Twentieth-century architecture on Ibiza.

Its authors were master builders and architects, though predominantly the former. The work of Juan Gómez Ripoll, nicknamed "Campos", a master builder who had been in Cuba, is the most original versions of this style.

Hotel Montesol -Gran Hotel- 1933.Paseo de Vara de Rey, 2. Ibiza.
Builder: Juan Gómez Ripoll.

The colonial style assumes its most representative form in Paseo Vara de Rey, just as the eighteenth-century and nineteenh-century styles are typified in Calle Pedro Tur. Twentieth-century builders could not have failed to notice the similarity between the centres of the upper town and the flat lower town since, having observed the relationship between the styles, they incorporated elements from the older style into their eclectic decorative repertoire.

The districts in the expansion of the city -"Sa Capelleta" (the present-day Vía Romana), S'Hort del Bisbe (beside Avenida Ignacio Vallis), Avenida España, and Es Viver- preserve a few examples of this style which formely characterized them.

Ventosa Factory. Avenida Ignacio Wallis, 1930. Ibiza.
Martin Guasch ( Assistant to Min. of Public Works).

The construction of roads favoured the spread of the style as houses were built along them, either detatched or grouped together in commercial associations. The present-day urban nucleus was formed in the parish ot San Rafael, the work of the builders Toni d'en Portmany and José Juan Bonet d'es Ferrer. The interplay between the porches facing the street and the street itself is most expressive. During the thirties architects of the Modern Movement such as Sert, Torres Clavé, Illescas Rodríguez Arias, Haussman, and Broner revealed to the cultural world on the peninsula, through the review AC. local rural architecture on Ibiza, thus marking the beginníng of the prestige it now enjoys.

Among the articles which appeared in the publication of the G.A.T.E.P.A.C. is one by Erwin Broner who, in an examination which is more objective and less concerned with the introduction of rationalist architecture in Spain, reveals a greater knowledge of the Ibiza house, recognizing the existence of a "fundamental type" and a harmony in the adaptations to concrete works of this traditional type, which he attributes to the "intuition" of the peasant. Broner and a few of the Spanish architects who visited the island then were to return there years later, and both he and Germán Rodríguez Arias settled permanently on the island

After the Spanish Civil War and, above all, during the 'fifties, Ibiza architecture began to search for its roots in the country.

The Ibiza architect's assistants, José Ferrer Viñas (Piset) and Jaime Mauri, who then colaborated with the Mallorcan architect Rafael Llabrés, introduced a personal style, popularly referred to by their own names, adapting the programmes and construction of those years to an interpretation of the rural house, and it was probably this interpretation which was later exported to the peninsula under the name of "estilo ibicenco" (Ibiza style).

During the 'sixties, a decade of world prosperity, a great social, economic and cultural change had its optimistic beginning on the island. Fruit of the tourist boom, it led to the apogee of the construction industry and to profound changes in the agricultural structure and the landscape.

It was during these years that the German painter and architect Erwin Broner built on Ibiza the major part of his architectural work which was, also, that which became best-known throughout the island (his 1935 bath-houses in Talamanca (A.C.No.21), now disappeared, had passed unnoticed).
Broner was thoroughly in love with the island and in his work he combined an interest in Le Corbusier's first villas with a language obtained from rural houses on Ibiza which he had come to know twenty years earlier. To this he joined a painstaking care in alteration works, such as the in district of "La Bomba" (No. 18), where he transformed the façades with great economy of expressive media and with all his painter's sensitivity, achieving here the clearest reflection of his personality.
His activity concentrated upon smaller constructions -one-family houses or small apartment blocks- of which there now remain about thirty. Together they constitute the most important twentieth-century contribution to the island's architeetural heritage.

Germán Rodríguez Arias and José Luis Sert were building on Ibiza at the same time. In the "Can Pep Simó" complex (Cap Martinet), planned by Sert, there are examples representative of both architects (No. 133). The houses designed by Sert approach rural architecture through a repertoire which combines spatial and decorative elements which are readily identifiable, with a varied combination of volumes.

Raimon Torres is the architect who, during the 'sixties, had the most diverse programme, ranging from the alteration of small premises to the construction of important hotels or apartment blocks; he was never to lose, however, his craftsman's vocation or the spirit of personal projection in his designs. Having completed his studies in Barcelona, he began his professional activity on Ibiza and it is here that he established his own style, orientated towards the definition of a modern "ibicenco" architecture applicable in a specific way to each different programme.

The 'seventies on Ibiza are a reflection of the architectural plurality of the moment, from the various examples of worldwide architecture to Rolph Blakstad's "ibicenco" -Phoenician historicism, passing through the populist decorative style or "estile transmeditteranéen" and less committed professional architecture which searches for its typical Ibiza qualities ("ibicenquismo") in versions of the last two decades. The most positive quality observable in almost every contemporary building is the contribution it makes to the uniform image of the indiscriminate mass of the island's present-day constructions.