Anatomic Incision Into the Memory of an Image

architects José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, Elías Torres Tur
project Escalator Granja, Toledo, Spain
written by Ante Nikša BIlić

The architecture of Lapeña / Torres takes over our mood without us feeling obliged to argue about its theoretical principles or its precision on discovering the harsh reality of a site or a project. Their architecture conquers our senses – it impregnates us. We suddenly feel immersed in a sensation that we identify as the direct experience of architecture – curiously enough, without having the weight of the construction imposed on us.

Rafael Moneo, epilogue – El Croquis, 61, IV 1993.

 

Architects José Antonio Martínez Lapeña and Elías Torres Tur belong to the Spanish architectural boom, the miracle that has been fascinating us since the mid-1980s. After all, European architecture can rely only on the Pyrenean and the Flemish architectures to represent it on the global architectural scene.