Bankinter Building: An Archaeology of Technique by Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho

Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho's essay 'Arqueología de la técnica' examines the Bankinter building in Madrid, designed by Ramón Bescós and Rafael Moneo between 1972 and 1977. The text argues that the building transcends mere architectural citation—references to Venturi, Aalto, Kahn, Loos, Wright, Utzon, and Stirling—to become a statement on urban construction. A key focus is the brick cladding, which revived 19th-century pressed brick techniques, described by Moneo as 'forgotten' crafts. The stratified jambs express wall thickness, echoing historic Madrid masonry. Unlike the technological research in other 1970s Madrid bank headquarters or international high-tech, Bankinter employs a deliberate 'archaeology of technique,' using ceramic manufacture to form a precise contemporary volume. The author posits that history itself is a design material, contrasting with modernist orthodoxy of structural grid, lightness, and transparency. Moneo and Bescós propose a sustained discourse through the discreet craft of 'hilatura' (spinning) rather than disruptive singularity, praising necessary construction over the abyss of possibility. The essay includes references to Francisco López Hernández's bas-reliefs in the upper volume's vertical recesses, reminiscent of terracotta work on the Wainwright Building by Adler and Sullivan (1891), as noted by Gabriel Ruiz Cabrero.