“To Think and to Do” in the architectural drawing of Antonio Flórez Urdapilleta (1879-1941)

Abstract

Nowadays, the name of Antonio Flórez has a significant value for us. In both aspects of his work as an architect –school buildings and intervention in remarkable monuments– drawing played a predominant role. In this paper, we shall discuss the far-reaching import of this fact. To the interest of his professional drawings, in line with the idea of architecture that he proposed, it is necessary to add the esthetic value of his manner of wielding his pencil. In Flórez, we always find the architect drawing –thought and action–; but, at the same time, there is also the act of the artist (a figure he always felt close to, and whose training he held was rooted in that of the architect). Even given his uniqueness and his skill in drawing and watercolour, Flórez is nevertheless a clear testimony of what the practice of drawing represented for the architects trained at the Madrid School of Architecture, in the first decades of the 20th century.

Keywords

• dibujo de arquitectura
• arquitectura española del siglo xx
• arquitectura escolar
• intervención en el patrimonio
• antonio flórez
• escuela de arquitectura de madrid