Diary 1969: Bernard Rudofsky’s personal account of his discovery of Frigiliana

Abstract

This quote from the catalogue of the wellknown 1960s MoMA exhibition entitled Architecture Without Architects could well be applied to the particular case of its author. At the end of that same decade, Bernard Rudofsky would choose the Spanish town of Frigiliana to design and build his own house, La Casa2 [Fig. 01], for which he had yearned since the 1930s, and which would finally come to an end in this idyllic corner of the peninsular periphery. Moreover, he would do so, following the quote, at a moment of full maturity, after having disseminated his ideas—among radicalism, eccentricity, and controversy—about architecture and domesticity through his exhibitions and writings3. Nevertheless, in addition, this “manifested physical freedom” would have to face quite a few difficulties that were reported in his detailed personal diaries.