In celebration of the Modernism Day, the dean of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Humanities, Judith Urbano, spoke on “La Mansana de la discordia: Five architects, five clients, five renovations” in cooperation with Cases Singulars. The session, attended by around 100 people, took place in one of the Faculty classrooms
The five buildings are in the Eixample district: Casa Lleó i Morera by Domènech i Montaner; Casa Mulleras by Enric Sagnier; Casa Bonet de Marcel Coquillat, Casa Amatller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch; and Casa Batlló by Antonio Gaudí.
The five houses, as explained by Assistant Professor Urbano, make up the group called the “mansana de la discòrdia” [the apple of discord], taking advantage of the double meaning of mansana [manzana/apple], as a square city block [delimited by 4 streets] of houses, or as the fruit ‘apple’, which in this second case, evokes the famous ‘apple of discord’ in Greek mythology: “In some way,” the dean of Humanities explained, “the three goddesses who are disputing over the apple of beauty are the three modernist architects: Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch, and Gaudí.”
The five buildings were renovations of existing homes originally built by master builders of the city. During the talk, Urbano spoke about owners of these houses before and after the renovations, the style curiosities of each building, etc. Through these diverse examples, she reviewed 19th century architecture and its styles, and the Barcelona of that time.
The conference took place in both onsite and online format, allowing a large audience to enjoy her explanations and knowledge about this architectural heritage. With this initiative, the Modernism Day celebration offered a unique opportunity to understand the evolution of architecture and its impact on the Barcelona’s development throughout the 19th century.
