The Unknown Brutalist Architect Who Shaped the Urbanism of Marbella

The film The Brutalist takes its title from the style of architecture that emerged after the Second World War and had its heyday from the 1960s onwards, characterized by the use of concrete and strong geometric shapes. Through László Tóth, a fictional character, he recreates the life of a Hungarian Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust – inspired by other real people such as Marcel Breuer, Louis Kahn and Paul Rudolph – and who emigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream.

The Madrid architect Fernando Higueras was an accomplished modeler of exposed reinforced concrete, willing to show the limestone structure in a natural way. A lover of imposing volumes and simple lines, with an expressiveness that was sometimes free and asymmetrical, and other times more classic and calm, he had been experimenting with the use of concrete and hanging gardens for some time when he received the commission to build Las Terrazas de las Lomas del Marbella Club, more than forty years ago.