ONE HUNDRED YEARS WITH ALEJANDRO DE LA SOTA
One hundred years after his birth, the CGAC holds an exhibition devoted to Spanish architect Alejandro de la Sota (Pontevedra, Spain, 1913 - Madrid, Spain, 1996). The show, which is organised by ICO Foundation in collaboration with the Alejandro de la Sota Foundation, reflects on the man, his work, his teaching and perhaps most relevant of all, how relevant his legacy is today.
Alejandro de la Sota probably arouses more impassioned responses than any other Spanish architect. To his legendary status as an architect with a firm ethical stance in the profession must be added one of the most intense and consistent careers in the recent history of Spanish architecture. Although our circumstances are very different from his, his legacy is still there, ready to be used. Any reading of his work we attempt today will necessary entail updating him, and perhaps demystifying him, as we embrace and make our own his singular way of making the architecture that, as he argued, should be written with a lower-case a.