Julio Vilamajó

Julio Vilamajó
Born Julio Agustín Vilamajó Echaniz
(1894-07-01)July 1, 1894
Montevideo, Uruguay
Died April 12, 1948(1948-04-12) (aged 53)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Nationality Uruguayan
Occupation Architect
Buildings Vilamajó House Museum, Montevideo

Julio Vilamajó Echaniz (July 1, 1894, Montevideo - April 12, 1948, Montevideo) was one of the most wellknown Uruguayan architects. He was a member of the Board of Design Consultants for the construction of the United Nations headquarters together with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.

Childhood

Echaniz was born in Montevideo. He was the son of Ramón Vilamajó, a merchant born in Perpignan, France, and of Eustaquia Echaniz, a native from San Sebastián in Spain. He was a pupil at School No. 24 in Montevideo from 1901 to 1903 and finished primary school at Colegio Sagrada Familia between 1904 and 1906. His grandfather, Josef Agustín Echaniz, was also an architect.

1910 - 1924 Education, early works and travel

Vilamajó was only 20 years of age when he graduated on 24 December 1915. His education was based on the classical guidelines of the École des Beaux-Arts, during a period of transition to modern architecture. His student records reveal that he was an outstanding student, especially excelling in the areas of design (Design and Decorative Composition). In 1916, he began to work with Horacio Azzarini, with whom he decorated the auditorium of the Ateneo in Montevideo. This was a project obtained by participating in a competition, the refurbishment of José Enrique Rodó high school and several houses. He received second prize in the competition for the Headquarters of the BROU and Felipe Sanguinetti school building.

These early works are characterized by an eclectic style, based on the French Renaissance academicism. These were two features that Vilamajó retained and are distinguished in the use of noble materials and meticulous work.

In 1917, he began to teach at the School of Architecture and was appointed Adjunct Professor of Architectural Design from 1° to 3° year, after a competitive selection process.

In 1920, Vilamajó applied for the annual competition organized by the School of Architecture intended to increase the training of its graduates abroad. His project for a "Palace to serve as headquarters of the League of Nations" allowed him to obtain the Grand Prize, consisting in the funding for a study trip.

In July 1921, Vilamajó traveled to Europe in the midst of its reconstruction after the end of the World War I, where he remained until December 1924. He visited many European countries such as France, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy and Greece. Most of those years, he spent living between France and Spain, working for a construction company in Paris. The company specialized in the mass production of housing. Attracted by the Hispano-Arabic culture, he extended his stay in Andalusia, then crossed to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In Barcelona, he was stunned by its Ramblas [promenades], the Montjuic and the work of Gaudí; the Alhambra in Granada, and the Summer Palace of the Arab kings, Generalife. While there, he worked to understand the Arab architectural resources that arouse so much curiosity and admiration. He then visited Italy and from there he traveled to Greece where he also acknowledged his admiration for Greek culture.

"To visit Spain and not forget Greece. This means that the white race has to return to the Mediterranean to continue being. We must return there as pilgrims who return to drink from the mysterious water that has shaped us. If the time to come is not a Renaissance it will be the end. “J.V.

Countless sketches, made with various techniques, record the experiences of that trip. Standing out among these are those related to Hispano-Arabic architecture and gardens, whose influence permeated from the start his architectural works.

1924 - 1928

The Vilamajó, Pucciarelli & Carve company was founded in 1926, with which he buillt more than twenty homes in the city of Montevideo. The meticulous attention paid to the execution of the details of these houses is astounding and unusual, since it was a construction firm. Some of the highlights are the Palacio Santa Lucia, the Giacomo Pucciarelli apartment blocks, the Augusto Pérsico and the Felipe Yriart residence. From a stylistic standpoint, they are characterized by a clear, almost exclusive influence of Iberian art.

1929 – 1936

In 1929, he resumed teaching at the School of Architecture as adjunct professor of Architectural Design for 1st and 3rd grade. In July 1929, he won the First Prize at the Competition for the Club Atlético Peñarol Stadium, a month after he won the First Prize at the Competition for the building the BROU Gral. Flores branch. In October, he was awarded First Prize at the Competition for the Building of the Centro de Almaceneros Minoristas, which comprises apartments, shops, offices and a movie theater.

In 1930, he married Mercedes Pulido, who had been his girlfriend since his teenage years. He built their own home in Montevideo, which is currently the Vilamajó House Museum. This was a time of transition in which he gradually began to detach from the historicist remnants to move forward towards the renewing. From a humanist standpoint, he sought to balance logic and rationality.

"The architecture worthy of the name cannot be utilitarian or ornamental. Every human gesture, every human action, is the result of a complex association of ideas. ... And, since antiquity, the job well done is defined as an alliance of the beautiful, the comfortable, the solid and the economical; there is not a need to meet, but a series of needs that appear in sequence and in hierarchical order. The lyric is a human function, just as walking or breathing. We cannot therefore accept the possibility of a choice between a purely utilitarian architecture and an ornamental architecture." J.V.

"Fortunately, nature keeps something of the primitive intuition inside us. Because, what would be of a world where everything was explained or had need of an explanation? Hateful, hateful. Magic exists. It must exist to perfume life and no matter how hard science tries to kill its mother, Magic, it won't be able to. There will always be magicians or geniuses that won't allow this to happen." J.V.

"The program before us should be addressed to the man, the only character that should be exalted over all other things in this mechanical era in which technique may crush us. We must be the apostles of men. Reaction to the purely scientific. You may ask how one can be the interpreter of a social physiognomy which may presume everything as derived from the brain, only by reacting. We must not forget that there is such thing as the heart, and that only it can bestow greatness upon purposes. All those who let themselves be dragged by cerebral conceptions will only accomplish small things that will not be recognized in the short term." J.V.

In 1931, he designed the project for the garage of the Servicio de Urgencia de la Asistencia Pública Nacional. This marked a radical break from Vilamajó's artistic past, not only for the suppression of ornaments independent from the structure as an expressive means of the building, but also for its use in such a way as to meet the expressive function by itself, and at the same time define a space with the characteristics of circulation freedom demanded by the program.

Almost at the same time, Vilamajó and Debernardis, a coatings manufacturer, worried about the housing demand, created and patented a building system (the Vibro-Econo) which comprised pieces of concrete manufactured in series.

1936 - 1948

School of Engineering facade

Finally, there is a fourth period in which Vilamajó turned to the renewing current, from which works of great quality and personality arose. The most paradigmatic works of this period are the Monument to the Argentine-Uruguayan Confraternity of Buenos Aires, the School of Engineering, Mesón de las Cañas, Ventorrilo de la Buena Vista, and El Mirador hotel in Colonia.

In 1936, he won the First Prize along with sculptor Antonio Pena, in the Contest for the Monument to the Peoples' Confraternity in Buenos Aires.

He began the project for the construction of the School of Engineering in the same year. In 1959, Richard Neutra visited the country. A group or architects took him to see the city and nothing seemed to attract him, until he stopped in front of the School of Engineering to watch it very carefully. He asked who was the author of the work and commented in praise: "it is the work of a master, the Japanese are just now discovering concrete."

In 1942, Vilamjo began teaching Project subjects for 4th and 5th grades at the School of Architecture after the demise of the teacher who taught a great many generations, Joseph Carré.

In 1944, he was commissioned with the project for the construction of the Annex Storage to Confitería La Americana.

In 1945, Vilamajó was appointed Director of the Urban Development Plan for Villa Serrana. In 1946, he built Ventorrillo de la Buena Vista. In 1947, he began the construction of Mesón de las Cañas.

United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island

The prestige he had reached at this point, allowed him to be selected in the same year as an external consultant for the project of the United Nations headquarters. There, he was part of an international group of architectural consultants chosen by the project coordinator, the American architect Wallace Harrison. Le Corbusier was also part of this group, while the Brazilian Niemeyer and Julio Vilamajó were the only Latin Americans. Le Corbusier defended for the rest of his life that his proposal, called "scheme 23A”, had been chosen. However, after having finished the UN project, when the architect Justino Serralta was working at Le Corbusier's study, he commented on Vilamajó, his Uruguayan professor: "A great architect... he made my life impossible on the UN matter, precisely because he's a great architect, he would do anything to show me that what I was doing was not right." The rivalry environment generated by this New York assignment was extremely harmful for Vilamajó. It worsened his hypertension issue and he came back to Uruguay ill, when the consulting teamwork had been done. Wallace Harrison, the Project Coordinator, acknowledged Vilamajó's work and suggestions for the project. Harrison wrote a note to Vilamajó in which he said: "I can't let you leave the country without first telling you how much I personally appreciate the sacrifice you did at the expense of your health, by staying until completing the United Nation studies. Your help on this project has been beyond value and it's been a great pleasure working in close contact with you these few last months." After the consulting team's last work session, Harrison had to choose an advisor team to keep working. He selected Soilleux, Nowicki, Havlicek, Noskov, and Vilamajó from the original group of consultants and advisors. Vilamajó kept working very responsibly from Montevideo, despite his health issues, until he died.

Further reading

Books:

References

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