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Born in Fuentidueña de Tajo (Madrid) on April 30, 1871, he was the eldest of five brothers born in different cities in Spain. Lafuente lived his childhood between Madrid and Manila, under the strong influence of a father, also named Abelardo and no less bold than his firstborn. In pursuit of his personal fulfillment and professional growth, and being a civil servant in Spain, Lafuente Sr. requested a professional transfer to the Philippines, having at that time three other children in addition to Abelardo, who was twelve years old. In his mid-teens, he was sent to Spain to study, where he started to study Architecture in Madrid, and, later, to do military service. Despite the distance, Lafuente Jr. will be notably influenced by his father's prolific career in Manila.​

 

Abelardo Lafuente Almeda (Málaga 1848-Manila 1900) had left Spain in 1883 when he was working as a 4th Forest Engineer. In Manila, he ended up occupying the position of assistant to the Municipal Architect of Manila, Juan José Hervás y Arizmendi (1851-1912), between 1892 and 1896, the year in which he became Acting Municipal Architect, until 1898. Despite the end of the Spanish colony in that same year, Lafuente Almeda continued working until 1900, the year in which he died in the house built by himself in the District of Santa Cruz.

 

For his part, and after marrying in Madrid in 1894, Abelardo Lafuente García-rojo began to work for the national railway company MZA. A few years later, and as his father had done a decade before, he decided to move to Manila in 1898, despite temporarily leaving his wife and two of his children, Gloria and Enrique Lafuente Ferrari (1898- 1985). It is more than likely that due to his notable interest in architecture and art, and influenced by his and his father's travels, Lafuente continued learning the trade in the turbulent 1898 of Manila. In two years of intense learning and knowledge of the terrain with his father, Abelardo Lafuente settles in the Philippines and achieves well-deserved recognition among the abundant Spanish community.​

 

Even so, he decided to go to Shanghai, with a previous trip to some neighboring countries and a visit to Europe that included Madrid, where he was reunited with his family and, surely, took note of the predominant orthodoxy of the Madrid School in the notable works by Velázquez Bosco or Juan de Villanueva, among others. He made the trip (Autumn 1913)from Madrid to Shanghai by Transiberian train, through at least five other European countries in which he absorbed the architectural styles and construction customs dominant at that time and which would transport his future clients to a multicultural and buoyant Shanghai at all levels.

 

In Shanghai and at the mercy of the ease and freedom with which foreigners moved and invested in one of the most extravagant and opulent cities in the world in those years, he knew how to get ahead, not without great initial difficulties, and succeed like no other Spanish architect in Asia.

 

His triumphant figure is only comparable to that of his patron, partner and friend, Antonio Ramos Espejo (Alhama de Granada 1878-Madrid 1944). This binomial is essential to understand the success of both: self-made characters, who had met in the Philippines, and who because of their professions (both adopted) relied on each other to progress. Ramos became the “King of Cinema” in China, owning up to seven movie theaters between Shanghai and nearby cities, and some of those buildings he commissioned from his friend from Madrid, who built at least two of those cinemas, his room being the largest. important and well-known Olympic Cinema (1914) (later Embassy Cinema). Together they also undertook the construction of apartment buildings with capital from the man from Granada and a project from the man from Madrid, and even created a Social Club and a motor vehicle export-import company.​

 

Together with other Spaniards, such as the naturalized Sephardic Albert Cohen, who opened the doors of the city's Jewish community, Lafuente carried out projects for commercial and industrial use, among which three garages for Cohen stand out, the most significant of which was the Star Garage (1915) on Bubbling Well Road. Furthermore, he built his first Spanish villa in reinforced concrete and Spanish neo-Moorish style for a Mr. French (1915).​His insightful vision of the architectural business led him to associate, after a few years of taking off in solitude, with the American architect G. O. Wootten (1916-1919), which allowed him to participate in, and win, architectural competitions organized by North American institutions, as well as carry out residential, industrial and commercial projects for clients in that community. The American (1918) and Jewish (1919) social clubs are examples of this.

 

At that time he began his collaboration with the most important hotel company in Asia, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH), for which he created almost all the interior spaces of hotels in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The professional relationship with Wootten continued to be fruitful even when both stopped being partners and Lafuente kept the studio alone (1919-1924). Despite the separation, he still kept the HSH company as a client for a decade, between 1916 and 1926. From that period are two of the most notable dance halls of his career, the Astor House, which he renovated twice (1917 and 1923) and that of the Majestic Hotel in 1924, where Chiang Kai-shek celebrated his wedding.

 

The five-year period 1919-1924, in which Abelardo Lafuente carried out his study alone, was the most notable period in his career, in which he developed examples of the eclectic Spanish neo-Arabic style, somewhat heterodox, which he introduced to an international Shanghai of whom he was able to glimpse the interest in the Arabizing eclecticisms coming from Spain. The most representative work of this style and the culmination of his career was the summer residence for Antonio Ramos (1924), north of the city, on whose adjacent plot he built, as an investment and with Ramos as a partner, the Ramos Apartments (1924) where famous chinese writer Luxun lived later.​

 

At some point during these years, the Russian architect A. J. Yaron began working for Lafuente, who a few years later would become his partner (1925-28). From this combination, large projects of great formal interest will emerge for notable clients, members of the Russian community and other minorities, as well as the prosperous Chinese community, which was beginning to stand out from the foreign one.

 

From this period, it is worth highlighting the Lafuente Building nowadays known as Central Apartments (1926), in the heart of the city, and numerous projects that were never built, reflecting the increase in competition in the city.

 

In fact, one of the most controversial decisions of Lafuente's professional career will be to keep a studio open in Shanghai, managed by his Russian partner, while he goes to the United States to open a second office. Upon his arrival on the California coast, Lafuente plans a hotel, prepares the proposal for another in Panama and begins a single-family home for a client of Spanish origin (1928), in addition to investing in his own house "Villa Sevilla" in Bel Air (1927-28), which wants to build with the best materials, and which today remains standing under the erroneous name of Casa Granada. However, the Wall Street Crash frustrates his investments and plans and forces him, harassed by debts, to leave the country to avoid problems with the North American Treasury. He temporarily settles in Tijuana (Mexico) where he works for a year and a half to earn income. As always and due to his entrepreneurial nature, in addition to working for others, he undertook the creation of a “Spanish Social and Charity Club” in Tijuana (1930-31) together with a local partner.​

 

When Lafuente finally returns to Shanghai, he is given an exceptional welcome. He appears in the press with notable dedications and memories of his work and is invited to share his learning on the other side of the Pacific. However, a lung illness contracted just before embarking in San Francisco worsened significantly during the two months of sailing. After just two months of living in Shanghai, Lafuente died in the city that saw him triumph, while he was staying at the Astor House Hotel.

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References:
LEONARDO PÉREZ, Álvaro (2019). Abelardo Lafuente García-Rojo (1871-1931), un arquitecto español en China (Madrid: Universidad Alcalá de Henares, unpublished PhD thesis). 
LEONARDO PÉREZ, Álvaro (2019). "Overnight at the Crossroads: Abelardo Lafuente's Architectural Legacy for 'The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd.' in Shanghai", Built Heritage, vol. 3, núm. 3, 21-33. 

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Recommended citation:
Leonardo Pérez, Álvaro. “About: Abelardo Lafuente”, www.abelardolafuente.com, [consultation date], http://www.abelardolafuente.com/about-lafuente-shanghai

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