Alejandro de la Sota
Encyclopedia
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. He was born in Pontevedra
Pontevedra
Pontevedra is a city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the comarca and province of Pontevedra, in Galicia . It is also the capital of its own municipality which is, in fact, often considered as an extension of the actual city...
in Galicia. He graduated from the university in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in 1941 and, from 1956 to 1972 was a professor there.
From his graduation, Sota lived in Madrid, although maintained links with his native Galicia. He was a promoter of industrialisation of construction in the 1960s; his Maravillas gymnasium of 1961 was the first steel framed building in Madrid. The buildings of Sota combine geometric rigor with constructive sincerity and a structural boldness of form that still surprises today.
Sota received the National Prize of Architecture and the Gold medal of the Council of Architects.
Works
- Gobierno Civil (TarragonaTarragonaTarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
) (1956-1963) - Talleres Aeronáuticos TABSA (Madrid) (1957-1958)
- Maravillas College Gynamsium (Madrid) (1961)
- Block of Houses (SalamancaSalamancaSalamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
) (1963) - Colegio Mayor César Carlos (Madrid) (1967)
- Residencia de Verano Infantil (Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid) (1957-1959)
- Central Lechera CLESA (Madrid) (1963)
- Viviendas en calle del Prior (Salamanca) (1962-1963)
- Edificio Industrial CENIM (Madrid) (1965-1967)
- Pavillón Municipal dos Deportes de PontevedraPavillón Municipal dos Deportes de PontevedraPavillón Municipal de Deportes is an arena in Pontevedra, Spain. It is primarily used for team handball and is the home arena of SD Teucro. The arena holds 3,500 people. It was designed by Alejandro de la Sota in 1966....
(1966) - Colegio Residencia Caja de Ahorros Provincial (OurenseOurenseOurense is a city in northwestern Spain, the capital of the province of the same name in Galicia. Its population of 108,674 accounts for 30% of the population of the province and makes it the third largest city of Galicia.-Population:...
) (1966-1967) - Classrooms and Seminaries of the University (Sevilla) (1972)
- Computer center of the Post Office (Madrid) (1973-1976)
- Banco Pastor (Pontevedra) (1974)
- Post Office and Telecommunications Building (León) (1980-1983)
- Edificio Caja Postal de Ahorros (Madrid) (1986-1989)
- University Library (Santiago de CompostelaSantiago de CompostelaSantiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
) (1990) - Court buildings (ZaragozaZaragozaZaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...
) (1991-1993) - Rediseño y Rehabilitación del Edificio del Cabildo Insular (Las Palmas) (1994)