Intro

About

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Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.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.

Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque
Directors arquitecturacatalana.cat

credits

About us

Project by:

Created by:

Directors:

2019-2024 Aureli Mora i Omar Ornaque

Documental 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 Ornaque

Collaborators:

2019-2024 Lluis Andreu Sergi Ballester Maria Jesús Quintero Lucía M. Villodres Montse Viu

External Collaborators:

2019-2024 Helena Cepeda Inès Martinel

With the support of:

Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura

Collaborating Entities:

ArquinFAD

 

Fundació 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.

Design & Development:

edittio Nubilum
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We kindly invite you to help us improve the dissemination of Catalan architecture through this space. Here you can propose works and provide or amend information on authors, photographers and their work, along with adding comments. The Documentary Commission will analyze all data. Please do only fill in the fields you deem necessary to add or amend the information.

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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Responsable del tractament: Col·legi d Arquitectes de Catalunya 'COAC'
Finalitat del tractament: Tramitar la sol·licitud de còpies digitals dels documents dels quals l’Arxiu Històric del COAC gestiona els drets d'explotació dels autors, a més d'aquells que es trobin en domini públic.
Legitimació del tractament: El seu consentiment per tractar les seves dades personals.
Destinatari de cessions o transferències: El COAC no realitza cessions o transferències internacionals de dades personals.
Drets de les persones interessades: Accedir, rectificar i suprimir les seves dades, així com, l’exercici d’altres drets conforme a l’establert a la informació addicional.
Informació addicional: Pot consultar la informació addicional i detallada sobre protecció de dades en aquest enllaç

How to get there

In Pictures

Memory

The building is located in a block of houses on Barcelona's Dreta de l’Eixample, framed by Provença, Sicília, Mallorca and Nàpols Streets. Built on a polygonal plot, it has three façades open to 238 Nàpols Street and 351 Mallorca Street. These roads create the angle of the building, with the most relevant hinge that, projected in a chamfer, houses the main access to the building.

This industrial building with offices is one of the best examples of Catalan architectural production of the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, not linked to the orthodoxy of the GATCPAC. It is characterised by its functionalist aesthetics of symmetrical shapes and marked horizontality, particularly representative in the case of the windows.

The building is designed from a structure of metal pillars and girders that allow the creation of a free plan where space and transparency predominate and to which the skylights on the roofs contribute.

It consists of two levels where the marked horizontality of the façades is particularly striking, accentuated by the body of curved windows developed on the two floors of the building. The windows respond to a model of serially manufactured metal openings that are joined to each other through "T" shaped profiles and to the building structure with other "L" shaped profiles. This system gives rise to the large wall locks that give unity to the whole and allow uniform lighting inside. These windows are configured as a curved element that rotates in the chamfer, while being interrupted in this front, where the large entrance portal to the building is located.

The chamfer is configured as an element of structural relevance within the set, not only because of the differentiated treatment of the openings, but because of the greater height it presents. Thus, the ground floor is reserved for the entrance, with a triple door that gives access to a double-height hall, which also receives light from the windows arranged on the first floor of this chamfered front. Above this body of windows is the top floor, where an elongated bay window opens that goes from side to side of the wall.

Currently, the building is quite modified. Towards the side of Nàpols Street, a hotel has recently been built (2010) - "Illa Myrurgia" - which takes up part of the original plot of the old factory. The chamfer side has also undergone renovations, and today houses the offices of the Puig company, which has owned the property since 2000. The ground floor of this area is now presented as a very open space which is accessed through a reception area located at the back of the main lobby. This area, in the form of a glass box, has two levels where the worktables of the Puig staff are distributed and which are connected by a new factory staircase.

As already mentioned, one of the most relevant spaces in the complex - and apparently the only one preserved from the original project - is the lobby. Access to this space is through a door with three openings that is finished with three bronze panels with reliefs depicting classical themed scenes and below which the sign "Fábrica Myrurgia" is preserved. We must also highlight the iron fence of the door which, with very purist geometric lines, contributes to creating a simple decoration, non-existent in the rest of the façade. Once through the door, you enter the hall, which is configured as an independent, double-height space, with a careful art déco design and monumental intent. This monumentality is made visible through the double-section marble staircase that leads to the offices on the first floor. Currently, two catenaries block access to the staircase.

The use of noble and high-quality materials such as marble stands out, which is combined with the brass railings and the wood of the handrails located on each side of the staircase. These elements, arranged at an angle, have a door and a bench - also wooden - attached to the structure, which are finished at the top with a window and a panel where you can read "Myrurgia Perfumes" in déco style letters.

The factory was built between 1927 and 1930 with a project by Antoni Puig i Gairalt; this work anticipates the modern and rationalist language through the organisation of spaces, the treatment of light, signage and furniture. The sculptor Esteve Monegal Prat was the one who commissioned the project, and it was he who founded the company Myrurgia in 1916, destined to the production of perfumes and cosmetic products.

The art deco sculpture made by Monegal, president and founder of the firm Myrurgia, which originally presided over the lobby should be noted.

In 1929, the building received the Architecture Award of the Industrial and Commercial Buildings Competition for being equipped with some of the most modern facilities.

In 2000, the company was acquired by the Puig Group, which since then has installed its offices in the building.

In 1996, residents and neighbourhood organisations mobilised against the project to build a gas station and a private elite sports centre on the grounds of the former Myrurgia factory. In 2010, the block where the estate is located was plunged into controversy over the construction of the building that occupies part of the factory's original plot. In those days, on the corner of Nàpols and Provença Streets, a building was built that was originally intended as a residence for athletes and which eventually became a four-star hotel ("Illa Myrurgia") and a gym.

Source: Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya (IPAC)

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