Secundino Zuazo

The best known of his works are the Casa de las Flores and Nuevos Ministerios of Madrid (whose construction he did not direct).

A trip that he took to Netherlands and other parts of central Europe left an impression on him of the rationalistic and simple design of the architecture of those areas.

Upon returning to Spain, he showed a keen interest in collective housing projects, with a view to improving the sanitary conditions prevalent during that time in Spanish cities.

[1] Before the Civil War had broken out and Secundino had fled to France, he was commissioned by Indalecio Prieto, the minister of Public Works, to design a complex that would house the ministries.

After Secundino fled, the building was completed by a group of architects chosen by the Fascist regime.

There are suspicions that Zuazo shaped the plant as the Communist emblem of the hammer and sickle, since he was a supporter of the Soviet Union.

Before Secundino started work on this project, Madrid's bourgeois architecture was infamous for its showy facades and excessively ornate corner towers.