Casal del Ahorro
The opening of the Via Laietana, the long, straight thoroughfare that cuts through the old quarter of Barcelona, entailed the demolition of old buildings and their replacement by new buildings such as this one, the head offices of the Caja de Pensiones savings bank. Many of the buildings lining the new road were occupied by banks and the area gradually became specialised in office buildings, a novelty at the time. In 1911, at the other end of the road, Sagnier himself had already designed the offices of the Banco Hispano Colonial, one of the financial backers for this urban development, which was known as the “Reform”.
The Casal del Ahorro (together with the adjacent building called the Casal de la Previsión, built five years later) dominates the perspective of the new road and its picturesquely neo-Gothic outward appearance owes much to the solidity of the stone quarried in Garraf. Sagnier was to design more branch offices for this bank in Catalonia over the coming years and for them he would employ some of the elements used in this first building, such as the scabbled stone ornamentation, thereby unifying the bank’s corporate image in a truly modern way. Another outstanding aspect of the building is its concrete structure. Until then this material had only been employed for industrial buildings. This structure, however, was not visible from the exterior and neither could it be seen inside, since it was profusely decorated.
Of Sagnier’s five buildings and two shops awarded architecture prizes by Barcelona city council, only the Casal del Ahorro (and Ignasi Coll’s house in the Avinguda del Tibidabo) have survived. The plaque announcing the prize can still be seen on the facade. On this occasion the prize was an extraordinary one. It was the third time that Sagnier had been awarded this prize and this earned him the council’s gold medal award.
Sagnier maintained close relations with the bank founded by Francesc Moragas and Lluís Ferrer-Vidal and received commissions for other buildings, especially for the bank’s social assistance services.
-
date
1914-1917
-
location
Barcelona
-
address
Via Laietana, 56-58 / Jonqueres