Block P of Montbau Estate

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Oriol Maspons
© Fons Fotogràfic O. Maspons / Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Oriol Maspons
© Fons Fotogràfic O. Maspons / Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Oriol Maspons
© Fons Fotogràfic O. Maspons / Arxiu Històric del COAC

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© Aureli Mora Sanvisens
© Aureli Mora Sanvisens
© Aureli Mora Sanvisens
© Aureli Mora Sanvisens
© Aureli Mora Sanvisens
© Fred Guillaud
© Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri, Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo
© Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri, Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo
© Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri, Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo
© Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri, Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo
© Arxiu Històric del COAC

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Memory

In the second stage of planning the Montbau housing estate, there is an increase in building density. It will be the way some buildings are grouped together and the increase in height of others that will make it possible to achieve this. The resulting public space has a more domestic scale, generating small squares around the building. The P block is one of the types developed for this purpose. A succession of L-shaped blocks, staggered, generates a unique framework, around which 3 separate groups are projected, formed by 3 towers each and which close the whole. The homes on the long side of the L have a ventilated and illuminated staircase on the facade and access from the street to the second-floor level, which requires a different typology to the first floor. Here the houses have only one façade, facing the square. On the second, third and fourth floors there are two homes per landing, with a front and rear façade. On the short side of the L, the staircase is in the middle of the floor and gives access to four apartments per landing. In the block, all parts, except for the toilets, are exterior. And both in the rooms and in the main bedrooms, there is a setback in the façade plan that gives an outdoor space, some terraces, in front of them and generates a very characteristic compositional element that is different from the rest of the façades that do not face the square. The constructive system of load-bearing brick walls allows these large openings, given that they are perpendicular to the south and north façades. The façades combine the work seen with glazed ceramic pieces from La Bisbal in blueish and greenish colours.

Author: Janice Moret

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Chronology

Montbau Industrial Estate

Giráldez - López Iñigo - Subías Arquitectes, Guillermo Giráldez Dávila, Pedro López Iñigo, Xavier Subías i Fages

The Montbau district, located below the Tibidabo, next to Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron, has a total area of approximately 31 Ha. The part built today, or in a very advanced stage of construction, consists of two basic residential units. The garden and the neighbourhood park are also practically finished. A group of about 70 single-family homes in the upper part of the slope is currently under construction, a group that we will not include in the present analysis because it is in a very little advanced phase and, therefore, without specific data. The architect of this group is Joan Bosch. Who are the authors of Montbau? Here is a first concrete problem that can lead us to general considerations. Due to programming requirements, the Municipal Housing Board decided to commission the architects Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López and Xavier Subías with the urgency of a very few weeks as a matter of urgency. By what criteria were these architects chosen? Probably for simple reasons of proximity, administrative relationship, circumstantial insufficiency of the technical staff itself, etc. But was there a concern to choose a good team precisely for one of the largest projects that were then being developed? At least, or was there an awareness that, by chance and for reasons of bureaucratic convenience, he had fallen into the hands of a good team, then with a promising youthful push? * The original Partial Plan was altered, both in its first phase, slightly, and in the second one, with a change of drafting team and urban planning that substantially modified it.
Montbau Estate: Second Unit

Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri

When the decision to build the second sector was made in 1961, the Board of Trustees commissioned the architects Manuel Baldrich, Antoni Bonet, Pedro López Iñigo and Josep Soteras to drat the corresponding architectural project. What were the reasons for choosing this heterogeneous team, made up of two municipal architects, a provincial architect and an independent architect, who had just arrived from Argentina with an obvious professional prestige? This team, despite the presence of municipal architects, one of them co-author of the first Plan, decided that it could not be limited to design the buildings, but it was also necessary to completely redo the urban structure of that sector. A new Plan was therefore drawn up, which was approved on July 2, 1962. With this new Plan it seems that exactly the double number of dwellings that had been initially planned in that sector were built.
Block P of Montbau Estate

Manuel Baldrich Tibau, Antoni Bonet Castellana, Pedro López Iñigo, Josep Maria Soteras i Mauri

In the second stage of planning the Montbau housing estate, there is an increase in building density. It will be the way some buildings are grouped together and the increase in height of others that will make it possible to achieve this. The resulting public space has a more domestic scale, generating small squares around the building. The P block is one of the types developed for this purpose. A succession of L-shaped blocks, staggered, generates a unique framework, around which 3 separate groups are projected, formed by 3 towers each and which close the whole. The homes on the long side of the L have a ventilated and illuminated staircase on the facade and access from the street to the second-floor level, which requires a different typology to the first floor. Here the houses have only one façade, facing the square. On the second, third and fourth floors there are two homes per landing, with a front and rear façade. On the short side of the L, the staircase is in the middle of the floor and gives access to four apartments per landing. In the block, all parts, except for the toilets, are exterior. And both in the rooms and in the main bedrooms, there is a setback in the façade plan that gives an outdoor space, some terraces, in front of them and generates a very characteristic compositional element that is different from the rest of the façades that do not face the square. The constructive system of load-bearing brick walls allows these large openings, given that they are perpendicular to the south and north façades. The façades combine the work seen with glazed ceramic pieces from La Bisbal in blueish and greenish colours.