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In 1901 the city council elections inBarcelona brought the newly A competition for a new plan was won by theFrenchman Leon Jaussely
established Lliga Regionalista party to power, leading to the pol? in 1903. While theCerd? plan had emphasized housing ? and as a
itical mobilization of the Catalan people and having a direct result boosted land values, benefiting mainly landowners ? Jaussely
impact on Catalan architecture.1 Lliga Regionalista represented the proposed a communications network that would link the different
new urban industrial class, which now took a political lead over the centres of industrial production: 'We have come to view the economic
agrarian parties which had dominated since the restoration of themon? organization of our cities as a kind of Taylorization on a grand scale, as
archy in 1875. Their aim was to organize an opposition movement though itwere one big workshop inwhich, for economic reasons, each
based on the ideology of 'Catalanism', and to establish autonomy from entitycan only occupy one place in thecity.'
Madrid. Although the industrial bourgeoisie was still to a great extent Puig's next stepwas toplan an internationalexhibition topromote the
conservative and traditionalist, and in factmaintained close linkswith industrialproducts ofBarcelona. In 1905 he wrote:
the rural population, itwas committed to theEuropeanization, modern? The past fouryearshave been spent incleaningup and puttinginorder:we have
? in the
ization and liberalization of the country Spanish context a rev? built sewers, paved streets, installed drinking water, organized museums, . . .
olutionary role. This dualism remained an enduring feature of what I [All thatismissing now is] theUniversal ExhibitionofBarcelona, whichwould
take Catalonia on to the world market and her ideas into the main?
shall henceforth refer to as the Industrial Party. incorporate
stream of world
The architect and theorist Josep Puig i Cadafalch (Fig. 1) was the thinking.3
main instigatorof the Industrial Party's programme ofmodernization. Two of Puig's building projects of theperiod, theMuntadas house of
Puig was determined to transformBarcelona into a great city. His first 1901 (Fig. 2) and theTrinxet house of 1904, were intended as a testing
stepwas to abandon Cerd?'s grid plan: ground forwhat the architecture of this incipientmodernity should be
We have to put a stop as soon as possible to the development of this chess-board, like. They are significantmore for their ideological message than their
which servesno purpose, and plan a greatring road to linkup all thedistrictsof
stylistic attributes; based on Catalan rural building-types, they reflect
and this must be done with an open mind
the dual ideology of the Catalan bourgeoisie ?
Barcelona; and in the modern as
way, that characteristic
is done in thecivilized world. We have to find a way of breaking the stifling
mixture of rural and industrial. Behind these early works was Puig i
uniformity of these squares, which are reminiscent of a communist phalanstery
or of a slave barracks.... We have to construct public buildings in isolation... Cadafalch's determination to create a national identityby integrating
and we must plan a reform of the old quarter from an artistic point of view.2 the two.
?
2. Muntadas house, Barcelona, 1901 Josep Puig iCadafalch.
1. JosepPuig iCadafalch, architect (1869?1956). 3. Exposition of the Electrical Industries, Barcelona, 1917. View ofPuig iCadafalch 's scheme.
62 A A FILES 14
whole event, referred to as 'The Temple of Light', therewas to be a thatappearance really is.... [Besides] dealingwith form,value and colour fpr
themselves, we harmonize them in accordance with their geometric form . . .
display of all the products of a newly industrialized and electrified
? rejecting what is not of utter plastic value.6
society that is, a temple with a cupola, a quintessentially classical
formderived from thepantheon (thatmodel home of all the gods), was I shall describe some buildings of the period which illustrate the
todisplay themost sophisticated product of the time, electricity.More? formal and technical difficulties of integrating the classical stylewith
over, the temple was flanked by an obsessively repetitive peristyle of theMancomunitat's programme of modernization. The library of El
classical columns, which was to act successively as urban square, filter? Vendrell, by Ramon Puig Gairalt, was conceived as a pure geometric
ingpassageway, andmantle and socle (Fig. 3). form with applied classical ornament (Fig. 5). Yet this ornament ?
Why should such pure classical elements be used to organize this including awkward combinations of crudely formed pilasters and un?
celebration ofmodernity? Certainly therewas the conviction thatclas? orthodox capitals ? is completely unrelated to the basic geometry of
sicism was able to communicate a universalist message, and would the building, and has the effect of breaking it up. Moreover, the
avoid the provincialism of Puig's earlier buildings; however, there entrance portico, with its Ionic order and excessively large pediment
were other factors. The firstwas a general resistance tomodern archi? stuck up against the pilasters, is quite incongruous with the backdrop.
tecture. In 1912 the architect Jose Domenech i Estap? published an Puig Gairalt was unable to conceal the inherentphoniness inhis project.
article, 'ArchitectonicModernism', inwhich he set fortha persuasive With this library, as with some of his other buildings, he seemed to be
argument thatmodernist architecture was neither sincere nor func? saying that this fragmented, incoherent, brutalized presentation was the
tional, and therefore should not be adopted as the national architecture only way of responding to a programme of modernization unaccom?
ofCatalonia. There was, moreover, wide support for classicism, which panied by social reforms. I am reminded of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's
suggests thatPuig's proposal for the exhibition might not have been so warning that 'La magie des mots has not power enough to sustain a
outlandish. Bishop Torras y Bages, for example, made the following world inwhich thingsare revealed in theirrelativity. '7
declaration: 'What a difference there is between the aims ofmuch mod? A similar though less stridentapproach was taken by JosepGoday in
ernist art and those of that artistic traditionwhich, springing from the a series of schools thathe built between 1917 and 1930. The purpose of
. . .has
beauty ofGreece and thediscretion ofRome delighted somany these schools, according to the city council of Barcelona, was to 'pre?
civilized societies. '4 In otherwords, classical forms are better suited to pare theirpupils to enter our industrialworld ... so that the instruction
creating a civilized society than the anarchy and disorder of they receive should enable them to become the good workers thatBar
modernism. Led by Eugeni D'Ors (Fig. 4), a group of intellectuals celona's industrial society needs.'8 The council also indicated that the
calling themselves 'Noucentistas' ('men of the nineteenth century') buildings should be designed according to a rational programme. In the
argued thatclassical formswere even essential tomodernization: 'our Baixeres School of 1917 (Fig. 6), Goday decided to dispense with a
arts, by being refined and regularized, with perfect vitality,will reach centralized plan, inorder tomake themost of a difficult site. The main
themost serene heights of classicism' .5 entrance and stairwaywere placed at one corner of thebuilding, thereby
During the period when theMancomunitat began to carry out its increasing the space allocated to class-rooms. These are arranged in
ambitious building programmes, classicism seemed to be the one lan an L-formation around a light and well-ventilated hall, which had to
lirilll^llUIII^lli?lUlllillllJII
4. EugeniD'Ors, leader of the 5. Library, El Vendrell, 1917? Ramon Puig Gairalt 6. Baixeres school, Barcelona, 1917?Josep Goday
Noucentistas. (1886-1937). (1882-1936).
AA FILES 14 63
newest technology of the period. Yet all thiswas overlaid with a false intellectualeducation based more on the spiritof learningthanon thespiritof
. . . But there are signs of change. . . .Modern
exterior which merely drew attention to the real problem which was investigation. everywhere
methods on work done machines. . . .The
production depend essentially by
being ignored, thatof defining thecinema inmodern terms. new materials ?
reinforced concrete, iron and glass
?
have opened up new
In a paper of 1925 entitled 'The Tallest Office Building of theVia avenues, new possibilities. . . .Our
intelligence must be channelled, now that
Layetana', the architect Adolfo Florensa described Camb? House, his the real meaning of pure construction and technology, with the beauty and truth
to all perfect things, has been understood. . . We
. must come to
office-building of 1921-5 (Fig. 10) as 'the solution that has been
which belongs
view the contempt of technology used as an ordering principle in architecture as
adopted in themodern American buildings'. Florensa was referring to an evil.10
the type of plan using centralized services and reinforced-concrete pil?
lars and supports, which would increase space for offices and allow The message is clear: architecture should be kept apart from politics. It
them to vary in size.9 But again the crucial question is the treatmentof should be treated as an autonomous discipline, and a completely
the facade. Not only are theplinth and architrave laden with historicist modern one, and itmust dispense with the 'veils' hitherto used to con?
elements, but,more significantly, the structuralbays of thebuilding do ceal theconstruction process or new technology.
not follow the rhythmof the openings in the facade. In other words, Folguera's Casal Sant Jordiof 1929 (Fig. 11) was thefirstmodernist
although the face that the building presents to the city is dominated by building inCatalonia. A complex project which included a storehouse
classicism, it is completely unrelated to the interior.This is yet another and private and rented commercial and residential accommodation, it
example of architecture taking the role of intermediary by allowing used technology thatwas sophisticated for theBarcelona of the time?
historicism toobscure thepresence of themodern. for example windows with rubber joints, which open in two directions,
^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^
64 A A FILES 14
?
11. CasalStJordi, Barcelona, 1929-31 FrancescFolguera (1891?1960).
65
66 A A FILES 14
67
organize themselves, particularly in Barcelona. Three aspects of the Chandosetautre essais (Paris, 1980), p. 312.
ft.
8. Barcelona City Council, Les construccions escolars de Barcelona
Congress are of interest in this discussion. First, themajority of the (1922), p. 185.
9. Adolfo Florensa, 'La casa per a despatxos mes alta de laVia Laietana', La ciutat i la
mass activities took place on the slopes ofMontjuic, and thewhole city
casa 2 (Barcelona, 1925), p. 3.
became animated in a way that recalled the delirious nights of 1929 ? 10. Francesc Folguera, Amies
'Arquitectura moderna', de l'Art lit?rgic, November
an attempt tomake an apparently natural connection between 1929 and 1928.
1952, and to erase the years of 'conflict'. In order to present Spain as a 11. Letter from Torres Clave to Josep Llui's Sert, published in 2.C. nos. 15, 16 4
country looking towards the future, a technological exhibition was (Barcelona, 1980), pp. 107-8.
12. A. C. no. 25, Barcelona, June 1937, p. 3.
planned to take place during a period which included the religious feast 13. Adolfo Florensa, La valoracion urbanistica del Circuito romano (Barcelona, 1964),
of the Pentecost. To celebrate it the biggest altar in the world was
p. 30. I
erected in the centre of the avenue which cuts diagonally across the 14. Adolfo Florensa, 'La semilla y el ?rbol', El Noticiero Universal, 6 October 1969, I
.05
middle of Barcelona (Fig. 19). Above itwas a great circle, a symbol of p. 11.
6
theEucharist, on three supports representing Faith, Hope and Charity,
in the formof a cross and two support beams. A chronicler of theperiod
wrote: 'thismonumental altar appears before our imagination like an ?On
?S
2
Ui
H
So
2flu
18. Church built inBarcelona in1953. 20. Model of the Congress Houses, Barcelona, 1952. O
68 A A FILES 14