Furniture in the work of Alejandro de la Sota #Alejandro de la Sota

Although his work as a designer is mostly unknown, Alejandro de la Sota made a great amount of furniture, lamps and other products during his career as an architect. It is especially important the collaboration with his brother, the painter Jesús de la Sota. Jesús assisted him in the development of all their prototypes in his workshop, designed some of the pieces of furniture in De la Sota’s buildings and opened in Madrid a shop for selling the furniture that he designed.

Which architect has not needed his own furniture, which he has designed by himself? Alejandro de la Sota, 1987

The Civil Government delegation in Tarragona is one of the best examples of comprehensive design in Spanish architecture. Since at this time there weren’t any industrial production of furniture in Spain, Alejandro de la Sota and his brother Jesús designed together every element inside the building. Coherence and control on the smaller scale of design lead them to draw details such as the handrails, which shape they repeated in the door handles. The furniture that they designed shares the characteristic geometric solidity of the building. Among the built-in pieces it is particularly noticeable the hall desk, apparently a solid marble block, while among the moveable pieces it is noticeable the wooden table for the waiting room, which won the H Muebles contest in 1960.

Among the furniture by Alejandro de la Sota they are particularly known the convertible chairs and the folding table that he designed in 1987. Although they weren’t produced for any specific building, they were born from De la Sota’s concern about the reduced living space in contemporary dwellings. They also share his capacity of offering “gold” instead of “brass”, meaning that he obtained the utmost results out of limited resources.