Rupert Garriga Miranda house
This apartment block offers unrestricted views of two of central Barcelona’s most important streets, Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia; hence, without seeking to exaggerate its status, particular attention has been paid to the facade, with a composition that is sober, although the scabbled stone masonry reveals its monumental intent. The facade that gives onto the Passeig de Gràcia, in view perhaps of the grander status of this street, has been given special treatment, with different repertoires of triple openings in the smooth masonry. The first floor, as was customary, contained the most important apartment, as revealed by the tribune with its circular base and the density of the ornament.
In this building Sagnier was already beginning to distance himself from the moderate decoration of a decade earlier and was turning toward the Classicism that would imbue his later work, visible in the columns of the tribune and the first-floor windows, in the ornamental repertoire of the ironwork or in the mosaic decoration limited to the openings of the proprietors’ apartment. Practically all the elements of this building represent a novelty in Sagnier’s formal repertoire; they are carefully designed and very well executed, but he did not use them again in subsequent constructions.
The building has been enlarged by the addition of two upper storeys, but in a respectful way that has not spoilt the coherence of the whole. The ground floor has also been modified, with the loss of some of the original openings.
-
date
1909-1912
-
location
Barcelona
-
address
Còrsega, 321 / Pº. De Gràcia.