Destino Barcelona, 1911-1991 : Arquitectos, viajes e intercambios, edited by Josep M. Rovira, Enrique Granell and Carolina B. García. Barcelona: Fundación Arquia, p. 38-49, 2018
The Swiss engineer Robert Maillart attempted to establish an office of his construction firm Mail... more The Swiss engineer Robert Maillart attempted to establish an office of his construction firm Maillart et Cie. in Barcelona, between 1913 and 1925. There, he licensed his patent on flat slab construction with mushroom head columns for factories and refined the construction of shed roofs. His works pointed the way to renovate the industrial architecture in Catalonia, still clung to the dream of Catalan brickwork architecture, during the turning point of the second industrialisation of the country, with the arrival of electricity. The engineer Viktor Hässig managed the Barcelona’s office since 1913 to 1937. However, after the failure of the Russian adventure of the enterprise, Maillart focused on his works in Switzerland since 1925, and Hässig became structural consultant of the Catalan enterprise Pujadas & Jorba, where Maillart’s patents were still used by him until the Spanish Civil War. If the Catalan works of Maillart et Cie. were widely published in Europe, it would have passed unnoticed for Catalan engineers and architects, unconnected to the great European debates for the renewal of industrial architecture.
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Redes internacionales de la arquitectura espanyola : 3r Seminario AEMCI
ETSAB, Barcelona, 2021
Proyecto HAR 2017-85205-P financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER "Una manera de hacer Europa"
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Engineer Eduardo Torroja's work continues to stimulate a substantial output of books and journal articles. Over the last twenty years, his document collections have been gradually organised and partly digitalised. Some are widely used because they are unavoidable and evident. However, other more dispersed collections exist that are crucial to a consideration of Torroja's scientific, academic and professional career. This is not an exhaustive map, but sufficiently broad and open to show how the latest research has been documented. It is hoped that it will encourage new research using the unpublished material that can be found in the collections.
Proyecto HAR 2017-85205-P financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER "Una manera de hacer Europa"
In around seventy years, the Barcelona of the nineteenth century constructed a solid network of covered markets, most of which were built with iron structures. Their construction brought together municipal architects such as Antoni Rovira i Trias, Miquel Pascual i Tintoré or Pere Falqués, master builders like Josep Fontserè i Mestre, engineers such as Michel de Bergue or Josep Maria Cornet i Mas, and specialised companies such as La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima or the workshops of Joan Torras. Their collective work gave rise to a new urban form based on the construction of facilities for a city that wanted to become a metropolis.
In the Born market, the team of Fontserè-La Maquinista showed the viability of iron markets inspired by the model of Les Halles in Paris. However, it was the Rovira-La Maquinista partnership that systematised this form of construction and enabled it to be introduced in various neighbourhoods of Barcelona. This was a model of a coveted monumental nature. It was only rejected by Joan Torras with his lightweight proposals that were close to the functional tradition, first in the Abaceria Central and then in the transformation of the markets of La Boqueria and Santa Caterina.
This monographic issue of the journal HPA attempts to map the international spread of architectural culture in the mass media after the Second World War, taking the period 1945–1960 as a time frame.[1]
It focuses on how certain ideas about the city and contemporary architecture were disseminated through periodical publications, exhibitions and conferences by analyzing a series of monographic case studies in an attempt to answer some essential questions:
1- How was an architectural and/or urban design project with ties to a specific context presented in the international sphere through state, professional and educational channels—whether institutional or otherwise?
2- How did this occur during a period of radical cultural reconstruction and fundamental disciplinary redefinition?
3- And vice versa: how was the same project interpreted from the point of view of the foreign establishment?
4- How did the vision “from within” and the perspectives “from outside” interact?
We believe that analyzing this type of “external” perspective (specifically: how the architectural world of one country looks at the architecture of another) offers a productive path toward a historiographic renewal of studies centered on the processes affecting the international dissemination of modern architecture, beginning from the early years after the Second World War in Europe.
Full Issue: https://hpa.unibo.it/issue/view/853
[1] The editors of this monograph were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union. Research project: Spanish Architecture in International Communication Media: Publications, Exhibitions, Congresses (First part: 1940-1975), reference number HAR2017-85205-P (MICINN / AIE / ERDF, EU).
Book chapters
Redes internacionales de la arquitectura espanyola : 3r Seminario AEMCI
ETSAB, Barcelona, 2021
Proyecto HAR 2017-85205-P financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER "Una manera de hacer Europa"
Engineer Eduardo Torroja's work continues to stimulate a substantial output of books and journal articles. Over the last twenty years, his document collections have been gradually organised and partly digitalised. Some are widely used because they are unavoidable and evident. However, other more dispersed collections exist that are crucial to a consideration of Torroja's scientific, academic and professional career. This is not an exhaustive map, but sufficiently broad and open to show how the latest research has been documented. It is hoped that it will encourage new research using the unpublished material that can be found in the collections.
Proyecto HAR 2017-85205-P financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER "Una manera de hacer Europa"
In around seventy years, the Barcelona of the nineteenth century constructed a solid network of covered markets, most of which were built with iron structures. Their construction brought together municipal architects such as Antoni Rovira i Trias, Miquel Pascual i Tintoré or Pere Falqués, master builders like Josep Fontserè i Mestre, engineers such as Michel de Bergue or Josep Maria Cornet i Mas, and specialised companies such as La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima or the workshops of Joan Torras. Their collective work gave rise to a new urban form based on the construction of facilities for a city that wanted to become a metropolis.
In the Born market, the team of Fontserè-La Maquinista showed the viability of iron markets inspired by the model of Les Halles in Paris. However, it was the Rovira-La Maquinista partnership that systematised this form of construction and enabled it to be introduced in various neighbourhoods of Barcelona. This was a model of a coveted monumental nature. It was only rejected by Joan Torras with his lightweight proposals that were close to the functional tradition, first in the Abaceria Central and then in the transformation of the markets of La Boqueria and Santa Caterina.
This monographic issue of the journal HPA attempts to map the international spread of architectural culture in the mass media after the Second World War, taking the period 1945–1960 as a time frame.[1]
It focuses on how certain ideas about the city and contemporary architecture were disseminated through periodical publications, exhibitions and conferences by analyzing a series of monographic case studies in an attempt to answer some essential questions:
1- How was an architectural and/or urban design project with ties to a specific context presented in the international sphere through state, professional and educational channels—whether institutional or otherwise?
2- How did this occur during a period of radical cultural reconstruction and fundamental disciplinary redefinition?
3- And vice versa: how was the same project interpreted from the point of view of the foreign establishment?
4- How did the vision “from within” and the perspectives “from outside” interact?
We believe that analyzing this type of “external” perspective (specifically: how the architectural world of one country looks at the architecture of another) offers a productive path toward a historiographic renewal of studies centered on the processes affecting the international dissemination of modern architecture, beginning from the early years after the Second World War in Europe.
Full Issue: https://hpa.unibo.it/issue/view/853
[1] The editors of this monograph were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union. Research project: Spanish Architecture in International Communication Media: Publications, Exhibitions, Congresses (First part: 1940-1975), reference number HAR2017-85205-P (MICINN / AIE / ERDF, EU).
A hundred years later, when the Franco's dictatorship drew to a close, the building was derelict and only the action of social movements could preserve it. Since 1970, one can compile a long list of architectural proposals, that never came to an end. Initially, a first restoration saved it (1977-1982), but the attempt to turn the market into a library failed when the place was listed as an archaeological site of the early 18th century. The preservation of the remains of the ancient city allowed for the definitive restoration of the iron building (2002-2013). These attempts are presented in the book and an interview with the architect Enric Sòria is included.
Entre 1959 i 1966, en ple Pla d’estabilització de la Dictadura de Franco, l’arquitecte Manuel Baldrich va construir nous edificis per a l’Escola Industrial de Barcelona. Els espais que s’han filmat van ser dissenyats, sovint, amb la col·laboració d’artistes, uns espais plenament funcionals a l’obsessió de la dictadura de mostrar-se moderna davant del món, dissociant, però, les idees de modernitat i de valors democràtics.
Localitzacions per ordre d’aparició: Piscina Sant Jordi, Vitralls d’Albert Ràfols Casamada a la Piscina Sant Jordi, Edifici d’ampliació de l’Escola del Treball
L’arquitecte Joan Rubió i Bellver va donar forma a l’Escola Industrial de Barcelona al servei de dos projectes contraposats: primer, a la Universitat Industrial de la Mancomunitat de Catalunya i, després, al Real Politécnico Hispano-Americano de la Dictadura de Primo de Rivera. Les escenes han estat rodades als espais monumentals que Rubió va dissenyar entre 1927 i 1929 per aquest segon projecte educatiu.
Localitzacions per ordre d’aparició: Rotonda d’accés davant del carrer Còrsega, Antic hall de l’Escola d’Enginyers Industrials (actual Edifici del Rellotge), Capella de la Residència d’Estudiants, Hall de l’Escola del Treball
Les escenes han estat rodades als antics espais de la fàbrica Batlló de Les Corts, una fàbrica de filats i teixits de cotó construïda a Barcelona pel mestre d’obres Rafael Guastavino entre 1867 i 1870. Amb el treball femení i l’explotació infantil com a protagonistes, la incorporació d’unes novíssimes màquines de filar va encetar un període convuls on hi sovintejaren les vagues i els tancaments patronals.
Localitzacions per ordre d’aparició: Xemeneia de la fàbrica, Façana de l’edifici de la Filatura (actual Edifici del Rellotge), Escala apetxinada de la Filatura (actual Edifici del Rellotge), Sala de Tissatge al soterrani (actual edifici 12), Fumerals de la xemeneia
The documentary was commissioned by the “Barcelona Flashback” exhibition, an exhibition about historical dissemination that explains the city’s urban history, from its foundation to the present day. The film intends to bring those moments, where architecture played a key role into the city’s identity, closer to the visitor. It was decided that this would be achieved via two strategies: firstly, through the use of cinematographic fiction, where several unknown citizens would leave some clues to be followed, and in this way guide this journey through history, secondly, to explore the last two hundred years, where the value of each work of architecture was committed into the collective memory.
The documentary shows the interrelationship between the municipal policy to build new local markets, the rise of iron architecture, the professional behaviour of the council architects, and the birth of two great companies of iron construction. Thus, the monumentality of the first markets built by La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima contrasts with the pragmatism of the iron markets erected shortly after by Torras Herrería y Construcciones.
Straddled, as it were, between two centuries, Lluís Domènech i Montaner was firmly committed to a quest for an architecture that was both Catalan and contemporary. In this context, he shared his ideas and experiences with Elies Rogent, Joan Torras, Josep Puig i Cadafalch as well as the other architects who formed the “New Catalan School”. This lecture will seek to demonstrate how the myth of “Catalan construction” played a central role within this ideological project. This tradition was based on bricklayer skills, it was renewed and categorized into several stages, and was to reach its splendour in the canonical works of the Catalan Modernisme movement. It is no coincidence that in 1909, in a conference at the Ramblers Club of Catalonia, the young architect Jeroni Martorell i Terrats spoke of the virtues of this new, contemporary Catalan architecture, a style based on vaults tightened with iron tied-rods. This combination of construction elements, a direct reference to the twelfth Entretien by Viollet-le-Duc, was a search for a new architectural style and a veiled memorial of the work of Rafael Guastavino. It was to inspire the creativity of Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Lluís Muncunill, Jeroni Martorell and even Antoni Gaudí himself.
Some pieces of a jigsaw puzzle: Torroja abroad (1936-1961)
Now, when the living memory of all those who knew him has been lost, how can one study the works and accomplishments of Eduardo Torroja? One way would be to reassess his correspondence and his international networks.
His book published in 1936, E. Torroja, sus obras, 1926-1936, contains excellent photographs of his projects taken by a notable photographer, Sybille von Kaskel. There is also valuable information to be gained from Torroja’s presence in the 1947 founding of RILEM (International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures), and from his involvement in postwar IABSE (International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering).
There is also valuable information contained in Torroja’s various letters which were recently donated to CEDEX, as well as a superb photograph of La Zarzuela Racecourse by photographer Kidder Smith that was published in Architectural Forum, along with information contained in his two U.S. books of 1958, The structures of Eduardo Torroja and Philosophy of structures.
All of these sources contribute to pieces of an enthralling jigsaw puzzle that the new generation of researchers will certainly try to solve.
Puig i Cadafalch també va repensar la capitalitat de Barcelona des de la modernització tècnica de l’arquitectura. Veurem com ell va utilitzar diverses estratègies a mida que el seu projecte ideològic es transformava.
Dos projectes per al “tren de Sarrià” s’entrecreuen en el període que va de l’any 1912 a l’any 1931, són projectes d’esperit molt diferent, però, arquitectònicament, ambdós són amarats de voluntat de modernització noucentista. A l’arribada de Pearson una empresa renovellada iniciarà un projecte de conquesta del Vallès, mentre que, a l’arribada de la dictadura de Primo de Rivera, serà l’Ajuntament de Barcelona qui emprendrà les obres de soterrament de la línia a l’Eixample amb la voluntat de convertir-la en un metropolità. Com veurem, l’arquitectura de les seves estacions o, si volem ser més precisos, l’arquitectura dels edificis de viatgers de cada estació serà del tot compromesa amb els objectius ideològics d’ambdós projectes.