I’m doing my internship at the firm of Oscar Tusquets Blanca. The office is located on the hills in the northwest part of city, where most of the development seems to be from the 1970’s and later. There are some older structures however – a large piece of land, now a park, owned by Antoni Gaudi’s most prominent (and wealthy) patron, Count Eusebi Guell, was donated by the latter to the University of Catalunya. It includes a pavilion designed by Gaudi with its famous “dragon” gate. There is also a large monastery further up on the hill.
I finally know the city, bus, metro and tram routes well enough to walk less, especially in circles – in fact now that I go back to a few places, I realize the enormity of the circles that I had traversed. I found that I can take one bus from close to where I live now and get dropped off a couple of blocks from work.
The office’s layout is, ironically, similar in part to that of the University of Houston’s College of Architecture. One enters the front half of the building, off axis, up a set of stairs and into the first floor. There is a small foyer that ends at the reception desk. Several large tables, that serve as the space for making models, occupy a double-height atrium in the center of the building. Around this space are niches used by the various architects, two of which serve as conference areas. The second floor is laid out in the same manner, overlooks the atrium, and includes the offices of Tusquets and his partner in the firm, Carlos Diaz. There are some additional offices, as well as a kitchen and dinning area, in two basement levels. The whole space is lit naturally, with task lighting used as needed.
Office hours are from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, followed by a two-hour lunch and then from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Some folks come in a bit earlier, while others take a shorter lunch, therefore leaving earlier. These hours are the norm for all of Spain. Dinner is quite late, usually after 10:00 PM. It’s taken me some time to adjust to eating a meal so late on a regular basis; though going through architecture school was good training.
Oscar Tusquets was trained as an architect and spent many years focused on industrial design. He now does both as well as running a small publishing company and an architectural foundation – all from this location. The residence of his family constitutes the other half of the building. Completed in 1992, he has named the entire complex Villa Andrea, after his adopted daughter.
His industrial designs can be found around Barcelona and elsewhere. He has designed kitchen-ware (manufactured by Alessi), china, various chairs as well as bus and train station lounge benches, to name a few. My favorite is a chair that he designed in honor of Gaudi.
Since 2001, Tusquets’ foundation has recognized several projects with a “10 Year Award” – each year one critic (including Robert Venturi and Cesar Pelli in the past) chooses a few projects in Barcelona for achievement ten years after completion – a measure of success of the work, and how it relates to the city, over time.
Tusquets, who is in his early 60’s, defines himself as a “Post-Modernist” – though, in my view, his definition is a bit different than what we see as Post-Modern architecture in the US. Borrowing Roman forms for buildings in the former Roman territory of Spain is different that using the same forms in Houston, for example. I personally don’t think that he is a Post-Modernist regardless of definition. If I were to categorize his work, I would say that he is a Spanish Expressionist. I don’t know if such a classification exists, but from what I see it is rooted in Gaudi, of whom Tusquets is quite fond. In Spain, the architecture of Gaudi’s time, in the early 20th century – usually referred to as Art Nouveau – is called Modernista; there is a walking tour marked by special pavers in the sidewalks that takes one along the major buildings of the movement. Modernista involves a great amount of decoration with organic elements in different materials – be it wrought iron, ceramics, stone or wood. Antoni Gaudi is the most famous architect associated with this style and he is distinct in that the forms of his structures are organic as well – more on him in an upcoming article.
Tusquets’ best known work in Barcelona, as far I as know so far, is an addition to the famous Palau de la Musica Catalana, a 1905-1908 Modernista structure designed by Lluis Domenech Montaner. Here, Tusquets stays within the same reddish clay color palett of the original building – and all of Barcelona for that matter – along with glass and steel for a new entry, restaurant and additional space for the existing program. The 2001 extension is quite reserved when compared to Montaner’s work, with a rather beautiful curved façade with an organic form carved out of the brick.
The people in the office are quite nice and are helping me along with my as yet broken Spanish. By my count there are twenty-four people in building – most speak a bit of English with a few completely fluent. At the moment, I am building two physical models: one is of a 1920’s University structure, for which the firm is entering a competition to remodel two of its wings and its centerpiece entrance into a convention center. The other is a vacation house near the sea that is in the construction permitting stage. I’ll put up some photos of the finished models in a few weeks.
You can see some examples of the firm’s work on its website, www.tusquets.com, and from my images under the link “Beautiful Barcelona”. This collection of photos got randomized when I posted them – if I have the time, I’ll put some captions and reorder them so they can be better understood.
the City 