Manuel Dolcet House is located in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona, and faces 44 Vallvidrera Avenue, although without reaching the street, since the direct access is cut off by the Generalitat’s Railway, and you have to cross a bridge to access the gate of the estate. It is a building designed as a single-family residence by the architect Joan Rubió i Bellver and built between 1906 and 1907.
This construction is built on a mountainside, a situation that causes the plot to be divided into terraces, with the building on the highest part. Access is through a garden with a pergola and stairs that save the difference in level to the building. This is isolated from other buildings and consists of a semi-subterranean ground floor and two upper floors. The plan is rectangular with three straight façades and a fourth one more broken containing the staircase, but the differentiation of the roofs produces a very rich volumetric game. The body that contains the staircase is crowned by a pavilion cover that protrudes from the other volumes; the back of the main body is covered with a roof and the front with a gable roof. On the second floor the façade is set back, forming a closed gallery with a balustrade divided by exposed brick Solomonic columns that support the roof. From this gallery, the circular balcony placed in one of the corners with a wrought iron railing protrudes.
As for the façades, this house is characterised by the use of exposed brick contrasted with smooth white stucco facings. It is a building made up of traditional artisanal elements, where brick abounds as decoration on a white background, with ceramic touches. This decorative system gives a beautiful relief to the lintels of the doors, windows, balustrades, crowning and eaves. The rectangular windows have a wavy lintel with vegetable decorative elements made with mosaic. The beams are covered with classicist elements, such as triglyphs and meanders.
In 1906, Manuel Dolcet commissioned the architect Joan Rubió i Bellvé to build his residence in the old municipality of Sarrià. Between the years 1965 and 1994, the building hosted the offices of the EINA School of Design.
