Part of:

• Fonds: Ábalos&Herreros fonds, 1920-2009

People:

• Abalos & Herreros (archive creator)
• Abalos & Herreros (architectural firm)
• Iñaki Abalos (architect)
• Juan Herreros (architect)

Title:

Ábalos&Herreros fonds

Date:

1920-2009

Form:
archives

Level of archival description:
Fonds

Extent and medium:

• Approximately 22, 707 drawings (including approximately 18, 796 reprographic copies)
  21, 491 photographic materials
  1353 and 0.05 l.m. of graphic materials
  101 collages
  80 CDs (CDs, CD-Rs, CD-ROMs, CD-RWs)
  36 panels
  26 models
  20 floppy disks
  12 DVDs
  7 artefacts
  2 videocassettes
  1 audiocassette
  1 hard drive
  17.65 l.m. of textual records

Scope and content:
The Ábalos&Herreros fonds documents the professional work of architects Iñaki Ábalos and Juan Herreros. The fonds consists of photographic materials, architectural drawings, including conceptual, design development, presentation, and working drawings, as well as textual documentation, models, and born digital materials. Also inlcuded are materials regarding publications and exhibitions featuring the firms work. Materials in this fonds document the activities of the architectual firm Ábalos&Herreros over the course of its existence from 1985 to 2008.




The greatest concentration of work was produced in Madrid, Spain, where the firm kept its head office, and the Community of Madrid, but there were also a number of works executed in other autonomous communities of Spain, such as Castile and León, Extremadura, Canary Islands, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, and La Rioja. The firm also worked on projects outside of Spain including projects for Portugal, Germany, the United States, and Brazil.




The projects of the firm were diverse and covered several sectors of activity, such as mixed-use buildings, waste management facilities, residential buildings, government buildings, sports facilities, educational institutions, urban planning, institutional buildings, commercial buidlings, parks, transportation, etc. Series AP164.S1 documents the firms architectural projects, including exhibitions of their work, from 1986 to 2006.




Records related to the architects' work on publications and the firm's publishing house Liga Multimedia Internacional are arranged in series AP164.S2. Series AP164.S3 includes materials related to the promotional activities of the office and materials related to competitions, press reviews and general correspondence of the office. This series also contains materials related to their participation in juries and awards. Ábalos and Herreros' teaching and research activities are documented in the photographic materials of series AP164.S4, which includes slides used by the architects for their lectures and conferences.




Digital records in this fonds have not yet been processed.

Reference number:

AP164

Arrangement:

Material in this fonds was kept in the original order it was received. Documents were arranged by the donors prior to the archives arrival at the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA). Large drawings and reprographic copies are arranged according to project.

The fonds is arranged in four series: AP164.S1 Architectural projects; AP164.S2 Publications, AP164.S3 Office documentation and AP164.S4 Teaching and conferences.

Administrative history:

In 1984, the architects Iñaki Ábalos and Juan Herreros established the firm Ábalos&Herreros in Madrid, Spain. Renata Sentkiewicz became a partner of the firm in 2001. In 2008, the dissolution of the partnership Ábalos & Herreros led to the emergence of two new firms Ábalos+Sentkiewicz arquitectos and Herreros Arquitectos, both founded in 2006. Herreros also founded the Liga Multimedia Internacional in 1999 and “re-founded” Herreros Arquitectos in 2014.

The architects based their practice “[…] on a professional, academic and research profile” (1). Throughout the existence of Ábalos&Herreros, the firm developed over 160 projects in the fields of architecture and urban design. Significant projects built by the firm include: the Viviendas, locales y garajes en la M-30; Edificio administrativo por el Ministerio del Interior; Ayuntamiento y casa de la cultura de Cobeña; Casa y Studio Gordillo; Biblioteca Usera; Planta de reciclaje de residuos urbanos de Valdemingómez; Aula medioambiental y oficinas, Arico, Tenerife; Pabellón de gimnasia en el parque del Retiro; Barcelona Forum 2004; Plaza y torre Woermann, Las Palmas; Torres mixtas bioclimáticas en el Humedal de Salburúa, Vitoria, etc.

Ábalos&Herreros entered their work in numerous international exhibitions and expositions, and received multiple awards and honours. Individually, Herreros and Ábalos participated in international seminars, and held lectures, conferences and workshops. They were also members of jury panels for international competitions, awards, biennales, and expert committees. Ábalos also took part in the Scientific Committee of the Study Center of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) from 2005 to 2001 and was the curator of the CCA exhibit Sustainable? in 2007. Both architects have received several awards for their work and have also exhibited their work around the world.

The teaching and research activities of Herreros and Ábalos have been a significant part of both the architects’ careers. Juan Herreros is a full professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) of Columbia University, New York, and was a visiting professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture, New Jersey, from 2004-2007. In 2006, Herreros had teaching responsibilities as the Morgenstern Visiting Chair in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. Previously, he was a “Diploma Unit Master” at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1998-2000 and was an invited professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPF) from 1999-2000. Both Herreros and Ábalos were professors at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) from 1984-1988.

Similarly to Herreros, Ábalos has taught throughout his career. Since 2013, Ábalos is chair and professor in residence at the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, and began teaching at the GSD as early as 2009. He was a professor at the Barcelona Institute of Architecture (BIArch), from 2010-2012, and a visiting professor at Cornell University (2007-2008) and the Princeton University School of Architecture (2004-2007). Previously, Ábalos was chaired professor at ETSAM (2002) and in 1998 he taught as a “Diploma Unit Master” at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and was an invited professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPF). In 1995, Ábalos was a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) of Columbia University, New York.

Ábalos and Herreros jointly published: "Natural artificial” (1999); "Técnica y arquitectura en la ciudad contemporánea, 1950-1990" (1992); and "Le Corbusier, rascacielos" (1987).

Herreros and Ábalos also published work separately. Some of the titles published by Ábalos include: "La Buena Vida" (2000); "Campos de Batalla" (2005); "Atlas of the Picturesque" (vol. I 2005, vol. II 2007); "Naturaleza y Artificio" (2010); and "Alejandro de la Sota" (2010).

Some of the titles Herreros published or collaborated on include: "Dialogue architecture" (2013); "Housing and domestic space in the XXI century" (2008); "Isla ciudad and Cambio + energía + información : palacios de la diversión, Isla de San Miguel" (2004); and "Potteries Thinkbelt (PTb), 1964-66 : caducidad, educación y energía,” (2000).

References:

(1) Abalos & Herreros fonds, ARCH270977

Conditions governing access:

• Access by appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

• For copyright information or permission to reproduce material from the collection, please contact the CCA (reproductions@cca.qc.ca).

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

• Gift of Iñaki Ábalos and Juan Herreros in 2012

Custodial history:

• The archives of Ábalos&Herreros remained in the custody of the firm until its dissolution in 2008, upon which time a portion of the archive remained with Ábalos and a portion with Herreros. The Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) received the archive in 2012.

Archivist's note:

• The Ábalos&Herreros fonds was processed by Jennifer Préfontaine from June 2013-May 2016. It was re-processed by Anna Haywood and Alexandra Jokinen in 2020.

Location:

Madrid Spain

Credit line:
When citing the collection as a whole, use the citation:
Ábalos&Herreros fonds,
Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal.
When citing specific collection material, please refer to the object’s specific credit line.

Language of material:

• Spanish
• Catalan
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese

Contains:

• AP164.S1, Architectural projects, 1953-2009
• AP164.S2, Publications, 1920, 1990-2008
• AP164.S3, Office documentation, 1977-2006
• AP164.S4, Teaching and conferences, 1987-2006