GENERACIÓN ESPONTÁNEA
«The generational method has often served the history of art and architecture to refer to the community of ideas and the transformation of artistic wills of individuals belonging to the same spatial and temporal context. The philosopher Ortega y Gasset matches Pinder’s and Mannheim’s theories, stating that “each generation represents a certain attitude to life, from which existence is felt in a certain way.” The community of date and the community of space would thus be the attributes of a generation, although the sequence of generations can only be clarified after the fact, through a retrospective. However, the feeling of a generation emanates from the contemporary and often manifests as a difference from the previous one. “One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels,” would write Henry David Thoreau in 1854.
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Once reached the centenary of the birth of some of our great masters, the Spanish architecture looks to the future with renewed vigour. At least that is what can be deduced from a considerable body of works made in recent years by Spanish architects who embody the values of a new generation: not biological but with a shared destiny, spontaneous by the nature of its birth –the lucky product of a setback. This volume seeks to explain briefly the concerns and strategies that make their way into the Spanish architecture, able to enlighten with their reflection the works of those who pointed the way before through craft and experience. It is fair to say that the influence between generations is not unidirectional but reciprocal; sometimes the disciple instructs the master and restores his memory.»
“Generación espontánea / Spontaneous generation,” En Blanco 19 (2015): 5-7. A special issue devoted to the ‘New Spanish architecture,’ ed. Raúl Castellanos Gómez.
raulcastellanosgomez.com 