Rafael Moneo is a Spanish architect, who was taught Architecture at several notable schools, as well as holding the esteemed title of chairman of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Moneo's buildings are notable for their clean, straight-lines, often running in parallel or in a grid like style, as illustrated in the facade of the Murcia Town Hall. Moneo would draw upon Classical traditions of proportion. He believed that buildings should be made to "endure the test of time" and as such should be created for all generations to admire, instead of being reproduced or destroyed.
"It is his drive to design and explain the building, not as part of a local tradition, but as the work of a cultured architect able to transcend national borders that has allowed him to have an all-encompassing career that combines practice and teaching. Moneo is generally considered to be the most independent thinker and the most intellectual of the architects of his generation. Through the influence of the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset Moneo's ability to "reabsorb his circumstances" was a source of necessity and freedom to connect practice with intellect: he could become both architect and educator furthering the cultural development of Spain"
Moneo was also interested in the idea of order amongst disorder. "The plaza facade is where Moneo's design sets forth its ideology. This single elevation, roughly a golden section in profile, encapsulates the entire building's attitudes toward its surroundings and toward history and modernity, order and disorder." By manipulating this idea of order and disorder, Moneo ensures that the Murcia Town Hall is able to assert it's own identity in a square that is dominated by other, older pieces of Architecture, such as the Cathedral.
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