The chapels of Labor Universities recovering modernity in spanish architecture of the 20th century

Abstract

The Labour Universities form a unique group in the history of Spanish architecture in the twentieth century due to the political and social circumstances in which they arose. Following Falangist ideological principles and those of National Catholicism, the existence of a space dedicated to worship was considered essential as a complement to the teaching function in the pedagogical and architectural design of the new centres.
The programmatic needs demanded by these centres required an architectural response that had hitherto been non-existent and difficult to resolve with previous methodologies. The first attempts to provide the Labour Universities with an appropriate formal and functional expression offered a clear confrontation between classicism and modernity, with the figure of Luis Moya as an anti-modern crusader whose proposals would materialise as a model of the ideal city - linked to Civitas Dei - where the chapel became the capital and articulating element of the whole.
With the competitions for the construction of new Labour Universities held from 1960 onwards, modern architecture will feel the definitive push, establishing itself as the only possible solution to tackle the project. These "machines for learning" will be proposals formulated at the time of the recovery of modernity in our country, by architects whose craft offers guarantees of more than correct solutions. The review and analysis of their chapels allows us to understand how a similar religious programme would become a sacred space through the introduction of linguistic, vernacular and symbolic aspects into the project, thus evolving and enriching modern Spanish architecture in the second half of the twentieth century.