Fernando Moreno Barberá (1913-1998), whose mother was Valencian, undertook conventional Architecture studies in Madrid, and immediately after having obtained his degree, in 1940, began his training in Germany. There he experienced a very advanced environment in architectural terms, expanding his knowledge of urban planning at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg of Berlin, and the following year at the Technische Hochschule de Stuttgart, under the tutelage of Professor Paul Schmitthenner, from whom he learned the importance of technique and materials.
All Valencian works by Moreno Barberá, who had a clearly cosmopolitan attitude, show a way of understanding the modern based on formation, the knowledge of Le Corbusier’s ideas, and a complex and personal approach to the project, which the architect had already demonstrated, for example, at the Calvo Sotelo Research Centre in Madrid (1945). The Valencian architectural ensemble goes beyond the importance of each of its buildings, to form part of a design idea of what would be the long avenue.
In the Universidad Laboral of Cheste (1965-1970), first conceived in the style of the Ville Radieuse by Le Corbusier, and then created with certain organisation-oriented criteria, Moreno Barberá also introduced a component of neo-brutalism, with large volumes of exposed concrete like he had already used at the Technical School of Agronomic Engineers of Córdoba (1964-1968), without forgetting the importance of the outside space. At the same time, he continued to cultivate his interest in the construction materials and techniques of modernity, but paying special attention to the topography, climate, orientation and vegetation of the surroundings.