(1924-2000)

The generation that incorporated the principles of modernity into postwar architecture has lost its most politicized member. After graduating in Madrid in 1951, Rafael de La-Hoz did postgraduate studies at MIT, where he developed the interest in technology that would mark both his built oeuvre and the work he undertook as head of various institutions. With José María García de Paredes he designed the Chamber of Commerce of Córdoba as well as the Aquinas student hall in Madrid, which earned them the National Prize for Architecture in 1956. From his first studio in Córdoba he carried out the provincial hospital and the convention center of Torremolinos. In the seventies he was appointed director-general for architecture, a post from which he boosted the creation of the Spanish Technological Regulations and initiated the task of promoting the discipline that would lead him to preside over the European Council and the UIA . For Madrid he enlarged the Marine Ministry and built the Telefónica Center and the Banco Coca offices, a light glass prism that would be his print on the Paseo de la Castellana.