I tell you your story, you tell me mine

This article points to the significant attention of Spanish architects towards Scandinavian architecture. Through decades Felix Solaguren Beascoa has provided extensive presentation of the phenomenon: ’axis mirando del nord … y al syd’, (’looking north... and south’) where we see considerable influential impact of Scandinavian architecture on Spanish architects from the 50s onwards. In search of a history-based architectural expression, nordic architectural works have been implemented as remarkable Spanish second versions. Several buildings in, for instance Granada, make direct references to the Munkegaard school. All together it seems to indicate that we can draw a larger picture from the reception of Jacobsen’s works in Spain.

Recently we have witnessed a new generation of Spanish reference-based buildings that awaits to be related to the previous generations to form a coherent picture. To maintain a sense of continuity and relevance of the Spanish architectural tradition of Scandinavian influence, research on this second generation of constructed works needs to be done.
By looking more closely at the mechanisms of transference from the model to the derivative version, I investigate how the Spanish reinterpretations add value and validity to the original and how they hold a critical potential.
Through comparative, decoding readings of the original and its Spanish reinterpretation, I establish a dialogical space for analysis which can explicate the permanent and adaptive parts in the original version and the Spanish version respectively. To meet Jacobsen in Spain is like being told your own story – Danish architecture seen through Spanish eyes.

On a general level, the analysis shows the similarities and the differences which arise in the adaptation to another climate, culture, programs, other traditions of construction
techniques and tectonics. On a more specific level, I want to find the focuses of the reinterpretations. Do we see the appropriation of an idea, a structure or a detail? Or do we find the architectural object in its entirety?

Taken together, I wish to evaluate the architectural reference-based design process as a comparative, analytical work - as a reflexive process of interpreting and reinterpreting - receiving and producing an architectural design. I want to conclude that the process holds the potential of a design method.
Lastly, I show how and why the appropriated architecture in Spain can inform back on the interpretation of architecture of Jacobsen today and engage and re-launch attention to how the Jacobsen reception in Spanish works can influence and broaden reception of this architect in Denmark. The publication, The Nordic and Spain 2022, was accompanied by exhibition at the Utzon Center displaying twin models made by students at the Aarhus School of Architecture 2021-22.