Around the 60s, in the midst of the Barcelona School and revisionist Italian architecture with the so-called modern movement, Francesc Mitjans was considered a 'good commercial architect'. Over time, its architecture was perceived as more refined, based on a careful knowledge of Orthodox modernity and Nordic organicism, among others.
Mitjans creates an architecture for a new wealthy class, which transcends the fashions and trends of the time, and which is based on a new building model widely spread in the upper areas of Barcelona, giving a very remarkable urban coherence. In this architecture, the façades are exemplary and represent a reflection of very well organised and composed plants with special attention to the design of their details, of high construction quality.
The Vidal Folch Office Building, with a façade on Via Augusta and Madrazo and Saragossa Streets in Barcelona, subscribes to this way of doing good construction based on a rational design of the façades and which helps the building preserved in perfect condition, without having undergone singular rehabilitations.
Its façades, as well as the overall volume, show, in my opinion, a direct influence of Alvar Aalto's office and residential buildings in Helsinki: the precise treatment of the openings, traced by wooden frames and balustrades; the horizontal stripes of marble; the upper end with a pergola that acts as a filter with the sky...
It is a building that only needs care with its maintenance, with nothing more than its epidermal timelessness and interior versatility.
