Josep Lluís Sert was a Spanish architect. He studied at the v.
During a trip to Paris in 1926, Sert extensively studied the work of Le Corbusier, whom he met during the visit. The following year, he joined Le Corbusier's studio and collaborated with him for several years. In 1930, he began designing his first buildings, which reflected an unmistakable Mediterranean style through their white color and profusion of light. At the same time, these buildings lacked ornaments and other unnecessary elements, making them the first rationalist buildings in Spain. Among these works are the Central Antituberculosis Dispensary and the Residential Building on Muntaner Street, both in Barcelona. Another notable building by the same architect, of much less importance but closer to his place of origin, is the CEIP Los Conventos school in Martorell, completed before the Spanish Civil War, although he did not finish it due to the war, and therefore is not credited as the architect of that building.
Together with other architects, Sert was a founding member of GATEPAC (Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture). Sert also attended the initial meetings of CIAM, the international congresses of modern architecture, from its second convocation in 1929 in Frankfurt, eventually becoming its president after Le Corbusier.
After the Civil War, he was repressed by the Franco government and barred from practicing architecture. In 1941, he went into exile in the United States, where he co-founded an architecture and urban planning firm called Town Planning Associates with other architects. The firm executed various urban projects, particularly in Latin America, such as the pilot plan for Havana.
After a year of teaching architecture at Yale University, Sert was appointed dean of the School of Design at Harvard University in 1953, a position he held until 1969. In 1955, he founded a new architectural firm with several partners, which carried out projects throughout the United States, including commercial, residential, institutional, and office buildings. Within the university environment, Sert designed several buildings that are among his most representative works and reflect the Mediterranean atmosphere that he maintained in his designs throughout his professional life.
In 1981, he received the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia and in 1982 the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts.
Sources
Buildings
Barcelona, Spain
Apartment block