Emilio Pérez Piñero: invention through abstraction

Abstract

Emilio Pérez Piñero represents the paradigm of the architect inventor of the twentieth century. His extraordinary mind developed through a series of special circumstances in the early stages of his life, and further, through his own disciplined dedication, he was able to produce a wealth of work of a richness and complexity that go beyond innovation and problem solving. Invention in Pérez Piñero’s work was the result of a masterly mathematical command and a highly developed three-dimensional vision, which enabled him to see possible solutions that had been considered impossible before him. His geodesic domes are true structural landmarks and his folding reticulated structures, in which dynamic folding mechanisms are designed so as to reach equilibrium when fully stretched at the point at which they become static structures, are the culmination of a body of work that has no comparison in the panorama of the architecture of the time.