Rafael Manzano Martos, (born in Cadiz, Spain on November 6, 1936) is a Spanish architect. He was educated at the Superior Technical School of Architecture in Madrid. He was a disciple of Professors Gómez-Moreno, Torres Balbás, Fernando Chueca and Íñiguez Almech.
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Rafael Manzano Martos earned his degree from the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid in 1961, and his Doctorate in 1963. As a student under Professors Gómez-Moreno, Torres Balbás, Fernando Chueca and Íñiguez Almech, he specialized in historic studies and in the Theory and Techniques of Monument Restoration. He was also a collaborator at the School of Arab Studies in Madrid from 1956 to 1963, where he cultivated his interest in Islamic history and archaeology.[1]
In all of his works, he has expressed his faithfulness to the classical idiom and to the integration of his work in the urban setting or in the rural landscape. In his restorations of monuments, he has avoided any aggressive approach to the buildings of the past, respecting the architecture handed down and complementing it with a simple yet academic architecture that integrates into the monument without any visual aggression or turning it into a pretext for creating a contemporary work of questionable quality.
He has restored and consolidated the following monuments, among others:
Pharmacy, in Madrid.
the “Sobrado de los Monjes” Monastery in Corunna.
its Gothic-Mudejar brickwork in Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz).
Seville.
monographic museum.
surroundings.
projects for the enlargement of the Prado Museum (1972–74 and 1990).
Trade Hall), with reconstruction of its Almohad courtyard and garden and a new façade.
Hotel in Seville for Ciga-Hotel-España.
the access to Recogidas in Granada.
decorator M. Gavira).
belonging to the singer Julio Iglesias.
Coimbra), Portugal.
Seville (under construction).
Manzano is a member of several Spanish academic institutions, including the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the Royal Academies of the History and of Fine arts of Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz, Malaga, Ecija, Toledo and La Coruna, and the Academy of the Good Letters of Seville.
In Spain he received the Golden Medal of the Fine Arts of Spain and he is Commander of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio.
As for international prizes, in 2010 he was awarded with the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture for his entire career.
José Guerrero Lovillo, Rafael Manzano Martos, and Enrique de la Vega Viguera. Tres Estudios Sobre Sevilla. Sevilla: Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras, 1984.
Rafael Manzano Martos, Fernando Chueca Goitia and Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. La Qubba, Aula Regia En La España Musulmana /. Madrid : Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1994.
Rafael Manzano Martos. La Alhambra : El Universo Mágico De La Granada Islámica. Madrid: Grupo Anaya, 1992.
Manzano Martos, Rafael. El Jardín En La España Musulmana, edited by Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría. Sevilla: 1990.