Rafael Moneo.

An insatiable passion for knowledge.

Francisco Gonzalez de Canales Ruiz

The Documentation Centre of the Arquia Foundation has an extensive audiovisual collection linked to the architect Rafael Moneo. The video library has a significant number of talks that the architect has given on his most recent work, mainly that built from the 21st century.

The conferences given on buildings of special impact during his career are also notable, and especially those linked to Madrid, such as Bankinter, Thyssen, Atocha or El Prado, included in the collection thanks to the funds shared with the COAM Foundation of the College of Architects of Madrid. Of the documents that retrospectively cover the complete work of the architect, the interviews carried out by Luis Fernández-Galiano in 2013, which review the milestones of his architectural career, or the conversation with Antonio San José at the March Foundation in 2011, should be highlighted. Also relevant is the conference that Moneo presented at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of La Coruña on the occasion of the inauguration of the Rafael Moneo exhibition in 2013: A Theoretical Reflection from the Professional Practice. Archive Materials (1961-2013), which offers a broad overview of his work, with special emphasis on the importance of drawing.

Apart from these talks or conversations offered by the architect, and his participation in presentations and round tables, there are audiovisual works in which Moneo's works are critically analysed by others. This includes the episode dedicated by Luis Fernández-Galiano to the National Museum of Roman Art of Mérida, in his cycle titled Architecture in Spain. From the Transition to Uncertainty, 2017. Likewise, one of the most important contributions in this regard is the book Consideraciones sobre la obra de Rafael Moneo (2019), which includes critical notes on different periods of Moneo's work made by Stan Allen, Antón Capitel, Francesco Dal Co, Carmén Ten, María Teresa Muñoz, Josep Quetglas, Nicholas Ray, Luis Rojo and Gabriel Ruiz Cabrero in the talks given by these authors on the architect at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in 2017. The documentary, titled "Rafael Moneo: Courage and Conviction", aired on Spanish television in 2003 as part of the programme Elogio de la Luz, would conclude this set of documents on the author.

The collection of the Arquia Foundation Documentation Centre also includes the aspect of critic and teacher that Moneo developed throughout his career. Two relevant contributions in this regard are found in the talks that the architect gave on typology in Alvar Aalto or American architecture of the eighties, in 1981 and 1988 respectively. Both conferences took place at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona and are available in the Documentation Centre thanks to the collaboration of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The interview in which the architect summarises the work of the Danish master Jørn Utzon, with whom Moneo collaborated in the early 60s, can also be included in this section. Finally, within this critical side, the Centre has the prologues that the architect wrote on theses published by the Arquia Foundation, such as Transitos de la forma, by Enrique de Teresa, analysing the work of architects studied in particular by Moneo (such as Siza or Stirling), or Lección de Ruinas, by Alberto Ustarroz, where Moneo's interest in the presence of ancient architecture within modernity is developed.