Ignacio Araujo, first director of the University's School of Architecture dies

Ignacio Araujo Múgica, architect and first director of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra has died in Pamplona. He was 95 years old.

Throughout his career, Ignacio Araujo (Madrid, 1929) participated in the construction of more than a dozen buildings for the University of Navarra in Pamplona. He also designed 1,400 housing units in the capital of Navarra, Navarre and the Basque Country. Among his projects are: the high school Mayor Aralar high school Mayor 1957-1959), the first Library of the University of Navarra (1965), the Clínica Universidad de Navarra - second and third phases (1965 and 1971), the Humanities Library of the University of Navarra (1998), Tower I and Tower II of the high school Mayor Belagua high school Mayor (1968) and the high school Mayor Olabidea high school Mayor (1994).

Four of the buildings designed by Professor Araujo together with Juan Lahuerta Vargas were distinguished with the Iberian DoCoMoMo plaque, which recognizes the most emblematic projects of the Modern Movement: in Pamplona, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and its Phase II and the first Library of the University of Navarra; in Vitoria, the collective housing on Florida Street.   

Ignacio Araujo obtained a degree scroll in architecture in 1955 from the School of Architecture in Madrid. In 1961 he moved to Pamplona to work in the early days of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura. After its foundation, in 1964, he was appointed director, a position he held until 1970. Subsequently he was director programs of study 1970-1975) and Deputy Director (1975-1989). His dedication to teaching is reflected in his publications.

Since 1956 he was a member of the Official Basque-Navarran high school of Architects. In 1979, he obtained the Chair of Architectural Projects at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

"Ignacio Araujo was the first director of the School and the person most committed to its development. A master of masters, he was also a great architect, author of many of the buildings that make up the campus of the University of Navarra. But, above all, for those of us who knew and admired him, he was an extraordinary example of life," said Mariano González Presencio, architect and professor at the School.

For his part, Carlos Naya, director of the School of Architecture, wanted to recall "his generosity, always putting himself in the background and caring for the good of the University and others".