Clarkson Chair Architecture Research Guide: 2017 Clarkson Chair: Alberto Campo Baeza
Alberto Campo Baeza
"Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in Cádiz where he saw the Light.
He is a Professor in the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured Professor for more than 35 years. He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Kansas State University, the CUA University in Washington, and more recently, in 2016, L’Ecole d’Architecture in Tournai, Belgique.
He has given lectures all over the world, and has received significant recognition like the Torroja Award for his Caja Granada or the Award of the UPM University for his Excellence in Teaching. In 2013 he was awarded the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the International Award Architecture in Stone in Verona, and the RIBA International Fellowship 2014 of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Also in 2014 he was elected Full Member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain. In 2015, he was awarded the BigMat 2015 in Berlin and the International Prize of Spanish Architecture (PAEI 2015). And won the 1st Prize Ex Aequo to build the new LOUVRE.
His works have been widely recognized. From the Houses Turégano and de Blas, both in Madrid, to Gaspar House, Asencio House or Guerrero House in Cádiz, Rufo House in Toledo and Moliner House in Zaragoza. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, the House of the Infinite in Cádiz, and the Raumplan House in Madrid. Or the BIT Center in Inca-Mallorca, the public space Between Cathedrals, in Cádiz, the Caja de Granada Savings Bank and the MA, the Museum of Memory of Andalucía, both in Granada. And a nursery for Benetton in Venice, or the Offices in Zamora for the Regional Government of Castilla y León. At present, the Sports Pavilion for the University Francisco de Vitoria, in Madrid, has been finished.
More than 30 editions of the books with his texts “La Idea Construida” [The Built Idea], “Pensar con las manos” [Thinking with your hands], and Principia Architectonica have been published in several languages. In 2014 he published, “Poetica Architectonica”. In 2015 “The Built Idea” has been translated into English and Chinese and “Quiero ser arquitecto” has been edited by Los libros de la Catarata. Recently, all his work has been gathered in a book, “Complete Works” by Thames & Hudson, and in 2016, his latest texts have been published under the title “Varia Architectonica”. He believes in Architecture as a Built Idea. And he believes that the principle components of Architecture are Gravity that constructs Space and Light that constructs Time.
He has exhibited his work in the Crown Hall by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the Palladio Basilica in Vicenza. And in the Urban Center In New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul, and the Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. In 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo made an anthological exhibition of his work that, in 2011 was in the MAXXI in Rome. In 2013 his work has been exhibited in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, and in the Pibamarmi Foundation in Vicenza. In 2014 at the School of Architecture of Valencia. In 2015, in Cádiz, at the College of Architects, and at the Spanish Embassy of Iran in Teheran. And in 2016 at the Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb."
Publications:
Alberto Campo Baeza : idea, light and gravity = Aruberuto kanpo baeza : hikari no kenchiku by Call Number: APL Book Collection: NA1313 .C36 A4 2009ISBN: 4887063016Publication Date: 2009Alongside building an architecture that is iconic, Spanish architect Campo Baeza also creates rational buildings that enter into a dialogue with the place and its surroundings in order to, as he suggests make men happy. This well-designed survey of the architects works features a total of 23 works and projects, realised between 1980 and 2009 and accompanied by colour photographs, plans, elevations and models, along with introductory comments by the architect. Featured are such projects as: the Gaspar House; De Blas House, Caja General Bank Headquarters; the Benetton Nursery; Olnick Spanu House; and, Andalucias Museum of Memory. Included also in the second half of the publication is a sizeable essay by Campo Baeza himself, entitled The Built Idea/ On Architecture in which various ideas and themes are explored, such as the use of the colour white and the role of light in architecture, and, the foundations and future of architecture.
Baeza Campo - Light Is More by Call Number: APL General Collection: NA1313 .C36 B52 2003ISBN: 8489162182Publication Date: 2003
Built Idea by Call Number: APL General Collection: NA1313 .C36 A35 2015ISBN: 9881512530Publication Date: 2015-07-01Architects reveal the keys to Architecture in their drawings, their floor plans, sections and also in their writings. It is important to appreciate the concise texts of Mies Van der Rohe or the more passionate expressions of Le Corbusier. And that is how I would like these texts, published here today, to be understood. Alberto Campo Baeza (born Valladolid, Spain, 1946) is one of the most important architects of the modern period. The Built Idea presents a series of seminal texts in which he conveys his most deeply-held architectural ideas and convictions, exploring and explaining his foundational influences and subjects such as the importance of light, the work of his contemporaries, and the future of architecture, as well as accounts of his own work and personal anecdotes from a rich and successful life in architecture. To use words that express one s intentions clearly is not just a convenience for architects. One wants to let people know the meaning behind the things that are being made. My aim in publishing these texts is precisely that. This book also includes a photographic documentation of Campo Baeza s greatest works along with architectural sketches, plans and models to provide a privileged insight into one of the greatest architectural minds working today. And the reasoning on which one bases one s work in their attempt at Architecture is what is going to be reflected here in these texts, some of it consciously, some unconsciously. Realizing the ideas expressed in these words in built works is of course the best proof that the ideas are valid and the words true. "
Campo Baeza: Complete Works by Call Number: Hayes Hall Reading RoomISBN: 0500342946Publication Date: 2015Alberto Campo Baeza, one of contemporary architectures most distinguished voices, is renowned for a body of work that exudes the power of radical simplicity. The clarity of architectural ideas expressed in his buildings have ranged in scale from such small but beautiful residential structures as the Turegano, Gaspar and De Blas houses, to cultural facilities such as Andalucias Museum of Memory in Granada, an addition to his earlier achievement, the Caja General Bank Headquarters. All share an uncompromising dedication to simple composition, and demonstrate the ways in which he so brilliantly deploys disciplined restraint to achieve architectural silence in the face of the clamour of the modern city.
Contemporary World Architects Alberto Campo Baeza by Call Number: APL General Collection: NA1313 .C36 A4 1997ISBN: 1564963403Publication Date: 1997-04-15This monograph presents one of the most unique voices in contemporary architecture whose collection of built work makes a compelling case, with some help from Hisao Suzuki's photography, for the power of radical simplicity. • Included amongst the projects featured are the Andalucian Museum of Memory and Caja Granada, two contiguous buildings united in a quiet yet monumental statement about Granada, and its history, as well as other instant classics such as the Asencio, Gaspar, and Turegano houses. All share a basic dedication to simple composition with unadorned masses and show Baeza's uncompromising exercise of disciplined restraint in achieving architectural silence, his laconic answer to the deafening noise of the contemporary city. • The projects explored in the book span four decades of an international architectural practice. Contributions by Richard Meyer, Jesus Aparicio, Kenneth Frampton, and Manuel Blanco offer critical commentary on Baeza's persistent quest for beauty and relevance by means of simplicity.
La idea construida : la arquitectura a la luz de las palabras by Call Number: APL General Collection: NA2520 .C36 2006ISBN: 8497425464Publication Date: 2006
Pensar con las manos by Call Number: APL General Collection: NA2500 .C36 2010ISBN: 8493471119Publication Date: 2010
Principia Architectonica by Call Number: Hayes Hall Reading RoomISBN: 9872949956Publication Date: 2014
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