Puig i Cadafalch, Josep

b. 1867, Mataró; d. 1956, Madrid

   Architect, historian and politician

   Puig i Cadafalch excelled in all the areas which his mentor Domènech i Montaner had made his own: architecture, history of art and politics. In architecture he became leader of a group which espoused views similar to Domènech's, initially fostering a version of Modernism which was scholarly and open to technical progress, and later becoming chiefly instrumental in the transformation of Modernism into Noucentisme. His long-standing interest in the history of architecture became his main concern after the coup d"état of Primo de Rivera (1923), and was intensified after the Civil War, in 1939, when he was permanently banned from practising as an architect. His contributions to art history, focusing principally on Romanesque and Gothic art, are known worldwide. Among his distinctions were honorary doctorates from several prestigious universities, and membership of the Institute of France. His political career was equally distinguished; he was the principal collaborator of Prat de Riba, first president of the Mancomunitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia) whom he succeeded in 1917, retaining the position until 1924. His activism earned him constant political persecution from then until his death in 1956, including a lengthy period of exile in France. His first notable work as an architect was the Casa Martí (Barcelona, 1895), a building later made famous by the success of the bar-restaurant on the ground floor, Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), the rendezvous of the intellectuals and artists who gravitated towards Modernism. Puig did not hesitate to introduce Scandinavian elements into his architectural idiom, something previously unheard of in a quintessentially Mediterranean city like Barcelona. This peculiarity is seen in his best-known achievements, the large town-houses such as the Casa Terrades ("Puntxes", Barcelona, 1903–5), the Casa Macaya (Barcelona, 1898–1900), the Can Serra (1907), and the Casa Baró de Quadras (Barcelona, 1905). The Casa Amatller on the Paseo de Gracia (1898–1900) notoriously forms part of what Barcelona wags called the manzana de la discordia (a punning reference to the "apple of discord", which started the Trojan war; manzana means "apple", but also "block of flats"). With its "medieval Dutch" facade it is a landmark in a cluster of buildings by the three greatest modernist architects, which includes Gaudí"s Casa Batlló and Domènech's Casa Lleó Morera. All these houses share an ornateness which derives from the fusion of the decorative arts with architecture, a notion associated with the Art 1900 movement; Puig often favoured decoration with sgraffito (esgrafiat, a Catalan speciality). A different sort of project is the Fàbrica Casarramona (1909–11), showing the application of a modified Modernism to an industrial building. Apart from Barcelona, he designed buildings in Mataró (Casa Coll i Regas, 1897–1898), Argentona (Casa Garí, "El Cros", 1899–1900, and his own highly original holiday home, 1897–1905) and in the wine-growing region of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, where he designed the Codorniu wineries (1901–4) famous for their geometric purity. Of his Noucentiste buildings, the most remarkable are: his own home in Barcelona, his studies for the Plaça Catalunya in the city (1915–22), and his design for the Exhibition of Electrical Industries which served as the basis for the International Exhibition of Barcelona in 1929.

   Further reading

   - Loyer, F. (1991) L'art nouveau en Catalogne, Paris: Biblio. Arts, Le Septième Fou.

   - Moldoveanu, M. (1996) Barcelona: Architectures of Exuberance, Barcelona: Lunwerg (an overview of different periods and styles, richly illustrated with photographs by the author).

   MIHAIL MOLDOVEANU