Opening borders. Spanish design in MD Moebel Interior Design (1961–1970)

Abstract

In the late 1930s, Spain suffered a civil war that led to the establishment of a dictatorship until 1975. In 1959, after the first stage of isolation from other Western powers, the country began the second period of openness to the outside world. In this context, Spain began to participate in several international exhibitions. At the same time, in the 1950s, great personalities such as Sartoris, Zevi, and Ponti visited the country, providing Spanish architects of the time with a breath of fresh air. This international contact and an atmosphere of openness led to the consolidation of design as a discipline through two organizations, SEDI (Sociedad de Estudios para Diseño Industrial [Society of Industrial Design Studies]) and IBID (Institut de Disseny Industrial de Barcelona [Barcelona Institute of Industrial Design]), created in 1957. This institution created the Delta Awards, in 1961, which recognized, throughout its duration, many icons of Spanish design. That same year Catalan architects Bohigas and Martorell began an interesting collaboration with the German magazine Moebel Interior Design. Martorell, Bohigas, and Mackay, the latter joining in 1963, were the magazine’s Spanish correspondents until 1970. During this period they published around thirty reports showing Spanish achievements in the field of design. This paper sets out to analyse this episode, exploring the events that led to it, as well as the clues to understand the magazine’s interest in Spanish design and the image that it projected abroad, as a sign of the opening up of both, the country and the discipline.

Keywords:

• Spain
• design
• interiors
• Moebel interior design
• 60s

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture.

2 Although the success achieved by Spanish architects in their installations is noteworthy, other national proposals were awarded prizes in different sections: in 1954, the Talgo train won the Grand Prize in the Architecture in Movement Section and the sculptures of Eduardo Chillida won the Diploma of Honour; three years later, the works of the ceramist Cumella (Gold Medal), the products of the Loewe brand and the textile proposals of Clara Szabo (Silver Medal) were also awarded prizes.

3 Sociedad de Estudios para Diseño Industrial [Society of Industrial Design Studies] (SEDI) was founded in Madrid in 1957 and continued its activities until 1961. Driven by Carlos de Miguel, Luis M. Feduchi and Javier Carvajal, together with other architects and in collaboration with some Spanish companies, it was born with the aim of creating a theoretical and cultural body on the new discipline and to design and market products to favor the change in the taste of the Spanish people and influence the renovation of the interior space. Also that same year the Institut de Disseny Industrial de Barcelona [Barcelona Institute of Industrial Design] (IDIB) was created in Barcelona, promoted by Grupo R, with some of its members on the board, such as Antoni Moragas (president) and Oriol Bohigas (member).

4 IDIB was integrated as ADI in the Catalan association FAD (Foment de les Arts Decoratives [Promotion of decorative arts]), founded in 1903. This union gave rise in 1960 to the ADI FAD (Agrupación de Diseño Español del FAD [Spanish Design Group of the FAD]), which watched over the development and viability of the discipline of industrial design in Spain.

5 The Delta Awards were inspired by the Italian Compasso d’Oro awards created in 1954 by Gio Ponti and established by the Milanese department store La Rinascente.

6 This statement is supported by a broader study, carried out by one of the authors, who has analysed the reception and diffusion of Spanish architecture in Western architectural culture through what was published about Spain in 180 international magazines between the 1950s and the 1980s.

7 The R Group was founded in 1951 and remained active until 1961. It was formed by architects José Antonio Coderch, Antoni de Moragas, Josep Maria Sostres, Josep Pratmarsó, Francisco Juan Barba Corsini, Joaquín Gili, Manuel Valls, Oriol Bohigas and Josep Martorell, among others. The group promoted various initiatives (exhibitions, conferences and competitions) to adapt Mediterranean roots to contemporary architecture, interiors and design. In this regard, it is worth noting that, following a visit by Ponti, the R Group promoted the creation of the IDIB in 1957. The group also came into contact with other international figures such as Sartoris (1949), Zevi (1950), Aalto (1951), Pevsner (1952) and Roth (1955), who were invited by Moragas to give lectures at the Professional Association of Architects of Catalonia. The architects in the group lacked a unity of style; however, some of them contributed to the internationalisation of Spanish architecture and design through the publication of their works in various foreign magazines. One example is Domus, which, as already mentioned, gave great visibility to Coderch's buildings, but also to those of other Catalan architects.

8 David Mackay joined them in January 1963. Up to this point the articles in the German magazine appeared under the Martorell–Bohigas signature, so from that date onwards Mackay’s signature was also incorporated. In addition, the three architects founded the architectural firm MBM Arquitectes in Barcelona in 1962.

9 The journal will be referenced hereafter by the initialism MD.

10 Milan (Italy), Birkerød (Denmark), Warsaw (Poland), Montreal (Canada), Oslo (Norway), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), Barcelona (Spain), Zagreb (Croatia), Beirut (Lebanon), Paris (France), New Zealand, Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), Kamakura (Japan).

11 In fact, the magazine continues to be published today.

12 It is known that some of the content of MD, such as news about EXCO and the Delta Awards, was also published in other magazines of the time, such as Hogar and Arquitectura. However, the present research focuses on the magazines Arquitectura and Cuadernos de Arquitectura, because both belong to the official architects’ associations of the areas in which they are published: Madrid and Catalonia.

13 Arquitectura published an article illustrated with a floor plan of the building, and Cuadernos de Arquitectura published a complete issue. In contrast to the article in Arquitectura magazine, MD published a much longer one.

14 While Arquitectura published an article with a selection of awards for the years 1961, 1962 and 1963, Cuadernos de Arquitectura devoted several articles to each edition. An example is one published in the first edition in 1961.

15 EXCO (Permanent Exhibitions and Construction Information) was an initiative developed in 1960 in response to the challenges of domestic space in Spain. Interrupted in the 1930s, it was promoted again by the Ministry of Housing and Carlos de Miguel, director of the magazine Arquitectura from 1959 to 1973. Among the proposals promoted by EXCO was the “Competition of furniture for economic housing,” after which it organized an exhibition dedicated to “Home Environments and Domestic Equipment,” which showed different interiors of reduced dimensions designed by architects and furniture companies to show comfortable, practical, economical and pleasant spaces.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

María Villanueva Fernández

María Villanueva Fernández, PhD in Architecture from University of Navarra, graduated with Honors in the Final Project and the Luis Moya Blanco Fin de Carrera Award. Professor at University of Navarra, where she has been teaching at the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering at TECNUN, the Executive Master in Management of Fashion Businesses at ISEM Fashion Business School and the Faculty of Communication. She has focused her research on the history and theory of 20th century design, specifically the work of Spanish architects in design and the limits of this discipline with art and architecture. She has disseminated her research in several international conferences and has published various book chapters and articles in indexed magazines such as EGA, PPA, RA, Rita_redfundamentos, Boletín Académico, Res Mobilis, Constelaciones and Estoa. She is the author of the book Una Caracterización del mueble moderno (2020, EUNSA). She has been a visiting researcher at AA, London, at the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles), at the GSAPP Columbia University (New York) as visiting scholar and at ensapbx, Bordeaux. She is member of the Separata research group.

Pablo Arza Garaloces

Pablo Arza Garaloces is an architect and assistant professor in the History of Architecture at the School of Architecture, University of Navarra. He has obtained a Master’s Degree in Theory and History of Architecture (2012) and he has received his PhD in Architectural History from the University of Navarra in 2017. His research interests include 20th century Spanish architecture, architectural historiography and the process of reception and diffusion of architecture, with a focus on professional periodicals. He has presented his research in international conferences, most recently at the 16th International docomomo Conference (Tokyo, 2021), the 6th European Architectural History Network International Conference (Edinburgh, 2021) and the 36th Annual Conference of Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (Sydney, 2019). His research has appeared in various academic publications such as Rita_redfundamentos, Cuaderno de Notas and Bitácora Arquitectura.Email: [email protected]