There are many great architects, but only very few get to be ‘masters.’ Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza did, thanks as much to the quality of his architecture as to his sharp sensitivity in tuning in with the contemporary, and especially to his teachings, which went far beyond the classroom: he was exemplary as an intellectual with the capacity to transfer his restlessness to those gathered around him.

To celebrate the centenary of his birth, various activities in the city of Madrid are taking stock of his long and polyhedric career. The Madrid Institute of Architects (COAM) holds at its headquarters a major exhibition curated by the subject’s children, Vicente, Javier, and Marisa Sáenz Guerra, that takes from the architect’s personal archives to document his oeuvre, from the Basilica of Our Lady of Aránzazu in Oñate (Guipúzcoa), a fruit of his collaboration with artists like Jorge Oteiza, to the two high-rise buildings that he poured an extraordinary amount of effort to and drew copiously: the iconic Torres Blancas apartments and the refined BBVA main offices. For its part, the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) offers in its library a small presentation of publications and diverse items, curated by Autora Fernández and Emilio Penjeam, that will be complemented by a compilation of writings on the master; and a selection of videos to be screened in different places within the school, accompanied by a brief publication and bus routes to visit Oíza’s most representative works, both in Madrid and up in the north of Spain, all this under the curatorship of Blanca Lleó.