Resumen de Drawing to see the historic city. Urban heritage in the drawing of Fernando Chueca Goitia
Javier Mosteiro, Valerie Magar Meurs
Abstract This article contemplates a question pending to study regarding the work of the architect and historian Fernando Chueca Goitia (Madrid, 1911-2004), a relevant personality in the culture of heritage preservation in Spain throughout the second half of the 20th century. It focuses on the intense relationship between Chueca’s drawings, carried out as a means of learning, and his research on the historic city.
Chueca’s reflections on urban heritage and its conservation, reflected in lucid –at times accusatory– publications, were articulated with a parallel graphic argumentation. The freehand drawings, vigorous, fast and effective, which he used to illustrate his texts are not mere accompanying illustrations.This paper is an approach to Chueca’s interest in the urban experience, viewed as a historical and living entity and, in relation to this, to that graphic action in which he combines the sensorial and intellectual dimensions. In all his drawings –extended to large urban centers such as Madrid, New York, Seville, Rome...– the constancy of a method conducive to knowing how to see architecture and the city can be seen.
