Edificio Rockefeller (literally Rockefeller Building) is the popular name of a building in Madrid, Spain that is headquarters of Instituto Nacional de Física y Química (National Institute of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

). Opened in 1932, Edificio Rockefeller is located within the central campus of the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), According to architects

Manuel Sánchez Arcas Manuel Sánchez Arcas (1897–1970) was a Spanish Modernist architect. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) he served in the Republican government as Undersecretary for Propaganda. After the Republican defeat he went into exile in Moscow, Wa ...

and Luis Lacasa, the building was named Edificio Rockefeller because the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

in the United States funded its construction and equipment. The architects were selected to bring to the building the new principles of rationalist functionalism. Lafuente1, A and Saraiva, T. (2004). The Urban Scale of Science and the Enlargement of Madrid (1851-1936). ''Social Studies of Science'', vol. 34(4): 531-569. Edificio Rockefeller owes its historical reputation for the work performed there until the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. Some of the most important physical and chemical scientists in Spanish history

Blas Cabrera Blas Cabrera y Felipe (May 20, 1878 – August 1, 1945) was a Spanish physicist. He worked in the domain of experimental physics with focus in the magnetic properties of matter. He is considered one of the greatest scientists of Spain and one ...

Miguel A. Catalán Miguel Antonio Catalán y Sañudo (1894–1957) was a Spanish spectroscopy, spectroscopist. Biography Miguel Antonio Catalán y Sañudo was born in Zaragoza, he obtained his degree in chemistry from the University of Zaragoza and received his ...

and Enrique Moles, were part of this first Spanish school of physics and physical chemistry.

References

Buildings and structures in El Viso neighborhood, Madrid {{Spain-struct-stub