Abstract

The growing heritage awareness that began in Spain during the 1980s made it possible a fertile field of new readings and actions regarding the city. It provided the architecture discipline with a heightened sensitivity towards the respect for the historic city. This study aims to trace and give an account of the operations carried out by the architect Juan Antonio Molina Serrano within this context. With this objective in mind, this study first analyses the starting conditions or some of the theoretical-critical assumptions that may have underpinned Molina’s trajectory, as well as the principal routes that have been associated to his projects. In this way, three main levels or categories of intervention are distinguished: 'appropriations or nuances', 'modifications or extensions' and, finally, those that seek to 'transcend the place and build a new place'. These can be understood as clarifying categories, as well as resonance boxes of Molina’s time and context. Furthermore, they can also be considered highly personal ways of operating, based on a principle or generative idea: first and foremost, building architecture consists of thinking of building a place.