1926-2021

Genaro Alas Rodríguez died in Cáceres at 94 years of age due to complications caused by Covid. The Madrid architect, originally from Asturias, studied at the ETSAM between the 1940s and 1950s decades, and belonged to the generation of Antonio Fernández Alba and of Pedro Casariego, who would be his partner during most of his career. Upon graduating in 1954 he was named architect of the Instituto de Colonización de Cáceres, but shortly after he founded Alas y Casariego, launching a career defined by geometric rigor and technological innovation, subjects he dealt with in his doctoral thesis of 1966. As so many other architects of his time, Alas managed to combine his responsibility as construction professor at the ETSAM with professional practice. He did so until he retired in 2007, completing a set of buildings always marked by a control of measure and constructive precision that evokes the best Mies, from the exquisite and sadly disappeared Monky factory (1960) to the disciplined and elegant Windsor Tower (1975), devoured by a spectacular and suspicious fire in 2005.