Living, Creating, Enjoying: Villa Gloria by Harnden and Bombelli in Cadaqués (1959)

Abstract

Peter G. Harnden and Lanfranco Bombelli, the architects responsible for the U.S. government's post-World War II propaganda campaigns on European soil, settled in Cadaqués in the late 1950s. This peculiar partnership of itinerant stateless people shaped some of the most remarkable examples of Cadaqués’ architecture of the last century. Works that were able to be respectful with the “old” architecture of Cadaqués without renouncing to an uninhibited modernity. The text presented here seeks to delve into the construction that acted as the seed for the rest of his work: the house that both built for themselves upon their arrival in the Spanish small town. A project that would later be the model for several houses that both architects carried out for the growing colony of foreigners that arrived in this magical corner of the peninsular periphery. The analysis is relevant given that none has been carried out in depth before. In addition, it is a unique example of balanced architecture, one of great solidity in its fundamental principles. Finally, the study will remark the vernacular characterization of the presented architecture: a construction halfway between José A. Coderch's discourse of "It’s not geniuses what we need these days" and Kenneth Frampton's “critical regionalism.”

Keywords

• harnden
• bombelli
• cadaqués
• villa gloria
• mediterráneo