La casa del arquitecto

Laburpena

The aim of this thesis is to study the relationship between the man and the house, through the example of eight great architects. This relationship remains undamaged in our times, because it tells of something as deep and essential of the human condition as the refuge’s need is. Our house is still the place we run away, and from it we observe and put order in the world. Through this study I would try to extract some values to give live to this relationship, that has become nowadays poor in the cause of the nature’s distance. The architects have to know how to restore the harmony with the nature, that has disappeared in most of our dwellings. In the words and works of the great masters we find lot of good lessons about it, but it has to be in their own houses where their example appears, without intermediaries, more clear and intense. To build for one self makes undoubtedly more free works, but this architects don’t give up their responsability and in the own house project they put forward something exemplar, that always becomes a reference point in their professional career. In spite of this relationship between the own house and the rest of the architect’s work is very important, it is not contemplated as the purpose of this thesis. On the contrary, a new manner of build and confront the existence is made in this projects, and with conviction, the architect risks -with his family- his professional and personal future. This approaches more the aim of this work, that consists in to observe with this vital relationship between the man, the builder, and the house, the built object, that in every case takes form in a very personal story. The presented works have been build in the XXth century and the architect’s values related to his work and life were still in use today. From the beginnings of this century the order between art and life has changed. Life is not more an instrument to get some ideal, and has acquired worth by one self. The role’s artist has changed too and now he has to propose his own world’s vision. This is the point of view used to organize the chapters and to observe the different examples that are, in this order, the Rudolph M. Schindler’s house in Los Angeles, the Cabanon of Le Corbusier in the Cap Martin, the Luis Barragan’s house and study in Tacubaya, the Marcel Breuer’s house of wood in New Canaan, and the Erik Gunnar Asplund’s one in Stënnas. Then the Mies van der Rohe project for a house in the mountains and the Luigi Figini’s manifesto in Milan. Finally the Mogens Lassen’s residence in Copenhague is presented with some unpublished drawings and photographs. All the examples have been selected in order to explain clearly the relationship between the dwelling and the inhabitant. Lot of other great examples were rejected because this relation seem not to be enough intense. The disparity in the subjects is due to the different aspects considered, and shows the freedom in live and build we have conquist in our era. This is, with other worths and common attitudes, what is presented to end the study.