Hotel Claridge. A través del espejo

Architects usually prepare extensive documents with the measurements and budgets of the construction materials to be used, as if it were a simply executable instruction manual; but we tend to forget that the main construction materials are space and time, which are more elusive to us when defining and apprehending them. Addressing the construction of a hotel leads us to be precise in its uses and in the relationships that are established between the different spaces of it, categorising and ordering them, and it is such a complex task that we run the risk of understanding that Architecture resides in that strict process. The Claridge Hotel presents this double duality: on the one hand, the purely functionalist of the building that is built to house a use and that must comply with it; and, on the other hand, that of being a mirror in which the architecture is reflected. And, even more, aspire to reflect the context and spirit of the society in which it arises. Because architecture must meet the requirements for which it is built, but at the same time, it must be a legacy of the society that raises it towards posterity. The unique circumstances that accompany the history of the Claridge Hotel allow it to have been able to meet both conditions, being today a time capsule where the essences of Brutalism are preserved, intact in the Iberian context. The Claridge preserves the heritage values ​​of the second half of the 20th century, as if it were an insect trapped in amber, waiting to be discovered by the next generations; as in an exercise in fictional archeology.