Author: Javier Manterola Armisén
Publisher: Laetoli-Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad
Series: Arquitectura y Sociedad
Number of pages: 216
ISBN: 978-84-92422-21-0
Retail price: 18,00 €

Synopsis

According to Javier Manterola, bridges have not yet entered the radius of action of art critics. It is as if they were transparent: no one sees them, no one is interested in them nor cares to understand them. Sometimes it seems that only painting exists as a work of art. But in the world of art, public works have an increasing presence. Roads and railroads get to be works of Land Art. With today’s growing discussion on what art is, it won’t be long before the formidable beauty of bridges, dams, and roads is discovered… And though beauty is not that important for public works, it is for the art of our times.

“The work of an engineer is a mix of logic and beauty. These two words define the built artifice as an object of contrasts and a synthesis between reason and feeling; an association so close to the purposes of architecture. […] Javier Manterola marks out in his own biography the foundations of a selective and refined knowledge, and contemplates in his projects—and in equal measure—the parameters of what is useful, necessary, and beautiful in the artifice he is to build […]. As Javier Manterola points out in his writings, there exists no logical reason to consider the realm of art something separate from the world of science.” (Antonio Fernández Alba)

About the author

Javier Manterola (Pamplona, 1936) is a civil engineer and a chair professor at the Engineering School of the Technical University of Madrid. He is the author of numerous projects carried out in collaboration with Spanish architects, including Rafael Moneo, and in the course of his career he has reaped awards like the medal of the International Federation for Prestressing (Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte, FIP) in 1996 and the “award of merit” of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) in 2006—Manterola is the only Spaniard ever to win both these prizes—or the Prince of Viana Prize for Culture in 2005. Particularly outstanding among his works is the Engineer Carlos Fernández Casado Bridge, which held the world record in various categories for a decade and continues to be Spain’s largest bridge. He has many bridges to his name: the TAV over the Ebro in Zaragoza, the Andalusia in Córdoba, the Delicias in Seville, the Euskalduna in Bilbao, the Vergel along with the Zizur roundabout in Pamplona. He is also the author of numerous books.

The Foundation

The Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad takes architecture as something indissolubly linked to life in society, something called upon to fabricate solutions for the complex social fabric by interacting with other disciplines of creation, thought, or economics. Architecture is a service that is to articulate, condition, and facilitate life for citizens. To contribute to this, the Foundation brings together the knowledge of architects, engineers, urban planners, sociologists, thinkers, scientists, artists and others concerned with the great challenges of our times. Architecture cannot limit itself to being a stylistic exercise removed from context. It must transcend the endogamous territory of the discipline and address the social preoccupations of each historic moment. The ‘Architecture and Society’ series of books seeks to tackle this mission.

Series published jointly by the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad and Editorial Laetoli under the direction of José Tono Martínez.

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