Event participants included Josep M. Valle, director of the publishing company Duxelm, Dr Judith Urbano, dean of the Faculty of Humanities at UIC Barcelona, who presented the book, and the author, Dr Guillem Carabí.
Following a brief speech by the editor, during which he presented the book and expressed the publisher's commitment to content quality over topicality, Dr Urbano elaborated on what she feels are the main questions the book raises. One of the general characteristics she mentioned was the great care and attention paid to language and the author's skilful use of words, as well as the interest in the study of Jujol's architecture. Dr Urbano also drew attention to the book's structure, organised according to the Liturgy of the Hours (in clear allusion to the Marian devotion discernible throughout Jujol's work), the ongoing relevance of Jujol's work and the book's ties with the artistic avant-garde. She went on to thank the editor for his clear commitment to publishing texts based on doctoral theses.
Lastly, the author, Dr Guillem Carabí, discussed his strategies for turning a 600-page doctoral thesis into a book intended for a broader audience, including people with no particular affinity for architecture. The first strategy consisted of analysing the architecture of Casa Bofarull from a traveller's perspective: travelling the paths towards Els Pallaresos (the village in which the house is located), viewing the building from a distance of 300 metres, approaching the village, climbing the street towards the house, crossing the threshold, visiting the house's numerous vantage points, crossing the garden. Altogether, this route turns the visual, tactile, audio and olfactory experience into a resource for explaining the architecture from the point of view of land, landscape, construction, use and function.
The second strategy was to determine the ground rules for explaining the house's architectural design. The author used two quotes to establish a base for understanding Jujol's work. The first, an excerpt by Bertolt Brecht, sheds light on Jujol's flair for animating objects, reusing them and ascribing them new meaning. The second quote, by author George Steiner, helps explain the architect's ability to turn his work into an act of criticism, that is, into a counter-declaration to the world that professes his predilection for architectural intervention over pre-existence.
The event also gave the audience the opportunity to ask several questions and enter into dialogue with the author.
