ACTIVITY
Taujel is a company dedicated exclusively to the design, restoration and construction of wooden structures, mostly involving the traditional techniques of Spanish structural carpentry, such as roof frameworks, beam and panel ceilings and Mudéjar ceilings. The work they do ranges from advising on restorations of… historic buildings to the execution of traditional Mudéjar wooden ceilings, including all tasks linked to carpentry applied to building.
In the material execution of their work they use manual methods with traditional tools as well as mechanical tools, and even numerical control machinery for certain tasks whose complexity would otherwise involve disproportionate cost.
In design, today’s computerised processes are of great help, as there are countless repetitive tasks that also require the utmost precision. Digital mechanisation of woodwork, applied judiciously, is also helpful, and in some work is to an extent necessary in order to compete in cost terms with today’s industrial construction. But one must be alert and apply common sense in order to prevent technology from displacing craftsmanship, for beyond the cultural loss that this would entail, in the case of woodwork, the difference when carving or planing has been done by a machine is plain to see.
Work done by manual methods undoubtedly has more richness, vibrancy and texture, and so priority is given to such methods in finishes and other tasks where aesthetic quality is the priority.
TRAINING
The peculiar story of Taujel is linked to that of the doctor of architecture Enrique Nuere, the firm’s co-founder and current manager. Although his training as an architect and his love of carpentry were key to his later research on Mudéjar carpentry, Nuere may be… said to have salvaged the craft from centuries of neglect almost single-handed.
His studies on the 17th-century treatises of Diego López de Arenas and Fray Andrés de San Miguel form a theoretical basis which has been complemented with immense experience acquired in the restoration of hundreds of roof and ceiling frameworks all over Spain, resulting in a working methodology applicable for the restoration and building of any traditional wooden structures.
It is also fair to mention that his contact with certain professional carpenters has in some fields been a great source of practical expertise.
TEACHING
Countless people have learnt from Taujel in general and Enrique Nuere in particular in various fields, such as structural carpenters working in the Mudéjar tradition, architects, building engineers, forestry engineers and amateur woodworkers. His carpenter pupils notably include Paco Luis Martos, the team known as… Los Tres Juanes, Víctor Sanahuja, Florencio Luelmo and Ángel Martín.
Enrique’s work is also a key component in carpentry courses at many training centres, e.g. at the León Craft Centre, the Mudéjar Carpentry Centre or the Albayzín Centre.
Enrique has also supervised several PhD theses that have brought substantial progress in knowledge of Mudéjar carpentry, by Miguel Fernández Cabo, Ángel Luis Candelas, María V. Cámara, Pedro Hurtado, Ferderico Wulff, Raimundo Estepa and Valentina Pica. He is currently supervising theses by Elena Franco and Javier de Mingo. Javier de Mingo may be seen as Nuere’s apprentice as regards both theory and professional practice.
Nuere has been a tenured lecturer at the Madrid University College of Architecture, giving degree and master’s courses, and a guest lecturer in many national and international master’s and other courses, such as at the Spanish Architecture Institute, the University of Alcalá, the Valladolid Architecture School, the International Built Heritage Study Centre at the Catalan Polytechnic University, the Madrid and Barcelona Associations of Building Engineers and Technical Architects or the University of Roma Tre. He has also given countless lectures on carpentry, wood, restoration, etc.
SELECTED WORK
He has built Mudéjar ceilings in the Cloister of the Alcázar of Toledo and restored others in the main hall of Alcalá de Henares University, the Güell Palace in Barcelona, the Granada Hispano-Muslim Art Museum, the Las Claras Convent in Salamanca, the Palace of Villalón… (which hosts the Thyssen Museum in Málaga), and the Palace of Buenavista (which hosts the Picasso Museum, also in Málaga).
