PORCELAIN KIN

Nestled in Spain’s lush northwestern corner, just above Portugal, lies the region of Galicia. Known for its verdant landscape, bagpipes, and the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, Galicia is also home to a holy grail for design lovers: the Sargadelos porcelain factory. The factory’s products draw inspiration from the region’s rich cultural heritage, with its pre-Roman history, language, and traditions that have historically been suppressed by Spanish centralization efforts. The pieces incorporate traditional motifs like cruceiros (carved stone crosses), mythological figures, and intricate geometric patterns, and are set apart by their stunning cobalt blue glaze. Achieved with an intricate firing process using locally sourced cobalt oxide, the bold hue provides a striking contrast against the porcelain’s crisp white backdrop.

But the story of Sargadelos goes beyond a company that’s perfected the transmission of a particular set of cultural signatures. With the radically modern aim of resuscitating a regional history under siege, the company’s civic vision persevered in the face of censorship, postwar recovery, fascism, and religious zealotry.

Founded as a steel mill by Antonio Raimundo Ibáñez in 1791, Sargadelos pivoted to ceramics in 1806, when new factories were flourishing under royal and colonial patronage. They became a royal supplier and, thanks to nearby kaolin deposits, one of the first Spanish factories to experiment with and develop creamware products. The company continued to prosper despite the disruptions of the Spanish War of Independence (1808–1833) against the occupying French Empire. However, Ibañez’s alleged ties to the French ultimately led to the closure of the establishment in 1875.

The story of Sargadelos picked up once again at the dawn of the 20th century, as Modernism bloomed in Spain against a backdrop of political turmoil. Avant-garde philosophies of art and design swept the European continent with figures like Walter Gropius, Josef Hoffmann, and William Morris leading the way. Ushering in bold, functional aesthetics, the Modernists stripped away lavish ornamentation, embraced industrial materials and processes, and drew inspiration from nature and medieval craft.

Enter Isaac Díaz Pardo (1920–2012), a seminal figure in Galicia’s cultural milieu. Deeply affected by the victory of Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces, Díaz Pardo fused Modernism with traditional arts and crafts to both adapt and preserve Galician identity against the homogenizing pressures of the fascist regime. Beginning with a modest ceramics workshop near La Coruña that grew into the thriving Cerámica do Castro factory, Pardo then expanded his venture internationally to Argentina, founding the Porcelanas de Magdalena. It was during this Argentine sojourn that Pardo met Luís Seoane, the preeminent Galician artist in exile.

In 1963, Díaz Pardo and Seoane, along with other intellectuals, established the Laboratorio de Formas, a nonprofit dedicated to reclaiming the avant-garde art lost under Franco while continuing to explore the fusion of art and industry. In their 1970 “Manifiesto del Laboratorio de Formas,” they proclaimed their intention to invigorate modern industrial design, honor the past, and revitalize Galicia’s cultural landscape through communal work, anonymity, and continuous experimentation.

The Laboratorio’s project exemplifies architectural critic Kenneth Frampton’s notion of “critical regionalism,” first introduced in Perspecta in 1983. Writing during the height of architectural Postmodernism, Frampton advocated for universal modern tenets inflected by regional contexts and geography, striking a thoughtful balance between place and design. Frampton quotes French philosopher Paul Ricouer’s History and Truth: “It is a fact: every culture cannot sustain and absorb the shock of modern civilization. There is the paradox: how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization.”

The Laboratorio found a way through Ricouer’s paradox by reopening the Sargadelos factory in 1970 and using nearby kaolin deposits to experiment with a diverse range of products. For help realizing their vision, Pardo and Seoane turned to Andrés Fernández-Albalat (1920–2019), the Galician architect renowned for reshaping the region’s architecture with his innovative, minimalist designs. The renovation of the original Sargadelos factory, reopened in 1970, began with the concept of a circular floor plan designed to streamline production and facilitate future expansion. Despite its bucolic setting, the stark construction was decidedly functionalist and practically urban. Every aspect of the factory, from trolleys and office furniture to shelving units and factory signage, was custom made to align with the Lab’s holistic vision of “total design.”

In their renovated facility, the Laboratorio studied Galician forms and applied them to industrial objects, namely ceramics, pottery, and ornamental pieces. Their hallmark white glaze with cobalt blue accents, which paid homage to Sargadelos’ history while incorporating a refreshed, modern design sensibility, quickly became a cherished Galician emblem.

Research was crucial to the Laboratorio’s development. When they reopened the factory, the Lab created a ceramic studies seminar to examine the history of Galician art and culture from Paleolithic times to the 20th century. This research was disseminated through journals and books published under Ediciós do Castro, the company’s publishing arm. The Laboratorio also collaborated with artists both locally and globally, including Xosé Vizoso, El Último Grito, Francisco Leiro, Martín Azúa, and more recently, David Chipperfield. This profound integration of research, pedagogy, collaboration, and production made Sargadelos an industrial and cultural tour de force.

The Sargadelos and Castro factories operated under Díaz Pardo’s leadership until the early 2000s. The kilns still run today, though to more commercial ends, having set aside the cultural mantle of the Laboratorio de Formas. But the legacy of the Laboratorio’s diverse endeavors is a testament to the complexity of contact between Modernism and particular regional contexts. Sargadelos pioneered a kind of radical regionalism. The word radical stems from the Latin word radix (or radic) meaning “root.” It’s a contradiction that Sargadelos so elegantly embodies: the disruptive and transformative nature of something radical springs from what’s been there all along.