2013 is a year of centenaries. We commemorate the birth of ten masters: five Spaniards, one Japanese, one Greek, one Azerbaijan-French and two Argentinians. The Spaniards (José Antonio Coderch, Alejandro de la Sota, Miguel Fisac, Antoni Bonet i Castellana and Rafael Aburto, who is still alive today) were part of a heterogeneous generation that, marked by the tragedy of the Civil War, was instrumental in making the Modern Movement take root in Spain. The other five likewise belong to a second modern generation, that of figures who under the influence of the great masters – especially Le Corbusier – contributed first to the introduction and dissemination of the new architectural ideas outside of Europe – Tange in Japan, Doxiadis in Greece and Africa, Williams and Álvarez in Argentina –, and subsequently to the revision of these ideas from the angle of social and urban principles (Candilis in France). A forthcoming issue of Arquitectura Viva will review their careers in the light of the sociocultural contexts that surrounded them.
