UTZON'S OFFSPRING. RESIDENCY IN CAN LIS
Among the many qualities present in Jørn Utzon's Can Lis is the ability to mix the Mediterranean and Scandinavian sensitivities so subtly and productively. The way it combines materiality and constructive logic, tactility and use of light, tectonic and poetic, austerity and spatiality, invests it with a unique character, rooted at the same time in the local and the universal. Much of its success is due precisely to the wise reinterpretation, in favour of the work, of a distant architectural tradition to his original Danish context. His insight into the construction methodologies, vernacular constructions, and material resources of Mallorca has had an undeniable impact on the subsequent development of its architectural culture. There is a photo taken during Can Feliz construction where Utzon is on top of the scaffolding, observing the development of the works very closely. This attitude synthesises an architectural approach that has become common in the younger generation of Mallorca's architects.
Three architects/teams belonging to a new generation have been selected to discuss (with them), analyse, and speculate about Utzon's most recent influence in Spanish architecture. Their architectural production has similarities that could be traced back to a common origin –Can Lis– and the renovated way Jørn Utzon interpreted the landscape of Mallorca. They are: TEd’A arquitectes, Aulets and Carles Oliver.
By examining others' work, we open up the opportunity of looking back and re-decoding Can Lis. Eventually, who is looking at who?, Utzon at the landscape of Mallorca?, the Spanish architects at him?, we at all of them? The Danish audience at this interpretation of their correlations? The landscape of Mallorca at all of us? Can Lis surface is not rough but specular.
