Tags
Amat i Jover, Architecture, Art Nouveau, Casa Alegre de Sagrera, Catalan Vaults, CoupDeFouet International Congress, Jugendstil, Lluís Muncunill i Parellada, Masia Freixa, Terrassa, Vapor Aymerich
This morning I woke up an hour before my alarm went of, I guess from excitement. There was a trip to Terrassa on today’s program, guided by Domènec Ferran Gómez, the director of the Museu de Terrassa. Domènec was a perfect guide as he knew people everywhere, getting us inside private buildings that would otherwise have been closed to us.
The first building we visited was the Vapor Aymerich, Amat i Jover building, designed by the Catalan architect Lluís Muncunill i Parellada (1868-1926) and completed in 1909. The most interesting part of this building is, if you ask me, without a doubt its roof. It consists of 161 so-called Catalan Vaults. (I wrote about this phenomenon ‘Catalan Vault’ in my blog about the secret subway station right underneath New York city hall.)
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Another magnificent building by Lluís Muncunill i Parellada is Masia Freixa. He designed the Masia Freixa in 1896 for the textile manufacturer Josep Freixa. Inspired by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and by Antoni Gaudí he started the Terrassa modernisme. The most prominent feature of the Masia Freixa is the parabolic shape that is used everywhere. Gaudí had a theory that, with parabolic shapes, we can stay much closer to nature, and distribute the load much more evenly. This building was most definitely my highlight of the day!
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And then there was a small museum. Casa Alegre de Sagrera, once the parental home of Joaquim de Sagrera, underwent ‘modernizations’ at the beginning of the 20th century by Melcior Viñals. From the outside we would never have guessed the Art Nouveau details inside. But it was absolutely worth visiting this place. For one, because of the beautiful stained glass windows and second, because of the marvelous Art Nouveau Symbolist painting in the diningroom by Alexandre de Riquer.
And we saw só much more, but it is just too much for me to process after the congress. Last night I edited my material until 02.30 and now it is 02.30 again. I promiss to get back to the other buildings at a later date. As far as Terrassa is concerned, this will be all for today.
Marikít Taylor (historian) and Peter Ranson (architect) waving to Ron Conijn (who’s not here)
Some of us had a lovely lunch before we headed back to Barcelona for the official opening of the II CoupDefouet International Congress. The opening speech Gaudí, Gaudinisms, Gaudinists and Gaudinians was delivered by Mireia Freixa (President of the Scientific Committee of the Congress and Professor of Art History at the University of Barcelona) at the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona.
Opening speech by Mireia Freixa Serra
After that animated speech we walked to the historical building of the University for a balmy evening at it’s gardens. It was excellent meeting everyone. New people, and interestingly enough also some people I already ‘knew’ without knowing it. They either already followed my blog, or they followed me on Facebook / Twitter!
I have a feeling this is going to be an invaluable week for me… Good night!
Read more
II coupDefouet International Congress
Catalonian Museum of Science and Industry
Wikipage about Lluís Muncunill i Parellada
After this trip I have produced a 2018 Calendar with some of my photo’s of Gaudí’s beautiful architecture. You can see, and order my calendar when you click here.
cDf-tag2015
About Art Nouveau 