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In this first stage, the catalogue focuses on the modern and contemporary architecture designed and built between 1832 –year of construction of the first industrial chimney in Barcelona that we establish as the beginning of modernity– until today.
The project is born to make the architecture more accessible both to professionals and to the citizens through a website that is going to be updated and extended. Contemporary works of greater general interest will be incorporated, always with a necessary historical perspective, while gradually adding works from our past, with the ambitious objective of understanding a greater documented period.
The collection feeds from multiple sources, mainly from the generosity of architectural and photographic studios, as well as the large amount of excellent historical and reference editorial projects, such as architectural guides, magazines, monographs and other publications. It also takes into consideration all the reference sources from the various branches and associated entities with the COAC and other collaborating entities related to the architectural and design fields, in its maximum spectrum.
Special mention should be made of the incorporation of vast documentation from the COAC Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.
The rigour and criteria for selection of the works has been stablished by a Documental Commission, formed by the COAC’s Culture Spokesperson, the director of the COAC Historical Archive, the directors of the COAC Digital Archive, and professionals and other external experts from all the territorial sections that look after to offer a transversal view of the current and past architectural landscape around the territory.
The determination of this project is to become the largest digital collection about Catalan architecture; a key tool of exemplar information and documentation about architecture, which turns into a local and international referent, for the way to explain and show the architectural heritage of a territory.
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2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar OrnaqueDocumental Commission:
2019-2024 Ramon Faura Carolina B. Garcia Eduard Callís Francesc Rafat Pau Albert Antoni López Daufí Joan Falgueras Mercè Bosch Jaume Farreny Anton Pàmies Juan Manuel Zaguirre Josep Ferrando Fernando Marzá Moisés Puente Aureli Mora Omar OrnaqueCollaborators:
2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse ViuExternal Collaborators:
2019-2024 Helena Cepeda Inès MartinelWith the support of:
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de CulturaCollaborating Entities:
ArquinFADFundació Mies van der Rohe
Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico
Basílica de la Sagrada Família
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona
Fomento
AMB
EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona
IEFC
Fundació Domènench Montaner.
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The Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya is one of the most important documentation centers in Europe, which houses the professional collections of more than 180 architects whose work is fundamental to understanding the history of Catalan architecture. By filling this form, you can request digital copies of the documents for which the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya manages the exploitation of the author's rights, as well as those in the public domain. Once the application has been made, the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya will send you an approximate budget, which varies in terms of each use and purpose.
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Arquitecte. Titulat el 1891. A part d’arquitecte, professor universitari i historiador de l’Ar, fou un important polític arribant a ser president de la Mancomunitat de Catalunya. Entre les seves obres trobem la Casa Ametller, el Palau Macaya, o la Casa Pin i Poch.
Source: Arxiu Històric del COAC
Works (43)
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Chronology (45)
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El Rengle Market
Civil construction with a longitudinal rectangular plan covered by a flat roof, in the centre of which a barrel vault that occupies its entire length rises. It consists of a central corridor and a row of sales stalls on each side, and on the outside there are also stops. The stalls are separated by cast iron columns that support the roof. The set stands out especially for its vault, which also serves as ventilation once the stalls are closed. The front façades and the plinth of the building are clad in marble, and the interior of the building is decorated with glazed ceramics with tiles that form stripes of colours that make it more noticeable. The market was designed by the architect from Mataró Emili Cabanyes, and opened on the 5th of June, 1892. A year later, Josep Puig i Cadafalch designed and executed the remodelling of the roof, which gave its current appearance. In 1979, it was restored by the architects Isidre Molsosa and Montserrat Torres. It is a very characteristic building in Mataró which receives the popular name of "the train" due to its elongated shape. For the same reason, it is also popularly known as "the line" or "the tram". -
Miquel Parera Pertegàs House
Civil building attached to two side buildings. It consists of a ground floor and two floors. A balcony runs the width of the façade at the height of the first floor. The complex stands out for the use of historicist neogothic decorative elements, as is the case of the crowning of the building – especially the upper windows, which are decorated with profusely ornamented arches with sculpture: arches, floral elements, etc. The façade is covered with high-quality sgraffitos. -
Martí House
It is the first work by Puig i Cadafalch in Barcelona, after some works done in Mataró and Argentona. This is a reinterpretation of the Gothic house: the ground floor is intended for the brewery "Els Quatre Gats", a meeting point for the most cosmopolitan intellectual elites of modernism, the "lovers of the north", in the words of Opisso. The main floor is for the owners' home, and the third and fourth floors are for rent. Puig captures the northern vocation of the promoters with a composition based on the Northern Gothic: a large brick factory with profuse stone ornaments, supported by seven large, pointed arches and crowned by a gallery under a large eaves, with sculptures by Josep Llimona and Eusebi Arnau, and forges by Manuel Ballarín. The grandstands on the main floor and the main door incorporate a dense flamboyant Gothic ornamentation. The house becomes a powerful attraction for the sensibilities of its promoters. -
La Confianza Shop
Former ‘fideueria’ or pasta and oil shop. "La Confianza", has a modernist decoration and preserves practically all the elements that Puig i Cadafalch designed – tempera on paper, display cases, showcases and oil tanks. On the outside, the tiles and irons that make up the store's name are also preserved. The state of conservation is precarious, especially with regard to the frescoes, which are quite damaged by humidity, and also to the decorative elements of the wardrobes. In the window, some wrought iron that held the baskets of vegetables is missing. Decorative elements It was designed by Puig i Cadafalch in 1896 at the request of the owner, Francesc Palomer. It basically consists of cupboards with showcases, the sideboard, wallpaper on the walls and a plaster frieze. The cabinets and display cases, made of wood with glass doors, were used to display the different types of pasta and semolina. They are elongated vertically with decorations that make them look like little chapels. The sideboard is made of marble, and on the outside there are some forged irons destined for the sacks of legumes. The walls of the store are decorated with wallpaper in three different colours, representing the repeated drawing of a Gothic cross. On the wall, just above the warehouse door, there is a small plaster frieze in the form of a garland, where the owner's name, F. Palomar, and the year 1896 are engraved. Probably from an earlier period are the oil tanks, with a sink and a metal grate. As indicated by a plaster frieze inside, the decoration was carried out in 1896, when it was owned by Francesc Palomer and the designer Josep Puig i Cadafalch. It is currently a grocery store, run by the Pinós family. -
Joaquim Coll i Regàs House
The plans of the project are signed by Antoni Maria Gallissà because in 1896 Puig i Cadafalch was no longer the municipal architect because of his bad relationship with the Mataró City Council. The house skillfully combines a wide range of ornamental languages, such as sculpture, glass, sgraffitos and ceramics. The stone is not only used to frame the openings, but serves to incorporate the carvings of the sculptor Arnau, who sculpted two relevant figures: the first one is on the tympanum of the door and represents a girl wearing a spindle, a textile emblem that alludes to the owner's industry, while the second figure is at the foot of one of the arches and is the usual Saint George. The rest of the façade is covered with graffiti, and the tribune stands outs, with Nordic reminiscences. The staggered crowning announces the profile of Barcelona’s Amatller House. -
Palau Garí
The Cros, Garí castle or Garí Palace of Argentona adopts the characteristics of a large, fortified house with a quadrangular attached tower and circular turrets on the flanks, with loopholes, typical of both military architectural structures and rural isolated buildings, elements that allowed a better defense in uncertain times. The farm is surrounded by a walled enclosure. An upper gallery runs along the façades below the roof line, which is covered by glazed ceramic tiles, a detail that gives an idea of the importance that applied arts had at this time. The finishes of wrought iron on the roofs of the tower and the turrets also reflect this fact, in such a way that we the main elements of the industrial age – the applied arts and the historicist theme, which is evident in the revival of the medieval world with the construction of a building – are joined together with the characteristics of a late medieval castle. Access to the house is through a porch that has a gallery or loggia above it, which presents a style close to the flamboyant Gothic style. The house is centered by a courtyard with an open staircase to the first floor. In the interior, J. Puig i Cadafalch was in charge of designing all the furniture and ornamental elements: the staircase, the handrails, the eaves, the fireplace, the lights... and even the sculptural ornamentation of the columns where, among heraldic or floral motifs, one can discover caricatures such as those of Sagasta or Romero Robledo, important figures in the politics of the moment. In 1925, the architect Lluís Bonet Garí replaced the house of the tenant farmers, which was on the ground floor, and installed new bedrooms and a room there. Within the extensive property of Can Garí in Cros d'Argentona, a large garden that completed the work of remodeling the estate that Josep Puig i Cadafalch carried out between 1898 and 1900 was designed. Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudurí was the first to intervene in the design through the combination of natural spaces with the distribution of tree areas, mainly pines, which responded to leaving a free nature next to other modeled ones. The garden designed to pass through by means of paths, stepped terraces made of exposed brick, pergolas (some recall the work he was carrying out in the Montjuïc Park, in Barcelona) and pointing out points of view open to broad perspectives. The presence of vegetation is combined with sculptures that give a more human dimension to the complex. Wooded spaces have been recreated, others with the presence of cacti and a large tin in the middle of which is the glass temple of Baccarat with the figure of Hermes in bronze or the dots of wrought iron lanterns all resume the stately character of the place. This garden with the presence of sculptures and areas with citrus trees, so characteristic of the Mediterranean and Italian villas, enters fully into the Noucentisme style. The gardening work was continued by Lluís Bonet i Garí, with whom they shared the same ideology linked to the Noucentisme period. In 1929, Lluís Bonet i Garí designed the construction of the Can Garí farmhouse, intended for agricultural work and housing. He did not want his project to be a contrast to the work done by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in Can Garí. The new building was designed to take on a certain stately character, both for the dimensions and for the careful treatment of the materials used. Therefore, you can find glazed tiles in the gable roof, a very careful work in the masonry that surrounds the openings or in the discharge arches, but at the same time it also took references from the architecture of the farmhouses. The whole set takes the volume of a farmhouse and introduces the arched gallery. You can also see the use of sgraffito in a figure of Saint Christopher that crowns one of the entrance doors intended for the machinery. There is padding in the corners, and the whole wall is plastered. A stand stands out in the corner that provides it with a character of distinction. Symmetry was not used in the composition, since each of the façades has a different treatment, as is the case with Can Garí by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. The Cros chapel was built in 1929 by the architect Lluís Bonet i Garí. If we take into account that at the end of the 19th century construction had not reached the degree of industrialisation of our time, we can appreciate the feat that Puig i Cadafalch represents in completing this work, the house of the financier Josep Garí at the Cros d'Argentona, after only nine months from the start of the works in 1899. -
Antoni Amatller House
The first phase of the project consists of the renovation of an old rental house, a common habit in the Eixample at the end of the 19th century. The second stage is the design of a photographer's studio on the top floor, to justify a peculiar crowning solution that did not conform to building ordinances. The result is one of the freshest interpretations of Northern Gothic architecture: the porticoed gallery is now in the third floor, but has a subtle replica in the shop windows on the ground floor; the symmetry is strictly maintained in the upper half of the façade, while the composition is freer in contact with the street; the entire façade plan is decorated with abstract and repetitive motifs that culminate in the stepped silhouette of the coronation, which hides a two-sided roof. It is certainly where Puig i Cadafalch explores the compositional freedom of the emerging modern sensibility in a more daring way. -
Codorniu Cava Cellars
The complex constitutes an austere fabric of industrial constructions where Puig i Cadafalch aims to demonstrate the validity of the construction procedures of the past for modern needs and programs. The large cellar uses half-point arches made of six courses of brick supporting recessed vaults that reach the façade, combined with slightly pointed arches. The pavilion of expeditions chooses to use a large, inverted catenary made exclusively of brick, supported by crossbeams also made of brick and with a stone enclosure. Puig i Cadafalch uses the shapes given by the support elements to compose the façades, both frontal and lateral, in a way that expresses this support, although it also introduces other strictly ornamental elements, such as the stepped profiles of the openings, the lattices of brick, the series of buttresses or the stone pinnacles. -
Puig i Cadafalch House
It is the result of the refurbishment of three old, attached houses, in which the entrance has been moved to the interior garden and some façades have been doubled in order to create galleries in the remaining spaces. The project breaks the typological features of the old houses and creates a unitary dwelling: a stepped volume from the south façade to the partition wall on the west side, with a doubled brick wall crowned with battlements. Numerous wooden elements are used on the façades, such as the corner struts. The interior recreates a fresh atmosphere, with wisteria and Arabic ornaments, an ideal refuge for the architect after his exile. -
Terrades House
The Casa de les Punxes occupies an entire irregular square bounded by Avenue Diagonal and Rosselló and Bruc Street. Therefore, in plan it is a trapezoid of almost triangular form with chamfers in the two corners that form the base of the triangle. Puig anchors the building to the ground, marking all the corners of the plot with circular towers, which stand out above the roofs. The volume of the house is Nordic-inspired, with gabled roofs parallel to the street (as opposed to Mediterranean architecture) that mark the various houses with which the building is formed. The tower that marks the corner of Rosselló Street and Diagonal Avenue is different from the others, taller and more ornate, in order to break the symmetry of the smaller front of the building and load it on Diagonal Avenue. The ensemble has a unit volume resulting from the aggregation of the small fragments in which the façades have been torn to pieces, of a more suitable size and compatible with the houses of the surrounding flats. Brick is the main material throughout the square, with stone details and ceramic mosaics. The wrought iron work is unique, and the details that make up the façade are as interesting as the building itself. The various façades formed by the succession of gabled roofs were composed by means of a very interesting set of openings arranged in even and odd numbers in groups of alternate floors (on one floor there are four windows and on the next one three, for example), a legacy of Puig i Cadafalch’s modernist formation, which, combined with its Nordic influences, forms the main vocabulary of one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. It is remarkable and singular due to the misalignment of the façades with respect to the street: the geometry of the towers arrives clean on the ground, without variation, and the gates are marked with porches with columns that also leave the line of façade fleeing from the flat façades, a characteristic feature of the architecture of the moment. -
Casaramona Factory Building
In a place then located on the outskirts of the city, the Casaramona factory had to be built very quickly due to the fire that took place in the old factory in La Riereta Street. The work is organised with a scheme of three warehouses destined for yarns, warehouses and fabrics, separated by two interior streets that resolve the large dimensions of the complex. The structure is of ceramic vaults supported on iron porticos and covered with Catalan roofs that rest on the same vaults. The bodies at the four corners are higher, the stairwells rise even higher and, in the central part, two towers (of the clock and of the water elevation) take on a large vertical dimension, linked to the crenellated profile of all façades. With sober means and repetitive elements, Puig i Cadafalch gives great interest to the external image of the building, through the expression on the façade of the structural elements, such as the ends of the vaults or the series of buttresses. -
Marconi Telecommunications Exchange
The building of wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is in the La Ricarda estate. It is a simple construction, with one body of small dimensions. The staggered gable of the side façade – a resource used by Puig i Cadafalch – gives it personality, and the rather pronounced eaves also stand out. The interior housed the apparatus room, a place for the telegraph operator and a space for public attention. The attic was the home of the telegraph operator and his family. As a great innovation at the time, there was a WC on each floor and kitchen. The building remains to this day and preserves its structure in relatively good condition. The interior, however, is destroyed and the original layout is not preserved. The existence of stained glass windows designed by Puig Cadafalch is known, but there are no remains of them. Between 1904 and 1905, Marconi built communications centres in several places across Europe. The El Prat telegraph station (1911) corresponds to a more advanced stage in technology because the antennas are exclusively made of metal. Wireless communication has been one of the most important innovations of this century. The preservation of this building is interesting for the following reasons: it is one of the few technical buildings that exist in Catalonia, it is a witness to the introduction of radio into homes and, in addition, no similar building is known from this period that has been preserved in Spain. -
Concurs Anual d'Edificis i Establiments Urbans
Award-Winner / Winner. Category: ArchitectureCasaramona Factory BuildingModification of the Baixeras Plan for the Opening of the Via Laietana
Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Ferran Romeu i Ribot
Domènech designed the Gran Via Pere el Gran, developing a section of the opening of the so-called B road of the Plan de Reforma Interior de Barcelona of 1892 (Plan Baixeras), which squeezed the historic fabric of the city. It was never carried out. There is a plan of the urban development of this road, dated 1905, which redesigned the image of this area from the new square to the old Hospital de la Santa Creu, demolishing many historic buildings. In the style of the boulevards of Paris and the Vienna Ring, he planned large buildings with typical programmes of modernity: a factory, a large market with a glass roof, a theatre-conservatory, a large bazaar, a large hotel, a building for a scientific society, a chamber of deputies, and so on. Domènech's proposals went so far as to draw plans and perspectives of these buildings. On the one hand, he monumentalised this historical fabric and, for example, enhanced the value of the towers of the city walls in Plaça Nova. On the other hand, however, he demolished numerous historic residential buildings and only proposed the preservation of a few religious buildings. The Hospital de la Santa Creu was razed to the ground. Although it was never built, in 1917 there was still talk of the project, as in the magazine La esfera in an extraordinary issue dedicated to Barcelona.Santuari de la Misericòrdia Restaurant
Double-height main nave with a parabolic arch framing windows made with careful brickwork. The same treatment can be seen in the annex, the restaurant facilities and the gabled house.Casa Llissach
La casa Llissach forma part d'un conjunt que es troba actualment dins el nucli urbà. La casa està envoltada d'una àmplia zona enjardinada i dins un perímetre tancat. Conserva part de la tanca original de ferro així com la porta d'entrada a la finca, d'estructura arquitectònica composta per una porta ampla central de ferro i dues portes laterals emmarcades amb pilastres i una cornisa remates amb estructures piramidals. Dins la finca es conserven part dels jardins que envolten la torre, amb una pèrgola, una bassa d'aigua i una caseta probablement per eines de jardiner. També hi ha uns edificis a l'extrem de llevant queren quadres per a animals, una torre amb un dipòsit d'aigua a sobre, i la casa. La casa és un edifici de planta baixa i dos pisos, coberta amb teulada de teula àrab a quatre vessants. Destaca el porxo de la planta baixa a la façana nord, composat per un seguit d'arcs de mig punt amb les dovelles pintades de color vermell, que formen una galeria oberta. Aquesta composició es repeteix al primer pis, tot i que la galeria està tancada i les finestres són amb llinda, amb columnes laterals amb capitells corintis pintades de color vermell. Aquesta decoració vermella al voltant de les finestres i elements horitzontals de divisió es repeteix en tot el conjunt. A la façana de llevant, a la planta baixa hi ha una estructura ubicada a la part central avançada respecte a la façana, amb una terrassa accessible des del primer pis. Aquesta casa és un exemple de les primeres torre d'estiueig que es van fer a municipi de Santpedor a finals del segle XIX. A la banda de llevant de la finca, limitant amb el carrer, hi ha un conjunt d'edificacions que havien estat destinades a quadres de bestiar. És un edifici d'una sola planta, amb un element central de dos pisos, amb teulada a doble vessant, i amb un seguit de portes que s'obren a l'interior de la finca, amb un corral tancat exterior davant algunes d'elles. Presenta decoració de maons vermells a la barbacana de la teulada, així com una decoració singular a la façana entre les portes. En aquest edifici també hi ha aquesta barreja decorativa entre l'arrebossat d'un color clar de la façana, elements puntuals de maó vermell, i el sòcol de maçoneria de pedra grisa. Al costat de l'edifici es manté una antiga torre que suporta un dipòsit d'aigua al nivell superior. És una torre de planta circular, amb un coronament en forma de merlets triangulars tancats amb una barana de ferro i suportats sobre pilastres de maó. Sota el coronament hi ha un espai interior amb finestres obertes entre les pilastres. L'accés a aquest espai es fa a través d'una escala helicoïdal exterior que segueix la torre. La decoració manté les característiques del conjunt, amb elements de maó vermell. També es conserva una caseta feta d'obra que era per jugar nines, ubicada al jardí i que segueix la mateixa estructura arquitectònica de tot el conjunt. Aquesta casa la va construir la família Llissach a finals del segle XIX, com a finca d'estiueig a Santpedor. Al 1907 es va comprar uns terrenys per ampliar la finca i es possible que en aquell moment es construís la torre de l'aigua, obra de Puig i Cadafalch. Aquesta intervenció és fruit de la relació d'amistat entre l'arquitecte i Serafina Jover de Llissach, tal i com es pot veure en un seguit de cartes conservades a l'Arxiu Nacional. Al 1917 es va fer una reforma de la casa que també porta la firma de l'arquitecte. L'any 1934 la casa i la finca va ser adquirida pel comerciant de Manresa Joan Jorba i Rius. La darrera propietària de la casa va crear un patronat que va iniciar les gestions per construir la nova escola per a noies als terrenys de l'antiga fàbrica Armangué. Les classes en aquest nou edifici van començar el 1968, essent destinat únicament a noies. A partir de 1973 es feren les classes conjuntes a la nova escola Llissach que encara porta aquest nom.Pich i Pon House
Located in the Eixample district, Pich i Pon House occupies half of the block formed by Plaça Catalunya, Rambla Catalunya, Gran Via and Passeig de Gràcia. It is a building between partitions, mostly offices but there are also apartments. With an irregular plan, it responds to the general idea of arranging the square projected by Puig i Cadafalch. The building, together with the one on the right side, make up the north façade of Plaça Catalunya, which has great civic significance for being the end of the perspective from the Rambla. It is organised through a single communal staircase, with integrated open sky, which gives access to the flats and offices. It consists of a ground floor, a mezzanine and six floors, the last of which is removed from the façade plan. Despite not following the formal guidelines for the configuration of the façades of the traditional residential buildings of the area, the building follows the classic scheme of division into three horizontal strips adapted to the needs of the administrative use of the time. The base is made up of the ground floor and the mezzanine (united in double-height openings) and is delimited by the line that forms the balustrades of the balconies on the first floor. The five floors make up the intermediate area of the building. This strip has large square openings that reflect the modern spirit of the time. To adapt these typical proportions of offices to a domestic use, those openings corresponding to homes are subdivided into two or three windows separated by columns. For its part, the sixth floor, withdrawn from the façade plan, served as the property's residence. The chamfer is emphasised by the appearance of a curved balcony with balustrade on the fifth floor and the differentiated treatment of its two vertices. These are notable both for the blind walls between the first and fourth floors and three narrow openings on the fifth floor and for the two crowning temples that are the true protagonists of the building. The roofs are flat, including that of the removed attic. Its most striking elements are the balusters that dominate all the perimeters that face the square. Artistically, the two temples of the vertices should be noted. They are of two heights above the attic, profusely decorated with Ionic columns and consist of a blind base, a level with four semicircular arches flanked by Ionic arches and the last level formalised as a circular gazebo resting on eight Ionic columns and topped by a translucent spherical dome. Above each of them, a male figure of the god Mercury emerges. Regarding the type of composition, regular and symmetrical, and the style of the decorations, the building is considered to be Noucentista. Even though this stylistic categorisation begins to be noted, there are some incipient rationalist traits in its composition, in the treatment of the intermediate floors with perfectly square openings lacking decorations. Ultimately, Puig i Cadafalch makes use of new construction technologies to form a structure of girders and pillars, to leave the floors free for offices, simulating modern American commercial buildings. The façade presents stuccoed and smooth facings, and the composition of full and empty spaces, of classic lines, with an ornamental concentration evident in the formalisation of the wide openings of the ground floor, which recede with respect to the undulation of the arches and the style of Louis Henry Sullivan. At the entrance door we find one of the characteristics that define this era of the architect: the horror vacui, represented in the columns, the broken pediment and the vases of abundance. In addition, Puig crowned the chamfer of the building with three double-height temples with Ionic columns, covered with a hemispherical cupule presided over by the figure of the god Hermes (symbol of commerce and business). In 1982, the building was the subject of a restoration by the architect Jordi Romeu. In 1916, Joan Pich i Pon (Barcelona, 1878 - Paris, 1937), mayor of Barcelona and governor of Catalonia, bought the Narcís Pla House, the work of the architect Francesc de Paula de Villar i Lozano (Murcia, 1828 - t. 1852 - Barcelona, 1902), built in 1875 and of which the architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas (Barcelona, 1848 - t. 1872 - 1910) had made some modifications and extensions. Pich decides to demolish the old building, owned by the Batlló family, and in 1921 commissions the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch to build a new six-storey house to house offices and with an attic and a mezzanine for his residence. The volume and overall appearance of the building responds to the general planning idea that Puig i Cadafalch had for the future Plaça Catalunya and which was developed in different projects from 1918. So, the house was designed following the same volume of height and proportions of the neighbouring Gran Hotel Colon, renovated between 1916 and 1918 by Enric Sagnier, to create a unified image in the square. The current building is crowned by two small temples, but initially there were three. They survived the demolition of the neighbouring building after the end of the Civil War, but shortly after the Banco Español de Crédito building was erected in the 40s, the temple next to the central tower of the new bank building disappeared. At the beginning of the 60s, without it having been possible for us to specify the exact date or year, the two small temples on the corner with Rambla de Catalunya were also dismantled and suddenly disappeared from the roofs. After democracy was restored, the two small temples on the corner with Rambla de Catalunya were conveniently restored and put in their place in 1982 by the architect Jordi Romeu. But the third temple, which in fact rubbed against the central body of the neighbouring building of the Banco Español de Crédito and had caused it to lose its slenderness, was never restored.Escales, Mirador i Escultures La Terra, L'Aigua i Dones
Josep Llimona i Bruguera, Frederic Marès i Deulovol, Josep Puig i Cadafalch
Bibliography (153)
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