Juan Daniel Fullaondo. Ten works + a cultural vision of the Basque Country (1964-1978)

Culture and architecture of the Basque Country converge at the Basque Country Architecture Institute with the arrival of the exhibition ‘Juan Daniel Fullaondo. Ten works + a cultural vision of the Basque Country (1964-1978)’. Organized by the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Government and the School of Architecture of the UPV/EHU, the proposal reveals the intense bond of Bilbao architect Juan Daniel Fullaondo with his city, through a journey around his work in the period between 1964 and 1978.  

Juan Daniel Fullaondo was one of the most outstanding Basque architects of the second half of the 20th century and between 1964 and 1978 he designed and built nearly 60 works in collaboration with close architects and friends (Fernando Olabarria, Álvaro Líbano, José Luis and Félix Iñiguez de Onzoño): residential projects (single-family and collective), libraries, schools, cultural centers, and health centers make up the first professional phase of his career. 

This exhibition, the first one entirely dedicated to his work, brings together ten of his works, which represent the architect’s legacy in the Basque Country: five projects for residential blocks in Alameda de Mazarredo (Bilbao, 1964), Mendizabal (Durango, 1971), Neguri (Getxo, 1970), Landako (Durango, 1975) and Fadura (Getxo, 1976); two projects for school groups in Txurdinaga (Bilbao, 1968) and Rekaldeberri (Bilbao, 1969); a public space project, Ezkurdi Square (Durango, 1968); an office building, the European Business Bank (Bilbao, 1975); and a public facility, the public library of Portugalete (1973).

As a prelude, along with large panels showing the iconic buildings, a complementary line focuses on the attention the architect also paid to the cultural, architectural, and artistic production of the Basque Country through the magazine ‘Nueva Forma,’ of which he was director. Thus, the exhibition includes several issues of the publication, an activity with which Fullaondo was defining, in the same period, the cultural landscape in which his work was immersed. 

Curator

Joaquín Lizasoain