The Journal of Architecture

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Typology in the context of three projects: San

Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez

Rafael Moneo

To cite this article: Rafael Moneo (2015) Typology in the context of three projects:
San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez, The Journal of Architecture, 20:6, 1067-1087, DOI:
10.1080/13602365.2015.1116347

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Published online: 22 Jan 2016.

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 1067

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of Architecture
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Number 6

Essay
Typology in the context of three
projects: San Sebastian, Lacua,
Aranjuez
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Rafael Moneo

A return to the topic of typology takes me back to But before going directly to discuss my work, I
the 1960s when it first surfaced. I clearly remember would like to revisit the architectural atmosphere
the impact that the Italian theoretician Aldo Rossi of the 1970s and 1980s. In my view, one of the
had on architects of my generation and the enthu- primary motives behind Rossi’s L’Architettura della
siasm he produced in Spanish architecture schools. Città was to endow the disciplines of ‘planning
And looking back on the hard, almost harsh and urban design’ with the status of a positive
images, that filled the magazines of those years, science, elevating what was a rather imprecisely
I have to admit a certain surprise at how faithfully defined field to the level of sociology, linguistics or
the trend was followed. Today it is hard to under- anthropology. As a handbook, it offered a general
stand how Rossi and the architects of the Tendenza theory of the city. Influenced by the Marxist ideology
generated so much enthusiasm. Personally, at that that dominated the architectural profession in Italy,
time, I felt the strong influence of their arguments Rossi renounced the idea of architectural practice
but, as I review my work from the period, I am based on individual aesthetical preferences and
relieved to see that the way I interpreted them introduced an alternative discipline founded on ‘a
resulted in a less rigid architecture than that which science of the city’, thereby displacing the prevalent
characterised the works of this period. Italian conviction in the notion of space as the
To illustrate my point, I will introduce 3 projects driving force for understanding architecture.1
from this time where the notion of type is not mani- In his introduction, Rossi states this ambition
fest in a rigid and repetitive image, but rather clearly, and describes his handbook on ‘planning
appears as a structure from which the design devel- and urban design’ as the ‘base for a positive study
ops naturally. The first project, San Sebastian, is of the city’. He continues: ’I am inclined to believe
based on a rather well-defined typological structure. that urban science, understood in this way, could
The second, Lacua, investigates how a well-known be a chapter of historical culture and because of its
type can generate a more complex structure in comprehensive character, one of the most valu-
order to create urban architecture. And the third, able’.2 Rossi sought to establish the basis for the
Aranjuez, illustrates how the typological under- ‘city science’ on a footing similar to that of a positive
standing of an historical city creates a strategy for science, so making it an objective—and empirical—
future interventions. In retrospect, I do not think field of knowledge. Such a bold endeavour required
any of them resemble the hard and radical images solid foundations and Rossi made clear his refer-
typical of the Tendenza but instead adapt the ences: geographers and sociologists, linguists and
concept of type to different conditions, providing anthropologists, as well as architectural historians
valuable indications for the practice of design. such as Pierre Lavedan, Marcel Pöete, Steen Eiler

# 2015 RIBA Enterprises 1360-2365 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2015.1116347

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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Rasmussen, and ultimately some classic theoreti- cated to ‘primary elements’. And there are
cians such as A.-C. Quatremère de Quincy and J.N. examples of the most touching expressions with
L. Durand. (And, naturally, Karl Marx and Antonio respect to ‘urban facts’ such as when he writes ‘
Gramsci.) … urban facts have their own life, their own fate.
But the relevance of these references—as the Go to an orphanage: pain is there as something
basis for this renovated discipline—depended upon palpable. It is there in the walls, in the courtyards,
an understanding of what Rossi called fatti urbani. in the rooms’.7 But aside from this personal testi-
‘Urban facts are everywhere in the city. They are a mony, his perspective is more abstract and objec-
palace, a street, a neighbourhood—but try to describe tive than sentimental. This is also true of the third
them. They are complex and it is easier to analyse and fourth chapters. There, Rossi speaks overtly of
them than to define them’.3 Their presence constitu- ‘architecture as a science’, and offers Claude-
tes the city. And they exist in many different scales. Nicolas Ledoux and Eugene Viollet-le-Duc as proof
But Rossi insists that ‘ … the whole is more important of such an approach. The almost scientific
than the parts’ and therefore ‘ … we ought to approach employed by Viollet-le-Duc in his descrip-
examine all architecture as a whole by parts’.4 tions of buildings could still be found in people like
And the fatti urbani bring Rossi to introduce the Albert Demangeon when talking about rural archi-
concept of type, which will become central to his tecture. Rossi also adds Le Corbusier who, when
argument about how the city is built. For him, type talking of the machine à habiter revives ‘the positi-
is ‘ … the idea itself of architecture, that which is vist teaching of the French school based on the
closest to its essence and therefore what, in spite study of the real’.8 If the second and third chapter
of change, has always imposed itself, over feeling could be judged as programmatic, the fourth can
and reason, as the principal of architecture and the be seen as an attempt to introduce the ‘urban
city’.5 The notion of type leads Rossi to the idea of science’ in its natural setting as part of the political
‘monument’ as an explanation of the singular and realm. Rossi cites Maurice Halbwachs for his recog-
specific work of art and the permanence of cities nition of the city as the result of a continuum of pol-
in time. These monuments allow him to establish itical choices. And he poses the question: ‘If the
his proposal of the ‘urban facts’ as ‘works of art’, architecture of urban facts is the construction of
continuously alive in the city. As Rossi frequently the city, how is it possible that its most crucial
emphasised ‘ … from the very beginning I want to element, politics, is absent from this construc-
say that there is something in the nature of the tion?’.9 Rossi answers his own question by stating
“urban facts” that makes them quite similar, not that politics are inherent to the foundation of
merely metaphorically, to works of art’.6 cities. This reaffirmation, achieved by applying the
The basis of his analysis of ‘urban facts’ is more ‘science of the city’, concludes in irrefutably
ambiguous. Rossi makes reference to the work of Marxist terms, something that he surely intended
geographers and sociologists in the chapter dedi- from the outset.
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Figure 1. General plan

for a proposed
residential
neighbourhood in the
Kaserne Area of Zurich
by Thierry Roze (1973);
designed under Aldo
Rossi at the Federal
Polytechnic Institute
Zurich: in Architettura
Razionale: XV Triennale
di Milano, Sezione
Internazionale di
Architettura (Mailand,
Franco Angeli Editore,
1973). (# Eredi Aldo
Rossi. Courtesy
Fondazione Aldo Rossi.)

But even though L’Architettura della Città is tettura Razionale, the catalogue for the XV Triennale
perhaps the most celebrated text exploring typology, di Milano.10 Rossi wrote the introduction, changing
it should not be forgotten that the notion of type the rather scholastic tone of L’Architettura della Città
and morphology had permeated Italian architectural for another spirit closer to that of a true manifesto.
culture and had appeared in the texts of Ernesto Rossi recognised the value of the Modern Move-
Rogers, Giulio Carlo Argan, Carlo Aymonino, Vit- ment—represented by people such as Hannes
torio Gregotti, Giorgio Grassi, Ezio Bonfanti and Meyer, Ludwig Hilberseimer, Hans Schmidt, or
many others. But what I would like to emphasise is Ernst May among others—who were the true prota-
that in 1973 the notion of type was consolidated, gonists of Architettura Razionale. Their work was
practically as a popular trend, with the book Archi- seen as the result of the ‘science of the city’ as por-
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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 2. Proposed phy and typology. The directions for an appropriate

ground and first-floor development of architecture’.11 With history first,
plan for housing types
but also with ‘the elements apparently alien but
in Pavia by Rosaldo
Bonicalzi and Gianni still connected with architecture such as geometry,
Braghieri (1970); which has a precise historical meaning … . in this
graduation project research on type, as the basis for architecture’.12
under Giorgio Grassi as Typology emerges from this introduction as the
part of research led by
key notion for understanding architecture: ‘We
Aldo Rossi: in
Architettura Razionale: ought to pursue this typological discourse as a
XV Triennale di Milano, specific target at the inside of the design, that it is
Sezione Internazionale there—in the research of typology—where the
di Architettura design resides’.13
(Mailand, Franco Angeli
But this clarity with which the principles are stated
Editore, 1973). (# Eredi
Aldo Rossi. Courtesy is not found in the selection of work featured in
Fondazione Aldo Rossi.) the exhibition catalogue. In the first chapter, ‘The
Legacy of Rationalism’, Adolf Behne includes
Ernesto Rogers, J.J.P. Oud, Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, Bruno Taut, Adolf Loos, Moses Ginzburg,
Hannes Meyer, Giuseppe Terragni and Le Corbusier,
with La Tourette among others, as well as an article
by Rosaldo Bonicalzi with drawings by Rossi and
Massimo Scolari together with those of the great
masters, Le Corbusier and Hilberseimer. The second
chapter, ‘Rationalism and New Architecture’, fea-
tures another group of architects: Leon and Robert
Krier, James Stirling, Leslie Martin, Giuseppe
Samona, Oswald M. Ungers, Peter Eisenman,
Robert Gwathmey, John Hejduk, Richard Meier,
Gianugo Polesello, Bruno Reichlin, M. Reinhart,
Adolfo Natalini, Ludwig Leo, Aldo Rossi, Jürgen
Sawade, José Charters, Ernst Gisel, Carlo Aymonino,
Max Bill, Salvatore Bisogni, Giorgio Grassi … a
trayed in L’Architettura della Città. Rossi described mixture that speaks more of academic contacts
the book as ‘ … a patient work which started than of any truly structured and consolidated
from historic analysis, extending to the city, topogra- group. Scolari’s Avanguardia e Nuova Architettura
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Figure 3. Site plan of

the Urumea Residential
Building (1968–1973),
including the Kursaal
Concert Hall and
Convention Centre.

is perhaps the most worthwhile text in the book and be called functional and, inverting the terms of a
makes a clear defence of the notion of type. He known axiom, the ‘nuova architettura’ will show
states: that the function follows form.14
… the type is able to be rationalised and to be And understandably, after such a powerful state-
defined with its rules; and in addition to that, it ment, Scolari speaks of a ‘trattato di composizione’
evokes the form and scope to be crystallised in to be written in the future. Once elaborated a
the model and in the meantime it becomes unex- ‘teoria dell’architettura’ based on the principles
pectedly enriched. And if it is true that the content commented on—and among them monument,
of form is the form itself, and that beauty is the type, the city as a fabric and their intimate relation-
best addition to the useful, it can be said that a ship—it would be possible to define a ‘trattato di
beautiful form has a formal content which could composizione’ where certain rules would be estab-
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San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 4. A typical What does it mean? That at the beginning of the

nineteenth-century 1970s—in 1973 to be precise—typology was under-
block in San Sebastián
stood as an effective concept for establishing a
(top) and Secundino
Zuazo, Casa de las general theory of architecture beyond simple histori-
Flores, Madrid, 1930 cism. And as a confirmation, the third chapter
(bottom). offered student work from the Italian schools of archi-
tecture. Without judging the work in the catalogue, it is
nonetheless appropriate to say that the established
principles were responsible for unsettling images of
what cities could be. But regardless, at least in Italy,
typology and morphology were the keys to ‘the
science of the city’ that Rossi, with his idealism, was
seeking.

******

But what would be the true representation of this

theoretical and intellectual trend? What were the
examples produced from the typological point of
view? Using some images from L’Architettura Razio-
nale we can confirm that the result was a weak illus-
tration of the ideas expressed by those who wrote so
extensively about type and morphology. What we
have before us is, at its best, a distant copy of the
German Siedlungen or some attempts to replicate
the traditional city in the not particularly convincing
images of Leon Krier. In addition, Daniele Vitale
offers a selection of academic exercises including
examples from Pescara, Rome, Naples, Zurich,
Berlin and Milan (figs 1, 2).
As a result of these discouraging examples, the
lished: ‘architecture’s indifference to use in relation- followers of the Tendenza opened the door to the
ship with type as a principle of architecture; the ill-fated alternatives of post-modernism. Only Rossi,
type’s adaptability as a continuous issue; the alien- as an individual, isolated artist, remained relevant.
ation between the model and its parts’.15 Was there no other architecture to be created from
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Figure 5. Front
elevation, typical plan
and cross section of the
Urumea Residential
Building (1968–1973).
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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 6. Diagram A
(left) and Diagram B
(right), Urumea
Residential Building
(1968–1973).

these principles? I would like to offer you three design was restricted by the norm. The urban plan-
examples of my work where the notion of type is ners believed that the nineteenth-century layouts
developed in other directions. would resolve the dichotomy of public and private,
entrusting the decorum of the architecture to
San Sebastián/Urumea conceal the inevitable discord derived from the
In San Sebastián, the notion of type appears first in former land divisions. Thus, urban planners made
the nineteenth-century urban blocks. Like many the city blocks responsible for safeguarding private
other blocks of urban grid extensions of the nine- ownership of the land: as long as everyone followed
teenth century, those of San Sebastián embodied the regulations on height, depth and courtyards, the
the quest for regularity with its guiding principles private initiative could proceed freely on each
of equality and homogeneity. Therefore, these parcel. Thus the homogeneity of the new city grid,
blocks allowed the quintessential bourgeois virtues based on a restrictive set of rules and regulations,
of discretion and decorum to make their appear- concealed the multiplicity and diversity of the indi-
ance in a series of façades whose freedom of vidual buildings.
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Figure 7. View of
Urumea Residential
Building from República
Argentina Avenue
(photograph by Michael
Moran; # Michael
Moran).

All of these reflections would lead to the design of These works broke up the structure of the block by
a schematic diagram of the formal structure of a dividing it into different plots, as if they were a col-
typical nineteenth-century city block. The owners, lection of separate parcels. The regular, homo-
and architects, operated within a series of typologi- geneous blocks, either the result of joining
cal canons that adapted to different block sizes, different parcels or of dividing one single property,
respecting an overall height and depth of twenty were created through ‘fictitious’ plots that allowed
metres. Yet this homogeneity is more apparent the application of conventional typologies. The
than real: the block simply ensures urban decorum, examples of cohesive blocks in Spain, such as Secun-
yet the parcels it occupies retain their independence. dino Zuazo’s Casa de las Flores in Madrid, show that
There are well-known examples of works that the architects designed homogeneous façades while
tried to endow a unitary condition to the block but dividing the sites into plots and proceeded as if they
only managed to provide unity to the façades. were reconstructing a conventional city block. In
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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 8. Urumea while offering a figurative unity for the ensemble

Residential Building with the façade. Yet my conviction, based on typolo-
(photograph by Michael
gical principles, that the project for a block could be
Moran; # Michael
Moran). approached from a more general perspective, led to
the exploration of a formal structure that would
create a cohesive solution both for the exterior as
well as for the floor plan and the interior organis-
ation of the housing.
Two diagrams clearly illustrate where the intended
typological change took place. In Diagram A, each
one of the living units has a shared stairwell, a
shared lift and a shared courtyard. Each also has
independent access. This design produces a familiar
type of flat where the living areas face the façade,
the kitchens turn to the light well, and the bedrooms
open onto the courtyard in the interior of the block.
In Diagram B, the separation between lifts and
service lifts/stairs results in each dwelling unit
having to share those with its neighbouring flat
while preserving the independence of the light
well, onto which only one flat looks out. Providing
independent access to the passenger lift, the
service lift and the stairs created a new layout for
the programme. The flats produced by this new
formal structure of the city block feature a living
other words, the formal unity achieved in the room with windows on the main façade; a kitchen,
exterior did not carry over to the typology of the a family room and bathrooms facing the light well;
housing itself. The façades, with their apparent and four bedrooms at the back, two facing the
homogeneity, unified a divided, segmented inner main courtyard inside the block and two facing the
structure. light well. It is important to note the considerable
The issue of the contradictory nature of this improvement introduced by having windows from
housing-block type was the point of departure for only one flat facing the light wells, facilitating the
addressing the Urumea Residential Housing privacy of each household.
project. The typical response to the programme As is apparent from the diagrams, the challenge
would have been to establish plot subdivisions was the design of the corner where the perpendicular
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Figure 9. Lacua, site

plan including other
proposals (Bofill among
them); Competition
‘Actur de Lacua’, Vitoria
1977: First prize. Rafael
Moneo and Manuel
Solá-Morales.

alignment to the façade had to be maintained. Resol- design of the plan. The structure’s continuity called
ving the new façade alignment resulted in a complex for providing shared access to the passenger and
system of patios, one of them common to the three service lifts, which contributed to reinforcing the
flats that shared the stairwell and the service lift. unity of the entire block, as the programme implicitly
The design of the corner was solved without stressing required. Conversely, as the sections show, the
its outer appearance, but strictly focusing on the shared entrance created a level for access to the
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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 10. Lacua,

suburban development:
model.

vertical communication elements that did not opments where the site conditions are not as well
coincide with the street level (figs 3–8). defined as in the city centre.
The notion of type leads to a succession of plans,
based on an original layout that is modified by the
Vitoria/Lacua changing disposition of the stair. The private charac-
In Lacua, an investigation of the well-known housing ter given to the housing units by the quasi-individual,
type, the terraced house, offers the basis of the independent entrances, the open landscaped spaces
design process that seeks to achieve a dense, low- combined with the variety of the programme served
rise development with a variety of units. The goal as the basis for the development. The importance of
was to propose an effective suburban model that other familiar elements such as houses, gardens,
would result in a strong formal image, providing shops, schools, streets, passageways and parks com-
amenities that are often lacking in suburban devel- plete the occupation of this fragment of territory.
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Figure 11. Lacua,

general plan.

Thus, the essential character of the development public character that is also present in its private
originates from the full utilisation of the land. It is use, something often admired in nineteenth-
‘city making’ that insists on continuous occupation, century cities. Thanks to this hybrid quality, inter-
based on a sequence of qualified division of a prede- mediate elements such as passageways, gardens,
termined regular area. The objective was to prepare galleries and stairs provide the visual richness
the land to suit the project geometry, to conceive a common to the garden cities typical of the period
city built with houses. between the two world wars.
Each of the four rows assumes a specific position, The terraced-house construction loses its auton-
further characterised by the geometry of the cross omous character once it is subjected to other
streets. The architecture is complemented by urban orders. In the case of the parking structure, it is an
elements such as fencing, paving, borders, street order based on the living units and the city/road
lamps and railings that play a primary role in the grid. Located in the basement, the parking reveals
project. Their regularity lends the urban space a a section that explains the way we have overlapped
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Typology in the context of three projects:

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Figure 12. Lacua,

residential development
proposal: plans and
sections.

the terraced houses, offering the appearance of a created all the possible combinations that are rep-
more complex structure. resented in the table, showing how a clear manipu-
With this kind of approach, the design dimensions lation of the concept of type provides a rich variety of
are critical. The modular interval between wall and possibilities of an established typology (figs 9–14).
wall, was established as 6.3 m. Within this structure
the key element became the main stairs, connecting Aranjuez
the overlapping terraced houses. Once the design of The knowledge of the planned city of Aranjuez
the main stair had been established, the private stairs helped to establish the norms for further interven-
connecting the different floors provided the differences tions. The Old City of Aranjuez is characterised by
in plan. Three types of main stairs—central stair, switch- several specific attributes. It was planned as an ex
back stair, transversal stair—were considered and inter- novo city on a Royal estate that was built and occu-
twined with the four possible types of private stairs, pied in the brief time frame between 1760 and
which in turn, provided a series of partitions. This 1860. The plan was designed and implemented by
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Figure 13. Lacua,

diagram of typologies:
changes in the stairs
allow for variety in the
houses, producing the
present tree.

the King´s architects—Bonavia, Sabatini and Villa- grid. This grid itself defines the city blocks,
nueva—maintaining a consistent idea of what a divided in plots, that already suggest a certain
city should be. This vision was enhanced by the typology. Buildings are developed from the idea
abundance of public buildings and monuments of the courtyard, created from the outer double
which structure the urban fabric. bay along the building perimeter and a single
Aranjuez is a city plan based on the interaction bay along the interior courtyards. Each plot is
between alignments, accesses and the urban developed independently and yet the sum result
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San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 14. Lacua,

sectional model.

is a unified block (unity of façades, cornices, double and single bays fulfilling all the building
heights, etc.) so establishing a peculiar urban mor- norms (figs 15–20).
phology where the parcel, flat, block and city are
produced with coherence, responding to a precon- Postscript: the concept of type-forms in
ceived idea. This typology is developed homoge- George Kubler’s The Shape of Time
neously and is responsible for the character of Architects were also encouraged to think in typolo-
the old city. gical terms by the discussion of methodology sus-
A respect for these principles of homogeneity and tained by the art historians. After many critics
continuity is the basis for the new codes that estab- established the absolute priority of pure visual con-
lish how any new constructions respect the block— siderations—perhaps Konrad Fiedler and Heinrich
considered as a unit—as formed by a system of Wöfflin are the most characteristic figures of this
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Figure 15. Zoning plan

for the conservation of
the historic centre of
Aranjuez, 1981:
R. Moneo, M. Solá
Morales, J. Busquets, J.J.
Echeverría, M. Salinas.

trend—the more eclectic and culturally oriented applied to their own work. The concept of building
group at the Warburg Institute began to emphasise type was the natural translation of what historians
the relevance of the iconographic and iconologic were doing when studying and classifying works of
content of art, allowing a proper identification of art. I believe these explorations of this approach by
the shared symbolic work behind it. Among them art historians influenced architects in their thinking
a collection of British and German scholars—Fritz about typology during the 1960s.
Saxl, Rudolf Wittkower, Edgar Wind, Richard
Krautheimer, Anthony Blunt, Ernst Gombrich, to ******
mention a few—sought to evaluate the meaning
of art in the context of what Erwin Panofsky And among these historians and theoreticians who
defined as iconographic and iconological studies. helped architects to think about types, we should
The gaze upon works of art now identified their lit- underline the work of George Kubler and his book
erary and metaphorical content, allowing the artist The Shape of Time.16 I remember my surprise
to establish a frame of reference. The iconographic when I became acquainted with this book. It
and iconological studies became a broad field begins with this remarkable paragraph:
which allowed the classification of works of art Let us suppose that the idea of art can be expanded
without losing the concept of singularity provided to embrace the whole range of man-made things,
by each individual artist. Architects promptly felt including all tools and writing in addition to the
that this concept of shared content could also be useless, beautiful and poetic things of the world.
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Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 16. Historic

centre of Aranjuez,
conservation ordinance:

1. Historical-artistic
monuments (left);
2. Buildings or city blocks
of historical or typolo-
gical interest (centre);
3. Buildings or city
blocks of environ-
mental significance
(right).

By this view the universe of man-made things through shapes that we capture when studying a
simply coincides with the history of art. It then series of objects or works of art. Time is legible
becomes an urgent requirement to devise better through them. The historian tries to record the
ways of considering everything men have made. passing of time, not in reference to events, but
This we may achieve sooner by proceeding from through the visible forms of objects with which we
art rather than from use, for if we depart from live. And, similarly, architects can see that buildings
use alone, all useless things are overlooked, but if confirm this durability of forms when naming and
we take the desirableness of things as our point classifying buildings by type. To recognise type-
of departure, then useful objects are properly forms is to be aware of being immersed in time.
seen as things we value more or less dearly.17 To be aware of time as deposited in form is essential
And among those things produced by mankind, we for architects as well as craftsmen and artists. The
must include all that we have built and that we call expression of our feelings and thoughts in a specific
architecture. For anyone, such as myself, intrigued moment is manifested in the form of types, inherited
by the nature of building—halfway between a func- from others only to be modified with use.
tional tool and a work of art—The Shape of Time Kubler explains in his book the way things leave
became essential reading. Its ambitious goal was time’s traces in their form:
to explain the world produced by mankind through- A pleasure shared by artists, collectors and histor-
out time. Things, objects, works of art and eventually ians alike is the discovery that an ancient and inter-
buildings appear classified through series and type- esting work of art is not unique, but rather that like
forms, which evolve in time. And even more, time, it there exist several examples that spread in time,
the time passed, becomes visible in form. As a con- early or late, or that could be of high or low
sequence, the role of historians is to understand quality, in versions that are either antitypes or
how the physical remainders of the past that reach derivatives, originals or copies, transformations or
us today define the shape of time. Time is perceived variants. Much of our satisfaction comes, in this
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The Journal
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Volume 20
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Figure 17. Left:

Ordinance of
rehabilitation;
dimensions of
construction and codes
of its delineation;
definition of the parce’s
degree of occupation
and its relative
disposition.

Figure 18. Top right:

Ordinance of
rehabilitation; definition
of the axes of
modulation.

Figure 19. Bottom

right: Typological canon
of Aranjuez: divided city
block (left) and entire
city block (right); La
ciudad histórica de
Aranjuez: Una lectura
arquitectónica by Julio
Gómez and Javier M.
Atienza (Madrid, Doce
Calles, 2014).
 1086
Essay

Typology in the context of three projects:

San Sebastian, Lacua, Aranjuez
Rafael Moneo
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Figure 20. Aranjuez,

courtyard alternatives.

case, from the contemplation of a formal sequence, vation, either from new techniques or the unex-
of the intuitive sensation of prolonging and com- pected formal contribution of an individual.
pletion in the presence of a form in time.18 Supported by his profound knowledge of pre-
Kubler’s contribution is the identification of type- Colombian art and culture, Kubler is able to draw
forms which are produced as series. His interest in out the differences of what happened in chronologi-
the evolution of these series brings him to explore cal time between the forms of European culture and
how type-forms can change as a result of inno- in the recently discovered civilisations. Besides that,
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he is tempted to establish periods that allow him to Milan’s urban history, surely would have been known
look at the evolution of type-form through time to Rossi: G. de Finetti, Milano. Costruzione di una
independent of conventional chronology. Thus, the città, Giovanni Cisloghi, Mara di Benedetti, Piergiorgio
scholar is able to follow the succession of gener- Marabelli, eds (Milan, ETASS Kompas, 1964). The
prevalence of the notions of city/biography used to
ations of artists within a specific society whose
establish the significance of the work of urban planners
work continuously follows the patterns of well-
and architects appears in De Finetti’s work and fre-
defined type-forms.
quently coincides with the ideas Rossi develops in
Needless to say, this line of thought attracted L’Architettura della Città. Muratori’s Studi per una
architects who considered their work as something Operante Storia Urbana di Venezia (1960) should be
inevitably immersed in time, and far removed from also considered a clear precedent for Rossi’s argu-
the instantaneity and the unique identity that charac- ments.
terises the work of art. Architects know that they 2. Aldo Rossi, L’Architettura della città (Padua, Marsilio
work with ideas embedded in type-form which are Editori, 1966), p. 14.
the beginning of all design. It is these known type- 3. Ibid., p. 26.
forms that receive their first design impulses and 4. Ibid., p. 29.
5. Ibid., p. 33.
gradually this process produces a natural displace-
6. Ibid., p. 25.
ment of time on them. Time, captured in the physi-
7. Ibid., p. 112.
cality of the cities, allows us to identify clear and 8. Ibid., p. 124.
distinct type-forms and therefore explains how a 9. Ibid., p. 188.
book such as The Shape of Time could be welcome 10. Architettura Razionale, XV Triennale di Milano, Inter-
in the 1960s and 1970s for those architects inter- national Session on Architecture, contributions from
ested in typology. To recognise the impact of a [Sezione Internazionale di Architettura. Saggi di] Ezio
book like that is today an act of justice. Bonfanti, Rosaldo Bonicalzi, Aldo Rossi, Massimo
Scolari, Daniele Vitale (Milan, Franco Angeli Editore,
1973).
Acknowledgement
11. Ibid., Aldo Rossi, Introduction [Introduzione], p. 17.
Unless otherwise indicated, all illustrations have
12. Ibid., Aldo Rossi, Introduction [Introduzione], p. 18.
been provided by Rafael Moneo, arquitecto. 13. Ibid., Aldo Rossi, Introduction [Introduzione], p. 18.
14. Ibid., Massimo Scolari, Avant garde and new architec-
Notes and references ture [Avanguardia e nuova architettura], p. 183.
1. Although they are not cited in L’Architettura della 15. Ibid., Massimo Scolari, Avant garde and new architec-
Città, the works of Giuseppe de Finetti and Saverio ture [Avanguardia e nuova architettura], p. 185.
Muratori are clearly predecessors to Rossi’s book. Not 16. George Kubler, The Shape of Time (New Haven, Yale
published in its entirety until the late 1960s, the University Press, 1962).
content of De Finetti’s Milano. Costruzione di una 17. Ibid., p. 1.
città, a comprehensive and rigorous account of 18. Ibid., p. 45.