Germán Rodríguez Arias
Barcelona, 1902 — 1987
Born in Barcelona in 1902, Germán Rodríguez Arias graduated in architecture in 1926. A founding member of GATCPAC, he was part of the generation that brought modern, rationalist thinking to Spain—committed to a form of architecture that was efficient, socially engaged, and honest in its use of materials. His early work includes key examples of that vision, such as the residential building at Vía Augusta 61 and the Astoria cinema on Carrer París, where echoes of the Bauhaus found a place in Barcelona’s urban fabric..
The Spanish Civil War interrupted his career. Drafted as an army officer in 1938, he went into exile after the Republic’s defeat, spending time in a French concentration camp before arriving in Chile in late 1939. There, he joined a network of fellow exiles, collaborated with local architects, and founded Muebles Sur to meet a growing demand for interior design. He designed the Café Miraflores in Santiago, a cultural hub for intellectuals, where Pablo Neruda became a regular—and later entrusted him with the renovation of his house in Isla Negra, a now-iconic project where memory, landscape, and architecture converge.
Rodríguez Arias spent nearly two decades working in Chile, creating projects such as the Cine Central Chillán, the Benguerel Laboratories, and the mountain shelters of Farellones. In 1957, he returned to Ibiza, where he continued to design private homes and small hotels in the island’s north. He died in 1987, leaving behind a quiet, coherent legacy—built between two shores, and rooted in restraint, sensitivity, and a deep sense of place.
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