The 70s were a decade of political and economic reconfiguration both in Kuwait and in Spain. Architecture gave shape to these processes, through buildings that reflected the aspirations of public and private institutions.

In 1961, President Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem signed the agreement that ended the British protectorate over the region of Kuwait. The Sheikh became the father of Modern Kuwait, and promoted a plan for a financial district in the city, as well as the organization of the new State. At that point, there had been already almost 20 years of Kuwait’s Golden Age. In fact, the first oil export had been made in 1946. The time of great prosperity would last until the 80’s, coinciding with the best moment, and after, with the decline of architecture International Style.

Kuwait’s old airport. KOC photography archive.

The global spirit towards the middle of the 20th century was one of confidence in progress, technic, universalism and functionalism. In the case of Kuwait, as it happened in many places during that time of unlimited confidence, the constructive expansion was at the cost of the loss of much traditional architecture. The Arab city, compact, low, walled and full of patios, would change, incorporating the concrete, the brise-soleil and the large scale.

The center was transformed into an administrative and commercial district. This way, the old coastal city was modified by urban plans and buildings that expressed the political ambition to redistribute oil revenues and provide modern living conditions. The resulting city was composed of independent buildings and a large road network.

Kuwait’s Old Postcard.

Because of their size and volume, these exuberant buildings quickly became dominant in the urban landscape. Many were produced by an elite of foreign architects and, also, Kuwaitis with Anglo-Saxon education. Many foreign offices of architecture of the 70s worked in Kuwait: Alison and Peter Smithson, Candilis-Josic-Woods, Arthur Erickson, Pan-Arab Consulting Engineers (PACE), The Architects Collaborative (TAC), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill ( SOM) …

National Assembly of Kuwait. Jørn Utzon Logbook Vol. IV: Kuwait National Assembly.

The State called restricted competitions and asked for collaborations to the great international offices of architecture of the 70s. In 1969, the Kuwaiti authorities invited several international offices to participate in the project of the country’s National Assembly, the main governing body. The chosen proposal was the one of Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who soon would be in charge of the Opera of Sidney.

Utzon had traveled to Iran in 1959, and this inspired him for the National Assembly of Kuwait. Specially, he was interested in reflecting the urban structure of the city of Isfahan, and its bazaar, in the organization of the Assembly’s plan. For Utzon, the small-scale spaces located between buildings – playgrounds, garden streets – were key to everyday life. Therefore, the building was composed as a grid full of patios. To cover the area, Utzon thought of the textile ceiling of a nomad tent. Thus, he designed a large curved concrete roof. He supported it using thick columns that functioned as an exterior powerful façade. These columns took advantage of the structural economy of concrete, but, the architect claimed, they were inspired by the mills of the island of Mallorca –where he had a house.

How truly vernacular was Utzon’s formal proposal? It seemed rather that the architect used traditional references as metaphors: the metaphor of the bazaar, that of the nomad tent, that of the mill. And then, these traditional forms were fixed in a rather modern, rigid, and western organizational system. Although, the result was aesthetically excellent. The building began construction in 1971.

Precast mounting.  Jørn Utzon Logbook Vol. IV: Kuwait National Assembly.

Two years later, another Nordic architect, Arne Jacobsen, started building the Central Bank of Kuwait. The Bank was also a fundamental institution of the new State. Jacobsen formalized the identity of this organism through a blunt closure. The building denied the exterior like a safe. Its basement was hard and impermeable, reflecting the idea of ​​security, like a wall. Above it, the cube of offices raised, patterned and somewhat less opaque, but equally severe.

Inside, a large central patio lit by metal skylights, again, became the main organizing element of the space. The translation of the vernacular typology of the courtyard was made without metaphor: pure organizational intention that related to function and climate. But a few decades later, a refurbishment left it unrecognizable.

Arne Jacobsen, D+W architects: Central Bank of Kuwait.

The 70s were the years in which the institutional buildings of Kuwait, and some of their urban plans, were entrusted to many of the architects representing critical regionalism. In 1969, Reima and Raili Pietilä were invited to participate in an architecture competition for the improvement of the Old Town area of ​​Kuwait. They were assigned the development of the coastal area next to the Sief Palace and three ministerial buildings: an extension of the Palace, the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project for the Ministry was thought from a cross-cultural perspective. But without the support and of the community, it failed.

Just as the traditional city was engulfed by the modern city, postmodernism colonized many of these buildings to make them virtually unrecognizable. In the case of the project of Reima and Raili Pietilä for the colorful Ministry is evident.

In Madrid, the 70s were a time of political transition and a certain economic and social openness. On the radio, “Un rayo de sol” from Los Diablos played. The same year that the National Assembly of Kuwait was inaugurated, a competition for design of the Banco de Bilbao tower was called. Three years later, the foundations of a building that will end up finished up with brise-soleils were laid. Bronze color, rounded corners, the building referred to the American skyscrapers of Chicago.

As in the case of the Assembly, modularity became important: the skyscraper was a stack of individual plants. Two vertical reinforced concrete cores supported the entire building. Among them, the subway tunnel passed, at the underground level.

 

The tower of Javier Saenz de Oiza became an icon. The 70s were, in the capital of the country, especially dedicated to the construction of symbols for private economic power, headquarters of companies and banks, which took the architectural form of the skyscraper.

In Madrid, architecture of the 70s was not so much about the forms of the Nordic critical modernity, but about the light and transparent American pragmatism, which seemed almost postmodern. An imported architecture, but designed by national architects.

Until 1930s, Madrid city structure had been organized around an west-east axis, enhanced by the start of the construction of the Gran Vía in the 1910s. The origin of the Paseo de la Castellana, would not take place until 1929, after a competition for the development of the city, for which the architects Secundino Zuazo and Hermann Jansen proposed a north-south axis as an alternative for urban growth.

La Castellana, Nuevos Ministerios area, the 70s.

Although the project of 1929 was not carried out, after the civil war, the Technical Office of the Board of Reconstruction of Madrid, boosted the unfinished projects. The new Paseo was inaugurated in 1952 with the name of Avenida del Generalísimo, ending in Plaza de Castilla. If the Gran Vía was 30 meters wide, the new street would measure 130 meters from side to side. A sign of ambition: the one that was going to bring on its two sidewalks, the symbols of the economic power of the city.

In the Paseo de la Castellana, we find the Banco Bilbao tower. But also, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, and the AZCA financial complex. The north-south axis would be consolidated throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, to house both the State’s management buildings (several Ministries) and other political organizations (for example, the American Embassy), but above all, the headquarters of different private companies.

Torre Castelar. Photo by Ana Matos.

The golden decade of architecture in this avenue came around the 70s. Miguel Fisac ​​built here the headquarters of IBM (1966-1968), whose facade of prefabricated pieces was a great example of his research with concrete. The façade responded to functional needs, as the offices required a open interior and artificial light. Rafael Moneo, a disciple of Oíza, built one of his first great works, the Bankinter Tower (1976-1979). The building, finished in brick, was an example of respect for the urban context, establishing continuity with adjacent buildings and operating as a backdrop to the existing Palace, also owned by the Bank. Further north, the red Bankunión building (1972-1975), by Corrales and Molezún, was an modern amalgam of colored iron, glass, service towers, air conditioning tubes.

The building of Seguros Fénix by Gutiérrez Soto (1965-1971); the Castelar Building –a beautiful translucent glass tower hanging over a travertine basement, by Rafael de la Hoz (1975-1983); the Allianz (1978 -1979) by Javier Carvajal; the Colón towers by Antonio Lamela (1967-1976)… We cannot cover here all the business headquarters that took the form of the modern skyscraper in the Castellana, throughout the 70s.

The 80s arrived and Minoru Yamasaki, author of the Twin Towers, built the Picasso Tower. The avenue closed, with another series of postmodern forms, the tilted towers KIO (1996), by Philip Johnson and John Burgee; and with the 4 Towers built on the grounds of Real Madrid, a decade later. These four buildings doubled the height of the previous ones and housed big companies such as Cepsa, PricewaterhouseCoopers or Coca-Cola. But that is another story.

AGi architects has carried out projects for private and public institutions in both countries, which can be consulted in the office’s web.