Light and mobile structures, architectures that interact with the environment. Spain 1960-75

Abstract

In the 60’s and 70’s a series of experimental proposals took place in Spain that merged with the current international interests of that time in search of a new technological repertoire leaning towards the “lightness, transformability” and “interaction with the environment”. The figures that focus the debate around light structures are José Miguel de la Prada Poole, leading the development of “pneumatic structures” and Emilio Pérez Piñero whose“unfolding structures” places Spain at the head of innovation. From the 70’s there is a progressive shift in the interest from structural systems towards architecture able to react to environmental stimulus. New lines of experimentation “atmospheric valves” and “architecture of regulation”, represented by José Miguel de Prada Poole and Juan Navarro Baldeweg, present a utopic component and look for a relationship of immediacy between man and environment. It involves recognised proposals for the technological contributions that were excluded from the current intellectual debate. This research aims to reveal the imaginary developed by Spanish architects around new habitable spaces in an experimental way in relation with environment and register it in the framework of a global culture.