SEAT’s architecture in Spain (1957-1973)

Abstract

SEAT was one of the Spanish companies that, in the 1950s, bet on modernity in, what was then, a technologically backward country. Its founder, José Ortiz-Echagüe, appreciated the importance of having an avant-garde image as well as the advanced technology that could place his company among the most important ones within the European automotive industry at the time. 1957 and 1973 marked the beginning and end of production of SEAT’s most emblematic car, the ‘600’ model; it was also the period when some of the company’s most important buildings, designed by the pioneers of modern architecture in Spain, were built.