Rafael de la Hoz Arderius, Cañete de las Torres, Córdoba, Spain, 1962
213. Rafael de la Hoz Arderius /// Galán House /// Cañete de las Torres, Córdoba, Spain /// 1962 Of Houses guest curated by The Intertwining (Paula V. Álvarez Benítez,
Nuria Álvarez Lombardero, Álvaro Carrillo Eguilaz, David Arredondo
Garrido, Francisco González de Canales, Vincent Morales Garoffolo and
Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz): “What does it mean to be modern in a distant village of white washed walls
and stone? Let us remove industrialization, the absence of
ornamentation, functional specificity from modernism: what is left then?
These are the sort of issues when confronting this unclassifiable work
by Rafael de la Hoz —one of the architects who contributed the most to
modernist architecture in Spain. It is a house that comes to you like a
riddle: classical from the distance, modernist when close up. So, what
is it? Maybe there is no right answer. But, what we can find is the
opportunity to further look into what modernism really meant for De la
Hoz, what was non-negotiable for him, even in these apparently alien
contexts. Is it about rupture or dissolution? Façades that are drawn as a
single surface (with an idiosyncratic window on the corner), staircases
that wrap the entire experience of the space: continuity without
transparency. Two worlds clash, but some can only see one.” (Text: Francisco González de Canales and Nuria Álvarez Lombardero. Photos: Juan González de Canales. Historical pictures: Foto de Epoca. Archivo de la Diputación de Córdoba: Fondo De La Hoz-Olivares-Chastang.)
