José Luis Íñiguez de Onzoño. Foto: Centro Vasco de Arquitectura

1927-2022

The Bilbao architect José Luis Íniguez de Onzoño Angulo died in Madrid at 95 years of age. He studied at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM), where he met his longtime professional partner, Antonio Vázquez de Castro. Upon graduating, they were both commissioned to design the Poblado Dirigido de Caño Roto, which became one of the emblems of the renovation of architecture during Franco’s regime, and which already reflected the main features of an architecture that sought to support itself as much on geometric and constructive rationalization as on formal expressiveness. With Vázquez de Castro, Íñiguez de Onzoño designed other important buildings in Madrid, from the headquarters of Mutua Madrileña Automovilística or the Antonio Magariños Sports Center to the refurbishment of the General Hospital of Madrid – today’s Reina Sofía Museum –, to which they added the famed glazed elevator shafts of the project designed with British architect Ian Ritchie. Íñiguez de Onzoño also worked with other architects, like his brother Rubén and Juan Daniel Fullaondo, and combined his professional obligations with teaching at the university.