The exhibition “Models of 20th-century commemorative and funerary architecture”, jointly organised by the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture and the Gavà Museum and Town Council, was officially inaugurated in an event held on 3 July. The exhibit, curated by lecturer Guillem Carabí and student Marta Faura, will be on display in the air-raid shelter in Gavà until 3 October and can be visited with a guided tour on the first Sunday of every month. 

The exhibition contains work completed by students over the past two years as part of the subject Architectural Composition. The students researched and built models of some of the monuments that, in the 20th century, were designed and built in Europe mainly to commemorate those who died in World War I and II by some of the century’s most famous architects: Adolf Loos, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Mies van Der Rohe, Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa and Alvar Aalto.

During the inaugural event, Pep Bosch, director of the Gavà Museum, welcomed the attendees and thanked the town council, the University and the company Garcia Faura Arquitectura (which sponsored the exhibition) for their help in organising the initiative. This was followed by a speech by the two curators. “This is a two-way pedagogical exhibition: on the one hand, visitors will have a chance to see how the students from our school work when it comes to selecting reference sources, redrawing plans, choosing materials and deciding how to incorporate all essential aspects on a much smaller scale. On the other, what we are showing here is History with a capital H, in the line of such prestigious historians as Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, or Josep Fontana, who viewed history as an interdisciplinary activity that helps us better understand the world”, emphasised Guillem Carabí. Marta Faura, for her part, stressed “the coincidence in time between the construction of this air-raid shelter and the historical moment of many of the models from the exhibition”. 

Other participants in the inaugural event included the rector of UIC Barcelona, Xavier Gil, and the mayor of Gavá, Raquel Sánchez. “For our university it is an honour to display our students’ work in a place like this, as shelters are historical settings that pay tribute to civil society and their resistance against the atrocities of war”, explained the Rector. In the words of the Mayor, “this exhibition helps us remember, remember the history of our city, which continues to uphold the culture of peace”.