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  4. A LOVE PILGRIMAGE. Luigi Figini's Travels to Ibiza and the Lessons of vernacular Architecture
 
conference paper

A LOVE PILGRIMAGE. Luigi Figini's Travels to Ibiza and the Lessons of vernacular Architecture

Tosolini, Paola
Colomina, Beatriz
•
Lahuerta, Juan José
Show more
2010
Viajes en la transición de la arquitectura española hacia la modernidad
7th Internacional Congress History of Modern Spanish Architecture 'Crossed Journeys in the transition of Spanish architecture towards modernity'

In 1950 Luigi Figini travelled to Ibiza. He named this journey a “love pilgrimage” to the most western of the “isole beate” (holy islands), to one of the earthly paradises of white architecture. It wasn’t the first such island he had visited since he has already travelled to others, such as Ischia, Procida, Capri, Santorini and the Greek islands, some years earlier. The diary of this Spanish journey, which was published the following year, has been scarcely analyzed and largely undervalued by both critics and historians. It is a passionate essay that, far from being only a documentary, a tourist guide, is a statement of his way to conceive architecture. At the same time it is a denunciation towards those who didn’t want to admit that Mediterranean vernacular architecture played an important role in the definition of some paradigms of modern architecture. What Figini recorded with his camera in the city of Ibiza, but also in S. Antonio Abad, S. Inés, S. Eulalia and S. Carlos, are examples of “humble and anonymous” houses and churches, details of walls, pergolas and roofs. In describing the grammar of these buildings’ simple language, Figini evokes evident analogies between them and some works of Le Corbusier and Breuer. Such comparisons were not yet new. Probably the Italian architect knew that his Spanish colleagues from G.A.T.E.P.A.C had done the same in 1930 when comparing a project of J. J. P. Oud to the fishermen houses in San Pol de Mar. For Figini the districts of Sa Penya and Dalt Vila were an ”historical museum of contemporary architecture built ante litteram”. The article considers Figini's journey to Ibiza comparing it to other travels on the island by some Spanish architects including José Luis Sert and the members of the G.A.T.E.P.A.C. It also demonstrates how, after the journey, the work of Figini-Pollini office was “contaminated” somehow by the lessons he learned from vernacular architecture: the lessons of “morality”, “logic”, “life”, and “style”.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Tosolini, Paola
Editors
Colomina, Beatriz
•
Lahuerta, Juan José
•
Ochotorena, Juan Miguel
•
Pozo, José Manuel
Date Issued

2010

Publisher

T6) Ediciones - Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura. Universidad de Navarra

Publisher place

Pamplona

Published in
Viajes en la transición de la arquitectura española hacia la modernidad
ISBN of the book

978-84-92409-13-6

Start page

503

End page

512

Subjects

architects travels

•

vernacular achitecture

•

theory of architecture

•

modern architecture

•

Ibiza architecture

Note

NA1420/2010

URL

URL

http://www.unav.es/arquitectura/congreso/2010/
Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

OTHER

EPFL units
IA  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
7th Internacional Congress History of Modern Spanish Architecture 'Crossed Journeys in the transition of Spanish architecture towards modernity'

Pamplona, Spain

May 6-7, 2010

Available on Infoscience
May 10, 2010
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/49985
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