Republicana (Republican House) and Casa Moderna (Modern House), both from Villegas Editores.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villegas Editores
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 9589393241
• ISBN 13: 9789589393246
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 279
• Editor: Villegas Benjamin, Saldarriaga Roa Alberto, Castaneda Buraglia Antonio