Madrid and the Board of Houses of the Navy. Four Projects for Spain in the 1940s

Abstract

This research focuses on four housing developments built by the Spanish Patronato de Casas de la Armada [Board of Houses of the Navy] during the first post-war years in the Salamanca district of Madrid, designed by the architects José Fonseca y Llanedo, Manuel Ruiz de la Prada, José Gómez Mesa and José María Rodríguez Cano; all of them were designers in the Architecture Section of the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda [National Housing Institute]. After studying Architecture together at the University of Madrid, they began a career where their interest in social housing is not only confirmed, but it is also reinforced by their common work at the INV. And it is in these years of joint collaboration when they designed some of the first residences built by the Patronato de Casas de la Armada. The study of the existing documentation of these dwellings filed in the INVIED [Institute of Housing, Infrastructure and Equipment of the Defense] allows a brief analysis of the four developments selected and then to draw similarities and differences among the existing graphic documentation and the typological characteristics of these houses. The diverse and interesting solutions given to very different plots of the district of Salamanca in Madrid show the wide range of design resources implemented by the four studied architects.