Antonio Bonet Castellana

The work of the architect, urban planner and designer Bonet Castellana (1913-1989) spans the different processes characterising modern culture. He was one of the driving forces behind the artistic and architectural avant-garde movement of the 1930s and the creator of such emblematic works as the BKF chair (together with J. Ferrari-Hardoy and J. Kurchan, with whom he founded Grupo Austral in Argentina.) As Bonet Castellana put it, a building is like a piece of furniture and a piece of furniture can also be like a building, which occasionally made it difficult to dissociate his furnishing designs from his architectural projects. This book shows Bonet Castellana’s perseverance and coherence in his determination to integrate the different scales of the human habitat, exploring new materials and forms in order to ensure that his architecture and furniture served society. In addition to articles written by the architect himself and by renowned specialists, it also includes, as a publishing first, the facsimile edition of the three issues of Austral magazine, which he directed together with the other group members to foster the progress of architecture.