Modernist Barcelona - Art Nouveau architecture

UNESCO Courier, August, 1990 by Albert Garcia Espuche

Modernist Barcelona

WHEN Barcelona's ancient fortifications were torn down in the late nineteenth century to provide much-needed room for the city to expand, the vast open spaces around the old city became the site for development that made a major contribution to the history of modern town planning.

In the 1870s the new Barcelona began to take shape with the construction of a middle-class residential area around the famous Paseo de Gracia thoroughfare. The transformation and development of this part of the city mark the emergence of Modernism (Modernismo), the Catalan version of Art Nouveau.

By 1990, the high-water mark of Modernism, the new city had already been mapped out. Around the centre known as the Eixample (the Paseo de Gracia and the streets nearby) with its prestige buildings, were a numbe of cheaper housing schemes, large buildings such as hospitals, prisons, and abattoirs, and an industrial estate.

In this area, Modernism found full expression in major urban complexes such as the Sant Pau hospital on the outskirts, and, in the centre, in the development of the elegant area around the Paseo de Gracia which came to be known as the "Quadrat d'Or" ("Golden Rectangle"). Much private housing was built. Some apartment blocks, such as Gaudi's Casa Mila (1905-1910), popularly known as La Pedrera ("The Quarry") replaced earlier buildings.

But as well as designing new apartment blocks, Modernist architects transformed, imporved and embellished existing buildings. The famous Modernist residences in the Paseo de Gracia such as the Casa Lleo Morera, the Casa Amatller and the Casa Batllo, designed by the architects Lluis Demenech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Antoni Gaudi respectively, were conversions of earlier buildings. Luxury shops built on the ground floors of older houses were another expression of this trend.

One striking feature of the new style was its propensity to invade all forms of aesthetic expression. At the turn of the century, the exuberant inventions of Modernism formed the setting of middle-class life in Barcelona, and fine Modernist paintings, drawings and sculptures by Catalan artists such as Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusinol and Juan Llimona can still be admired in the city's museums today.

The ornate interiors created by Modernist architects gave the impression that the refined and ornamental treatment of the facades had spilled over into interior walls and ceilings. Floors, ceilings, chimney-pieces, doors, windows and other features were all designed and made with meticulous craftsmanship. Tables, beds, cupboards, screens and other furnishings were perfectly integrated into their setting, together with other decorative elements such as carpets, lamps and door-knobs.

The leading Modernist architects excelled at creating such "total" environments. They enlisted the collaboration of specialized artists and craftsmen who under their direction produced a consistent output of work that was as robust and exciting in its overall design as in its component parts. The Palau de la Musica Catalana and the Sant Pau hospital designed by Lluis Domenech i Montaner and his team are impressive examples of this approach.

But architects such as Domenech and his contemporaries Gaudi, Cadafalch, Rafael Maso, and Josep Maria Jujo revealed even more astonishing skills when they produced "total" works of art in more modest settings. The Casa Lleo Morera is an outstanding example of this. On a small triangular site with uneven contours, Domenech i Montaner was faced with the difficult task of embellishing an existing building and transforming it into a representative example of the new style. He made imaginative use of the site and directed the work of artists and craftsmen who designed all the external and internal features, from stained-glass windows and sculptures to tiling and furniture. The result was a marvellous transformation of a small nondescript building into a palace.

Ther are many examples of the outstanding skills of Catalan Modernist architects and craftsmen. In Gaudi's La Pedrera it is impossible not to admire the ingenuity with which the stucco ceilings and stone pillars were designed by his collaborator Josep Maria Jujo, a man who could make a humble brass inkstand that was a small masterpiece.

ALBERT GARCIA ESPUCHE, Catalan historian of architecture, is the author of a number of publications including studies of urban space and society in pre-industrial Barcelona (1984), and the architecture and design of the 1888 Universal Exhibition in Barcelona (1989).