Rodrigo de la Torre is a master stonemason whose main field of action is the conservation and restoration of monuments. Good examples of this are his interventions in many cathedrals, collegiate churches, churches and civic monuments located in Castilla y León, Aragón, Basque Country, Catalonia and the region of Valencia.
His family has been professionally linked to the field of construction for several generations, and, even if he never got to know him, his grandfather was, in fact, also a stonemason back in the day. Rodrigo was trained to become a stonemason in the Escola de Canteiros de Poio, Pontevedra, a very unique school in its kind in Spain.
The necessarily itinerant nature of his work during his over 30 years of professional career in the craft has taken Rodrigo to work mainly on site, adapting to the needs of each monument he came across. This means that he has had to work with different types of stone throughout the years, the adequate type for each of the buildings he has worked on. This has enabled him to get to know, study and master many procedures, techniques and finishes.
Among the many monuments he has worked on it is worth highlighting the following: the Cathedrals of Palencia (1987), León (1988-89), Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1996), Calahorra (1997), Gerona (2000-01), Ávila (2015), Vitoria (2009), Jaca (2002, 2009), Tudela (2018) and Burgos (2019), the Collegiate Church of San Antolín in Medina del Campo (2008), the Collegiate Church of San Isidoro in León (2017), the Church of San Pablo in Valladolid, the Roman Arch of Medinaceli (2003-2005), the Monastery of Santa María de Huerta, (2000, 2001, 2007) and the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera (2004-05).
Moreover, he has frequently collaborated with those in charge of carrying out the studies prior to the restoration of many monuments, as well as in the design of the most adequate constructive solutions for each and every one of the challenges he has had to face in the different works he has carried out. With regard to this, it is his works for the restoration of the Pórtico de Gloria for the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela (2010-2016) which have been significantly important for him because of the level of detail he has achieved in them.
He has a broad experience as a workshop foreman. He has coordinated many teams of stonemasons on site, and this, in fact, has become the basic mechanism which has enabled him to transmit his knowledge and experience to younger colleagues.
Lastly, it is also worth highlighting his teaching experience in both professional and work-oriented training courses. Today, he still carries on teaching via the masonry courses at the CEARCAL and he also keeps carrying out the dissemination of the craft and its techniques, by means of different university programmes which specialize in architectural restoration and, also, of different publications on the subject.
Paco Luis is one of the most outstanding masters of the carpintería de armar (structural carpentry) in Spain. He learnt the basis of it from other master carpenters in his family. However, it was key for him to have to face the retrieval of a coffered ceiling, come in contact with Enrique Nuere and to continue, from then on, investigating and learning from each work he was commissioned to carry out. He has contributed so to keep alive a craft he came across when it was on the verge of becoming extinct. Even if his main activity is the design and construction of new structural elements for roofs, mainly private dwellings, palaces, hotels, etc., his complementary activity – which he has carried out from the very beginning of his professional career and which he enjoys the most because of the continuous learning it implies – is the restoration of structures of this kind.
This master carpenter brilliantly masters not only carving techniques, inlaying, traditional joinery techniques, such as the apeinazados, or the design and manufacture of muqarnas and the geometrical compositions which shape these structures – but he also carries out their finishing, and this includes gilding, estofados (gold-ground painting) and polychromy.
Throughout his professional career, technical quality has always been crucial. Faithfully following the design, shapes, materials and techniques of the traditional craft of structural carpentry has also meant an important effort in terms of updating the craft, adapting it to local and international markets and making it competitive under the current circumstances. A proof of the effort he has put into this is that he has built over 80 new coffered ceilings and that exports already represent 50% of his total amount of work. This, in fact, also led him, in 2006, to create a branch of his business in the neighbourhood of Beverly Hills, in Los Angeles, California.
In addition to all the works he has manufactured for individuals around the world, Paco Luis has carried out some especially representative ones such as the alfarjes for the patio of the Alcázar of Toledo (2005-06), the coffered ceilings for the Palace of the Counts of Guadiana in Úbeda, converted into a hotel (2012), and a Mudejar coffered ceiling for the Memoria de Andalucía Museum, in Granada (2008-09), among others.
Another relevant aspect of his work from today’s point of view, is the special attention set on and the commitment with the environment and the management of waste. Paco Luis Martos only uses woods with sustainability certificates, or, if possible, recycled woods, as well as water-based varnishes and natural pigments which are respectful with the environment.
Moreover, he actively works with the aim of sharing all the knowledge he has accumulated over the years, training apprentices in his workshop and giving talks, as well as teaching courses and practical workshops throughout Spain.
Antonio Gandano, originally from Arcos de la Frontera, spent his summers as a child in a hut with his family, at a time when the rural areas of Arcos were shaped by this type of constructions. When he reached his twenties, he started to develop an interest for the craft and started to work in the field, first with the master thatcher Juan Braza, and afterwards, with another master from Arcos, Pepe el Manijero. However, it was his father who had a key role in his training in the craft, as he showed him how to get to know and have a deep understanding of the countryside and the materials that one can find in it. He complemented his training by travelling the world, visiting and studying other types of constructions with thatched roofs and collaborating with masters from different countries.
This experience made Antonio one of the referents in his field at an international level. His expertise has led him to collaborate with many national and international institutions in order to retrieve and implement this craft both in Spain and in many other countries throughout Europe and Africa.
Antonio works with local materials: reed, grass, wood, earth and stone, which he takes from the surroundings. Depending on the volume of material he needs, he gathers it himself or he orders it from other suppliers, always avoiding long-distance transportation and, above everything, avoiding the use of poor substitutes or synthetic products which are so common on the market.
His works range from small elements – such as parasols made of Johnson grass, esparto grass blinds or other covering elements, among others – to more elaborate roofs which require a wooden structure, a reed substructure and then grass tied to this last structural element. This type of knots can be done with natural fibres or metal wiring. Natural fibres tend to rot quicker, that is why in this case he prefers to go for metal wiring, which requires less maintenance.
He also carries out liveable huts, comprehensively designed and entirely manufactured by him from their foundations to their roofs, including semi-dry stone and light earth block walls, thatched roofs and finishings using lime based paints and plasters.
Besides carrying out his actual works, Antonio dedicates a large amount of time to the dissemination of the craft. He aims for it to be known, to be respected, and, hopefully, one day, for this type of constructions to receive the recognition it deserves, since it is sustainable like no other and beautiful as very few. However, it is very often underestimated precisely because of how humble it is. Apart from his continuous publications in social media, he delivers training courses at the Museo de la Cal de Morón and at the Instituto Andaluz de Patrimonio Histórico, among others. He also frequently attends schools to show children the virtues of this type of works too.
Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos is a family-run business founded by Carlos Muñoz de Pablos, a stained glass window manufacturer and mural painter, together with his sons Pablo and Alfonso Muñoz Ruiz, also stained glass manufacturers.
Carlos discovered his great interest in drawing and painting when he was a child, at the School of Arts and Crafts of Segovia. In the Fine Arts School of San Fernando in Madrid he became acquainted with a series of different masters who would be crucial in the development of his professional career and who he still bears in mind when carrying out his work. He trained as a stained glass manufacturer in the no longer existing Casa Maumejean in Madrid.
His sons Pablo and Alfonso started their training in their own home in Segovia, where both their father and mother – both of them painters – have their workshop. They became interested in the craft from a very young age. Both of them studied Fine Arts. When they finished their degree they decided to start up a project together with their father, and in 1999 they set up the new company. Thanks to it, they have been able to share knowledge and experiences, learning from one another, and to investigate new techniques and materials.
The restoration of stained glass windows, the creation of new stained glass windows for architecture as well as the manufacture of single glass elements or glass sculptures are, currently, their current fields of action.
Having to face the study and the restoration of different works developed by master stained glass manufacturers from the past, such as Arnao de Flandes or Juan de Valdivieso, have enabled them to get to know first-hand about their way of working, progressively re-discovering the secrets of their craft. To that aim, they have also carried out continuous research of the painting procedures, something that enables them, today, to produce their own grisailles, silver staining , etc. Due to this, they have collaborated with some of the most important research centres in Europe such as the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales of the CSIC, the Institut Universitari de Ciència dels Materials of the Universitàt de València (ICMUV) or the Università “La Sapienza” in Roma.
They have also shared their knowledge by teaching in several courses and university degrees, among which it is worth highlighting their continuous collaboration with the MA in Restoration and Rehabilitation of Heritage of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and with the International Courses on Restoration of Cultural Heritage of La Granja del Real Sitio de San Ildefonso (Segovia).
Among their many works, the following are especially worth highlighting: the restoration of the stained glass windows of the Cathedral of Segovia, those of the Cathedral of Ávila, the ones of the Bank of Spain, the Palace of the Congress, and the Palace of the Senate and those of San Pietro in Montorio, in Rome. It is also worth mentioning the manufacture of stained glass windows for buildings such as the Alcázar of Segovia and the Cathedral of Colon and the Church of la Merced, both in Panama.
It was published on the occasion of the Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition Awards Ceremony and the Richard H. Driehaus Building Arts 2020 Award ceremony.
Both initiatives were organized by INTBAU (International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism) and the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban
Agenda, with the collaboration of Ekaba Foundations, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Rafael Manzano Prize for New Traditional Architecture and the Council of Architecture Institutes of Spain.
The Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition and Building Arts Awards Ceremony was held on October 7, 2020 in the assembly hall of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
The event was chaired by David Lucas Parrón, Secretary General of Housing, who was accompanied by Iñaqui Carnicero Alonso, General Director of Urban Agenda and Architecture; Javier Martín Ramiro, General Director of Housing and Land; Laureano Matas, Secretary General of the Higher Council of Architecture Institutes of Spain and Alejandro García Hermida, Executive Director of the Richard H. Driehaus initiatives in Spain and Portugal. Richard H. Driehaus, promoter of these initiatives, spoke from Chicago, and Harriet Wennberg, Executive Director of INTBAU, International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, spoke from London.
