Una utopía cerámica: el ladrillo repensado
A Ceramic Utopia: Rethinking Brick

Instituto de Microbiología Ramón y Cajal  Institute of Microbiology Ramón y Cajal
1949-1956, Madrid

Instituto laboral  Labor Institute
1950-1953, Daimiel (Ciudad Real)

Colegio Apostólico de Arcas Reales Arcas Reales Dominican Fathers’ Catholic School 
1952-1953, Valladolid

Centro de Formación del Profesorado  Teacher Training Center
1952-1957, Madrid

Teologado de los PP Dominicos  Theological Center of the Dominican Fathers
1955-1958, Madrid

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Coronación  Church of Nuestra Señora de la Coronación
1957-1960, Vitoria

Persistencias vernáculas: la sabiduría del pueblo 
Vernacular Persistences: Popular Wisdom

Los 60  The 60s
Huesos para el desarrollo  Bones for Development

Libertades cotidianas: desde el Cerro del Aire 
Everyday Freedom: on the Cerro del Aire

La arcadia de hormigón: innovaciones patentes 
The Concrete Arcadia: Patent Innovations

Laboratorios farmacéuticos Made  Made Pharmaceutical Laboratories 
1960-1967, Madrid

Centro de Estudios Hidrográficos  Center for Hydrographic Studies
1960-1963, Madrid

Parroquia de Santa Ana  Santa Ana Parish Church  
1965-1971, Madrid

Laboratorios Jorba  Jorba Laboratories 
1965-1967 Madrid

Edificio IBM  IBM Office Building 
1966-1969, Madrid

Bodegas Garvey  Garvey Winery
1969-1974, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)

Lógicas estructurales: el cálculo y la fábrica 
Structural Logic: on Calculations and Fabrics

Los 70 y los 80  The 70s and 80s
Pieles en la transición  Skins in Transition

Experiencias privadas: de Alcobendas a Almagro 
Private Experiences: from Alcobendas to Almagro

El tacto de los sueños: los encofrados flexibles 
The Weave of Dreams: Flexible Formworks

Centro de rehabilitación Mupag  Mupag Rehabilitation Center
1969-1973, Madrid

Hotel Tres Islas  Hotel Tres Islas
1970-1973, Fuerteventura

Casa Pascual de Juan en la Moraleja  Pascual de Juan House in La Moraleja 
1973-1975, Madrid

Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Altamira  Nuestra Señora de Altamira Parish
1983-1991, Madrid

Centro social de las Hermanas Hospitalarias Hermanas Hospitalarias Social Center
1985-1986, Ciempozuelos (Madrid)

Oficinas de la Caja del Mediterráneo  Caja del Mediterráneo Office Building
1988-1990, San Juan (Alicante)

Escenarios gimnásticos: un epílogo provisional
Gymnastic Stages: a Provisional Epilogue

Obras y proyectos Works and Projects

The restless vis of the young Fisac is channelled through a scientific campus in Madrid and an array of academic and religious projects in Castile that express well his dual inclination towards knowledge and the spirit, on top of a lively curiosity that leads him to cross the almost impervious borders of an isolated country, and change his outlook from the academic classicism and metaphysical severity of his beginnings to the functionalist empiricism and cautious organicism of his later professional work. Those organs of autarchy would be ideological offshoots of a regime oblivious to the movement of the world, but also fertile wombs where the seeds of change would begin to grow.

The firm cupiditas of the mature architect delivers a broad harvest of innovative works, industrial buildings for laboratories or factories and research headquarters (located mainly in the Spanish capital) that widely use his most important invention, the prestressed hollow concrete beams which he named bones, and whose elegant technical and sculptural optimism convincingly illustrates the moment of economic boom in a country which is gradually opening its doors to goods and ideas from abroad. Those bones for development would give structural support to the growth of that prosperous period, and serve as symbol of the success of an architect in tune with a fast-paced country.

The introspective amor of the last Fisac is neatly displayed in a series of works that go all the way from the churches and welfare centers in Madrid to the hotels and offices in tourist areas, buildings where he experimented with a new type of facade made using flexible formworks – a construction system that with the help of plastic sheet and wire gives concrete a soft or tormented appearance –, an antithetical ornament which reflects the uncertainty of the times and the vicissitudes of his own career. These skins in transition are doubly so, because they refer both to the shallow changes in a postmodern democracy and to the interior mutations of an increasingly secret architect.

The canonical humanistic triad marks and closes the territory of Fisac with a circular triangle that moves from pure to practical reason, and then to the critique of judgement, covering the itinerary between science, ethics and aesthetics to illustrate with this geometrical oxymoron the opposition virtus-fortuna, the ultimate dilemma of a professional or a personal trajectory, and that the biography of this universal Spanish architect bridges with unique success.