4th EMUNI Research Souk

The Euro-Mediterranean Student

Research Multi-conference

2012
BRIDGING GAPS IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN RESEARCH SPACE
17 18 April 2012

Conference Proceedings

Editors: Laris Gaiser, MA, Denis uri

Design: Peter Florjani
Published by: EMUNI University, Sonna pot 20, SI-6320 Portoro
For the publisher: mag. Laris Gaiser
First printing: September 2012
Print-run: 500

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Narodna in univerzitetna knjinica, Ljubljana
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EMUNI. Research Souk (4 ; 2012)
Bridging gaps in the Mediterranean research space [Elektronski vir] : conference proceedings / 4th EMUNI
Research Souk [being] The Euro-Mediterranean Student Research Multi-conference, 17-18 April 2012 ; editors
Laris Gaiser, Denis uri. - 1st printing. - El. knjiga. - Portoro : EMUNI University, 2012
ISBN 978-961-6805-05-6
1. Gl. stv. nasl. 2. Gaiser, Laris
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Proceedings of the 4th EMUNI Research Souk

THREE HOUSES AND A MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Jos Francisco Garca Snchez, architect, Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain.
josefrancisco.garcia@upct.es
ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean Sea presents, in its two zones, the western and eastern one Spain and
Greece almost identical conditions of contour because both are oriented in the same sense
of the parallels. The Mediterranean world does not present climatic variations, having, therefore, a Mediterranean climate, and as a consequence, a Mediterranean Architecture.
Outside the orthodoxy of the Modern Movement architects such as Jos Antonio Coderch,
Alejandro de la Sota and Aris Konstantidinis, proposed architecture committed to its time, at
the same time committed to the Mediterranean place where they happen to produce architecture. An attitude that comes from the construction site and an updated reinterpretation of the
vernacular as a source of inspiration and a set spatial and formal easements and Academicians
fully released worldwide.
With three examples of Mediterranean Houses-houses in front of the sea, where the constructive realism became a certain brutalism, sets out an investigation to determine the genealogy of its architecture. These three houses, located in a same sea, but in opposed poles, have
been solved with very similar operations. Their approach to the popular culture, trying to
embrace the origins of a very rich Mediterranean vernacular architecture, will be the pillars
from where they are able to create a modern language which it is distant/isolated from an intention and a speech typically avant-garde.
Keyword: Mediterranean sea, architecture, Konstantidinis, Coderch, de la Sota

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Fig. 1. Mojcar, Almera, Spain.

Fig. 2. Santorini island, Greece.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA. FROM ALGECIRAS TO ISTAMBUL.

The Mediterranean Sea, the sea of human interactions par excellence, was always the center
of the natural energy reserves of the world and cradle of civilization. All the towns were born
on its fertile borders, covered by vineyards and naranjos [1]. The Mediterranean world has
identical features in its different regions, and is certanly one of the best parts of the globe.
These characteristics deeply Mediterranean are almost the same in its two zones, the
western and eastern one Spain and Greece that are oriented in the same sense of the
parallels. The Mediterranean world does not present climatic variations that can be observed
in countries arranged according to the meridians, having therefore, a Mediterranean climate,
and as a consequence, a Mediterranean architecture [ 2].
Outside the orthodoxy of the Movement Modern there were architects such as Jose Antonio
Coderch and Alejandro de la Sota (Spain) and Aris Konstantidinis (Greece), that raised
their architecture taking a different path from the tendency of their time and place. We are talking about an attitude that is external compared with the cultural centers and with the CIAM
(International Congresses of Modern Architecture), but not in direct confrontation with them.
An attitude that is born from the construction of the Mediterranean place. An act of rereading and updating the vernacular thing like an inspiration source, creating a space and formal repertoire that are completely free from any academical servilities.

In history, while the central regions of Europe were barely colonised, the Mediterranean countries, more favored by the Nature and the cli-

mate, filled quickly and progressed in civilization. It was the center of the Egyptian civilization and the Phoenician, the Greek and the hebraica, Byzantine and Roman, that bloomed and arrived here at their maximum splendor.
2

GARCA MERCADAL, F.; La Casa Mediterrnea, Madrid, 1984.

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2
THE PLATFORM UNDER THE CAROB TREE. THE UGALDE HOUSE,
JOS ANTONIO CODERCH.

Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

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3. Swimmingpool platform. BKF chair under the carob. Ugalde house, Jos Antonio Coderch, 1952.
4. Support of one of the volumes on a stone wall. Ugalde house, Jos Antonio Coderch, 1952.
5. Swimmingpool platform. BKF chair under the carob. Ugalde house, Jos Antonio Coderch, 1952.
6. Sketch. Ugalde house, Jos Antonio Coderch, 1952.

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This evocative and dynamically plastic work is a canonical Mediterranian summer house that has not been surpassed by any construction since
then [ 3].
In the Ugalde House (1951-52) first they were the trees, and then came the house. The presence of those trees, was a determining fact that helped positioning the house in the site. And
so it was.
When the architect Jose Antonio Coderch visited the place with the client, Eustaquio Ugalde, this one sat down under a carob tree saying: I want to live here! [ 4]. And there he lived,
like in heaven. Then, Coderch realised the first sketch [ 5], studying accurately the visual
position of the carob tree and the pines, the topography, and the visual relations to preserve.
Given the multidirectional complexity of this croquis, we see the annotations next to the concentric forms, recreating in our mind, simultaneously, the project and the preexisting place [ 6].
It was only to materialize something that was already constructed. Because the house was the
trees, the light and the Mediterranean Sea and those were already there.
Therefore, the cut of the space between the hall and one the main bedrooms, takes place here and not there because of the cypress's position. Or the Carob tree, under whose shade the
platform of the swimming pool is constructed; or the other cypress that virtually represents a
southern limit; and between both these plants, the pine with two trunks that, along with
chair BKF, is part of the landscape that was immortalized by the photographer Francesc
Catal-Roca.
We have, therefore, three aligned guide-shafts: a carob tree, a cypress and a pine. Each of these trees articulates a series of interstitial spaces between inside and outside, the public and the
private space, enclosed and opened through a platform, a courtyard and a porch. Those trees
are the genesis of the project, the argument and the conclusion: the House will dance between
those trunks.

FRAMPTON, Kenneth; Homenaje a Coderch. En: 2G : revista internacional de arquitectura, nm. 33, Editorial GG, Barcelona, 2005.

According to the conversation of Coderch with Enric Soria, the project leaves from the indications of their friend and client Eustaquio

Ugalde: he was a gentleman who raised the land, he sat down under a carob tree and vi views that it liked a barbarism. Then it ordered the
house to me to save this and to enjoy it.
5

Remembering the importance of the place in its work, Coderch affirmed in an interview: first I make the plane topographic.

HERNNDEZ DE GISPERT, Jordi; El croquis de la Casa Ugalde, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, 2010.

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Following the indications of the first croquis of the Ugalde House, it's clear the importance of
the place. Its architectural form its verified to interpret it and to represent it, from the gestation
of the project. The place becomes even able to generate the project, from the first decision,
taking notes of the place. Something that gives an idea of a certain ignorance of the final
result of this work has been the fact that great part of the decisions of the project went were
taken throughout the construction, according to the impressions that Coderch wanted to cause.
Emilio Donato describes him as the myth of a work for voice alive.
The plans of the Ugalde House [ 7] were drawn 50 years later. They were not necessary. The
execution plan was already finished the day that Coderch visited that one place and drew the
first Croquis [ 8].
The spanish architect will become a member of TEAM 10 in 1962. The same year that Carlos
Flores published his book on Popular and Mediterranean Architecture, Coderch emits, on
international scale, a call in favor of an silent architecture adapted to the matter of specific
problems, because they are not the geniuses which we needed now[ 9].

The critic considers the Ugalde House, in Calds d' Estrac (Spain), as the beginning of the work of maturity of Coderch and one of first

works of Spanish modern architecture. Also, one is a singular work since it is the first project of formal experimentation designed by
Coderch, outside the convecional, from principles on the house tried previously, thus causing, a point of important flexion in his professional
race.
8

GARCA SNCHEZ, J.F.; La Casa y el rbol, La Presencia, Edition Jos Laborda Yneva, Madrid, 2011.

Writting in 1960: Coderch, J.A., We do not need geniuses now, Domus (noviembre de 1961), y Cuadernos de Arquitectura (pg. 46,

1961).

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THE STONE PLATFORM ON THE ROCK. ARIS KONSTANTIDINIS.

Fig. 7. Exterior view. House in Anavyssos frente al Mar, Aris Konstantidinis, 1962.
Fig. 8. Plan. House in Anavyssos, Aris Konstantidinis, 1962.
Fig. 9. Sketch and plan of a house in Mykonos, Aris Konstantinidis. Source: A. Konstantinidis, Two Villages from Mykonos and Some
More General Thoughts about Them, Athens, 1947.

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The architecture of Aris Konstantinidis, is located in a delicate balance between the Greek
rationalism of the 1940's and the vernacular modernismo of Dimitris Pikionis [ 10]. This attitude belongs to that area of the architectonic thought that discovers the formal result of the work
as the logic of its process of construction and it never falls in the colorful folklore of vulgar
imitations of forms. The use of local stone in his Mediterranean houses like the ones he
built in Anavyssos, Spetses and Egina not only recalls the form of popular constructions,
but uses the wisdom of the vernacular approach, after trusting the composition of the spaces
and sets his philosophy near the one of Mies van der Rohe. Then, Aris Konstantinidis is placed in the median between the sensuality of the Mediterranean vernacular architecture the
Greek one and the metric precision of the classic Temples. He gives us a lesson on the Tectonics that forces to us to reflect on the richness and complexity of the simple forms and on
the values first.
Aris Konstantinidis only constructs such stone houses when they are inserted in a natural
context, where the ground is made of rock, where ther are some quarries nearby, and where
man has already marked the territory with anthropic elements (ways, walls, corrals of ewes).
The stone used by Konstantinidis, has been used for millenia by constructors agriculturists
and shepherds, both because of its functional characteristics very large surfaces with
minimum costs as well as its possibility of reusability. His stone houses seem to grow out
of the earth as a plant, wonderfully integrated in the surrounding landscape.
Aris Konstantidinis says:
We say popular architecture and our imagination constructs an almost divine
building. But what is the meaning of this word and what justifies its existence? And
which of mans work on the earth is the work of the people popular and which
isnt? And finally which part of ourselves is the people [las] and which isnt?
[ 11].

10

GARCA SNCHEZ, Jos Francisco; El paisaje delineado de Dimitris Pikionis, el arquitecto silencioso, P+C: Proyecto y Ciudad, revista de temas de arquitectura, nm. 2, pg. 105. Madrid, 2011.
11
Two Villages from Mykonos and Some More General Thoughts about Them [Dyo choria apti Mykono kai merikes pio genikes skepseis mazi tous], Athens, 1947, p. 12.

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The Anavyssos House (196162), located in a barren and majestic landscape on the way from
Athens to Sounion, gives thanks to the place with the right use of the same natural stone and
with the great simplicity of its lines and proportions.
The House is divided in two structural parts. An outer porch facing south an enclosed
place opening towards the sea, and one structural inner part facing north covered and
suspended; it is here, that the domestic spaces are articulated: a relatively small area with a
bedroom and the restroom; the kitchen, located in the northeast end of the house it is to say,
the coldest point preserves food perfectly during the long seasons, as it happens in so many
other popular architectures,
The entrance is located at the back, in a lateral porch where it is possible to choose to enter
the domestic enclosure, or to get directly into the covered outer terrace, from where the Mediterranean Sea appears to us blue and framed between the stone pillars.
The reinforced concrete structure is at sight contrasting with the rough texture of the stone
walls. It is a coherent attitude: the heavy stone for the pilasters that lean on the rocky ground,
and the reinforced concrete (an artificial and modern kind of stone) in its horizontally flat
position that emphasizes the marine landscape.
The natural surroundings were respected, interrupted only by few steps that lead to the beach.
The same atmosphere of austerity invades the interior; the furniture was reduced to the minimum, since the outer life was prevailing; inside, we can find the natural stone for the walls,
the concrete for the ceiling, and coarse stone slabs for the ground.

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4
THE PLATFORM ON THE SAME HOUSE. HOUSES IN LALCUDIA. ALEJANDRO DE LA SOTA.

Fig. 10. Aris Konstantinidis. Photograph and sketch of beach shelter structure. Source: A. Konstantinidis, Elements for Selfknowledge:
Towards a True Architecture: Photographs, Drawings, Notes, Athens, 1975.
Fig. 11. Sketch. Houses in L'Alcudia, de Alejandro de la Sota, 1984.

This drawing of Aris Konstandinis evokes another drawing of the Spanish architect Alejandro de la Sota, of a non-built project of houses in L'Alcudia, Majorca (Spain). In both
drawings, a great lesson of architecture appears to us; first of all we find amiable spaces for
living: the primitive cabin, the essential shelter, the necessary sunshade, constructed with
slight and immaterial structure on the landscape that emphasizes the Mediterranean Sea.
In the case of Alejandro de la Sota, a small house surrounded and integrated in its natural
surroundings, limited by mud walls that arrange the territory; a house reduced to its minimum
expression, little more than a cover, a central space in which circulation paths, axes and routes
are inserted; and, on top of this cover, a place from which the look extends on the horizon and
on the Mediterranean Sea [ 12].

12

Juan Navarro Baldeweg in Alejandro de la Sota: construir, habitar: In the drawings of Alcudia the elusive agic of the work of Alejan-

dro de la Sota is appraised. Everything is transparent and explicit and, nevertheless, the architecture retires, is hidden, become almost opaque.

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The beautiful thing of both drawings, is that the architecture disappears. One vanishes. It is
the environmental adjustment that constructs the speech of Architecture. The Mediterranean
Sea it's like its witness, quiet to the bottom and underlining its blue horizontality. It is only
because of the small boat, that we can tell that in that sea there is also life. And there are
mountains at the back, those that make us understand that it is not an infinite sea. The drawing
is an intense exercise of imagination where what prevails it is the devotion to life itself and its
benefits, with the wise conviction that architecture does not have to be the protagonist but a
basic curtain that enables and enhances makes a better life. In memory of the project, Alejandro de la Sota says textually:
To see the sea from all the houses: to have intimate life in all of them. One thought
about a opening house, turning the parcel, the garden, in an authentic house, underneath bougainvilleas and creepers and on them a viewpoint solarium.

These drawings illustrate admirably what it had been this set of to have constructed houses, and reflect the idea of an architecture that, in
generous and austere attitude, is able to refuse to itself.

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Fig. 12. Jos Antonio Coderch, 19131984.

Fig. 13. Aris Konstantidinis, 19131993.
Fig. 14. Alejandro de la Sota, 19131996.

CONCLUSION. A SEA, A ACHITECTURE.

In these three Mediterranean houses, the constructive realism ends with a certain brutalismo;
and in the three examples a fresh economy of means is present, derived not only from the
shortage of money, but also from the consciousness of the sustainability of the system. These
three works celebrate an approach to the popular culture, trying to embrace the origins of a
rich Mediterranean vernacular architecture, from where they are able to create a modern language that the local constructive tradition puts in relation with the universal space expositions.
That is to say, the bisector linking the near and the common, and the median connecting the
same with the others.
These three architects all were born in 1913 help us to conciliate with those immutable
and permanent values in the history of the Architecture. Also in the history of those other
anonymous architects (Rudofsky, 1964) who have given us a repertoire of popular Architecture: beautiful constructions born from the necessity and with the environment.
In these Mediterranean Houses, with very simple architectonic operations, a language is constructed where the pleasure coexists with the austerity of resources and effort as it is
appropiate in a region like the Mediterranean one, where the economy is so unstable. Thus, a
horizontal plane on the landscape, the sea, the light, a stone wall, a tree, or a shade, belong
to a decalogue whose importance does not reside in the fact them to have received but in the
generous responsibility of knowledge that we must inherit from them. The city and Mediterranean architecture, in either border, keep on giving us architectural lessons.

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REFERENCE LIST
Rudofsky, B.; Architecture withow architects, Museum of modern art, New York, 1964.
Garca Mercadal, F.; La Casa Mediterrnea, Madrid, 1984.
Garca Snchez, J.F.; La escasez en el desierto, P+C: Proyecto y Ciudad, revista de temas
de arquitectura, nm. 1, pg. 83. Madrid, 2010.
Garca Snchez, J.F.; El paisaje delineado de Dimitris Pikionis, el arquitecto silencioso,
P+C: Proyecto y Ciudad, revista de temas de arquitectura, nm. 2, pg. 105. Madrid,
2011.
Lejeune, J.F, Sabatino, M.; Modern Architecture and the mediterranean. Vernacular dialogues and contested identities. USA, 2009.

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