Olalquiaga Arquitectos was born in 1994 when Rafael Olalquiaga Soriano started a second phase of his career, after having worked for 35 years with the architect Ramón Vázquez Molezún. During those years he also worked closely with José Antonio Corrales. Corrales and Molezún are the two big names of Spanish architecture of the second half of the 20th century, pioneers, together with other masters, in the modernization of Spanish architecture. This modernization contributed important works that today are a reference for later generations, but also, and almost more importantly, it provided a clear and precise way of thinking, of drawing, of creating, of seeing architecture.

At Olalquiaga Arquitectos we are natural heirs to this architectonic method that Rafael learnt with Molezún and Corrales, and that later on Pablo and Alfonso have learnt from Rafael, once they joined the studio after exposure to different experiences at the beginning of their professional careers. We inherited this legacy with its particular way of thinking and a specific creative and work philosophy at Olalquiaga Arquitectos and apply it faithfully from the genesis of a project to its full development.

The reflection needed to write these lines that serve as a preface to this publication, led us to try and define what constitutes our way of doing and thinking. We work from a geometric approximation, without losing sight of a humanist understanding of architecture. The production of sketches and models (fundamental, before, now, and always) is mixed in with conversations about how the spaces will be lived in and enjoyed, how the shapes will be seen from the city, from the garden. This humanist approximation is poetic when it needs to be, but always conscious that functionality is fundamental, understood as the necessary complementary part that allows architecture to achieve its final goal: to serve man and society.