The bus leaves the passengers not at the house, but on a road next to it. The road leads them to the entrance, where the guide asks the visitors to take off their shoes so that they can start the tour, barefooted. The rest of the documentary places its narrative around Guadalupe Acedo, but that's a different story, one which I strongly recommend you to watch.
I've just told you briefly the beginning of one of the most popular and successful modern movies about architecture from the last decade, the very known “Koolhaas Houselife". It is a documentary, made by the Italian Ila Bêka and the French Louise Lemoîne, about the house in Bordeaux by Rem Koolhaas.
From the act of veneration that the visitors show to the house by taking their shoes off, to the fact that this is one of the buildings that has received heritage protection so soon; the distance that this movie marks with the appreciation of the recently demolished by owners of Casa Guzmán by Alejandro de la Sota, by all the responsible administration and other institutions, is enormous.
There has already been a precedent of such pathetic nonsense, the famous Pagoda by Fisac, which was decatalogued because the responsible figures had put their personal opinion over the knowledge.
I've just told you briefly the beginning of one of the most popular and successful modern movies about architecture from the last decade, the very known “Koolhaas Houselife". It is a documentary, made by the Italian Ila Bêka and the French Louise Lemoîne, about the house in Bordeaux by Rem Koolhaas.
From the act of veneration that the visitors show to the house by taking their shoes off, to the fact that this is one of the buildings that has received heritage protection so soon; the distance that this movie marks with the appreciation of the recently demolished by owners of Casa Guzmán by Alejandro de la Sota, by all the responsible administration and other institutions, is enormous.
There has already been a precedent of such pathetic nonsense, the famous Pagoda by Fisac, which was decatalogued because the responsible figures had put their personal opinion over the knowledge.
And once again, there are no comments from either the Comunidad de Madrid, the city council, the Official College of Architects of Madrid, Consejo Superior de Arquitectos, or any other Architectural Schools of Madrid.
This new demolition shows the tremendous distance that separates us from some countries (and it is not relevant that in some other the similar nonsenses happen). In the case of France, where the above mentioned movie takes place, it is not the actual physical distance, we are neighbours, but it is cultural, and it's oceanic.
The only link that we can find with the documentary is the pilgrimage, in this case, one of the young students is sent by their professors to visit and to draw the Casa Guzmán, as the first exercise of initiation in their studies. The difference is that coming to the house by Alejando de la Sota, instead of taking part in this procession of admirers that visits the Koolhaas´s building, the students get a punch from reality, finding themselves in a terrible nightmare, literally, because as the reader can see in the picture provided by the Fundación de Alejandro de la Sota, what is there now, in its place, looks more like a house from a horror movie, let´s say…for example, Alfred Hitchcock´s Psycho. The only thing that we can hear is a terrified scream coming from the shower of reality from the students that were going to draw it… but we are only talking about the movie now, not about reality; because the movie was fiction, and the Casa Guzmán is now also fictional.
How is it possible that in all these years any institution, public or collegiate, hasn’t´t realised the need for protection of the work of such an architect as Alejandro de la Sota? How is it possible that nobody has listened to the foundation that carries his name? Why is there not any real promotion to defend contemporary architectural culture?
Isn´t it the role of the collegiate institutions to look after and insist on protecting architectural heritage sites? And isn´t it also the role of public institutions to watch over heritage sites, like our neighbours do?
There are too many questions without answers… too much bluff and too little real action, and if not… I´m referring to the facts.
Isn´t it the role of the collegiate institutions to look after and insist on protecting architectural heritage sites? And isn´t it also the role of public institutions to watch over heritage sites, like our neighbours do?
There are too many questions without answers… too much bluff and too little real action, and if not… I´m referring to the facts.
