Rogelio Salmona
Encyclopedia
Rogelio Salmona was a Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 of Sephardic and Occitan descent. He was noted for his extensive use of red brick in his buildings and for using natural shapes like spirals, radial geometry and curves in his designs. During the latter part of his life, Salmona gained renown thanks to awards like the first prize at the 1986, 1988, and 1990 Colombian Architecture Biennials, and the Alvar Aalto Medal in 2006. His works are highly representative of Colombian architecture at the end of the twentieth century.

Awards

  • Colombian National Architecture Prize (1986, 1988, and 1990).
  • Prince Claus Award
    Prince Claus Awards
    The Prince Claus Fund was inaugurated in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of The Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs....

     (1998)
  • Architect of the Americas Award, Panamerican Federation of Architect Associations (1999)
  • Professional Trajectory in Architecture Prize II, Iberoamerican Bienal of Architecture and Civil Engineering (2000)
  • Honoured with the Alvar Aalto Medal
    Alvar Aalto Medal
    The Alvar Aalto Medal was established in 1967 by the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Finnish Association of Architects . The Medal has been awarded intermittently since 1967 when the medal was created in honour of Alvar Aalto. The award is given in recognition of a significant contribution...

     (2003)
  • Manuel Tolsá Medal, Autonomous University of México (2004)
  • Honorary Fellow of The American Institute of Architects (2006)
  • Orden de Boyacá (2006)
  • Lápiz de Acero (2007)

Personal life

He was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, but moved at an early age to Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, where he studied at the French Lyceum Louis Pasteur. Upon graduating, he enrolled in the architecture program at the National University of Colombia
National University of Colombia
The Universidad Nacional de Colombia , also called UNAL or just UN, is a public, national, coeducational, research university, located primarily in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, Colombia...

, then led by German and Italian architects Leopoldo Rother and Bruno Violi. During Le Corbusier's trip to Colombia in 1947, young Salmona was invited by the great architect to work with him at his atelier in Paris. In 1948, Salmona interrupted his studies in Colombia due to the Bogotazo
Bogotazo
El Bogotazo refers to the massive riots that followed the assassination in Bogotá, Colombia of Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948 during the government of President Mariano Ospina Pérez...

 political revolt and returned to Paris. In France, he worked as draftsman for Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

 for about a decade, assisting in the design of projects like the Marseilles block, the Pilot Plan for Bogotá, Notre Dame du Haut, and Chandigarh. Later, he went on to study the sociology of art with Pierre Francastel
Pierre Francastel
Pierre Francastel was a French art historian, best known for his use of sociological method.Francastel's initial period of study was in literature, at the Sorbonne...

, developing a critical vision of modern architecture. At the end of his long apprenticeship, Salmona traveled to Spain, where he discovered Islamic architecture. The brickwork in Granada, in particular, had a lasting influence on his work. Upon returning to Colombia, Salmona graduated as architect at the Universidad de los Andes in 1962. Though Salmona traveled widely, enriching his theory of architecture, he spent the rest of his life in Colombia, where he was commissioned important projects (see Public Works, and Private Buildings, below). During the 1980s, Salmona promoted conferences on Latin American architecture in Cali (1980) and Manizales (1987). These seminars contributed to the improvement of the exchange of information among Latin American countries, enriching the architectural dialogue throughout the region.

He died from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

 on October 3, 2007.

Quotes

"I am just an architect. Nothing more. Or should I say: somebody who is trying to be one. Because becoming an architect is very difficult. You never know what part of what you do has any validity. Time tells it. Good architecture will become ruins. Bad architecture disappears. But for you to know it is a ruin, you have to wait a lot of time. I hope the [Del Parque] Towers not to be ruins today but one thousand years from now".

"That thing about time being gold is a big stupidity. Time is life. I am interested in living it."

Public Works

Salmona designed the following buildings in his native Colombia:
  • President's House for Illustrious Guests, Cartagena
    Cartagena, Colombia
    Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

     (1978–1981)
  • MAMBO (Modern Art Museum of Bogotá), Bogotá (1971–1988)
  • Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Center, Bogotá (1980-unfinished)
  • National General Archives, Bogotá (1988–1992)
  • Graduate School Building (Faculty of Human Sciences) at the National University, Bogotá
  • Quimbaya Gold Museum, Armenia
    Armenia
    Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

     (1983–1986)
  • FES (Superior Studies Foundation) Headquarters, Cali (1987–1990)
  • Vicepresidential House, Bogotá (1994–2005)
  • Virgilio Barco Public Library, Bogotá (1999–2001)
  • Gabriel García Márquez
    Gabriel García Márquez
    Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...

    Cultural Center, Bogotá (2004–2008)

Private Buildings

Some of Salmona's works for the private sector include:
  • El Polo residential complex, Bogotá (1959)
  • The Headquarters of the Society of Colombian Architects, Bogotá (1961–1970)
  • The Free University High School, Bogotá (1962)
  • Christian Foundation housing complex, Bogotá (1963)
  • Del Parque Towers, Bogotá (1964–1970)
  • Alba House, Bogotá (1969, now demolished)
  • Alto de Pinos complex (1975–1981)
  • Various houses in the Sabana de Bogotá: Casa Puente, Suba (1976); Pasohondo, Tabio (1979); Sotará, Tenjo (1989); and three houses in Cota (1992).
  • Nueva Santa Fe housing complex and community center, Bogotá (1985–1994; 1994–1997)
  • The Timiza residential complex, Bogotá
  • House of the Writer (owned by Gabriel García Márquez), Cartagena (1992–1995)
  • Gimnasio Fontana, Guaymaral (1992–2002)
  • Riofrío House, Riofrío (1997–2000)
  • Alto Chicó Concrete House, Bogotá (2001–2003)
  • Altazor House, Torca (2002–2004)
  • Chico Norte (owned by Guillermo Gomez Botero), Bogotá, Colombia

Unfinished Projects

Together with his wife and partner, María Elvira Madriñán, Salmona worked on a series of future projects, which include:
  • French Cultural Center (Alliance Française), Bogotá

--> The building has been inaugurated on September the 30th of 2010.
  • Valmaría Campus (National Pedagogic University), Bogotá
  • Cultural Center (University of Manizales), Manizales
  • La Candelaria residential project, Bogotá
  • New wing for the MAMBO (Modern Art Museum of Bogotá), Bogotá


Some of these buildings are currently undergoing construction.

External links

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