Erasing The Architectural Palimpsest
Joaquim Ruiz Millet, by now, a good friend of mine, published in 1995 the first edition of a book that seemed to go practically unnoticed. In 2002 he made a second edition proving, however, that the book indeed had built up a certain type of concerned audience. The publication was a catalogue of Francisco J. Barba Corsini’s considerable output in architecture, interior and furniture design, illustrated with photographs by Francesc Català Roca that by themselves are a generous treat. This kind of slow but determined dissemination was due mostly to the original reason for the publication. Embedded within the pages of the book, one could find a reasonable call for action, one that was aimed at preserving an existing architectural palimpsest, one that had marvelled many in the city, and one that prove to be embarrassing to others too. That’s why the hush-hush. In 1953, Corsini designed and supervised the construction of 13 apartments in the attic of Gaudi’s «Casa Milà» to make a profitable use of a space that was, at that point, unused and in an abandoned state. This interior architecture that, at the end, made no intrusion on the morphology of the building, seemed to testify to the fact that Gaudi had been finally digested and assimilated. It’s hard to believe that those spaces aren’t there anymore.
«Barba Corsini. Arquitectura 1953-1994», Galería H2O, Barcelona.
Fotos Francesc Català Roca.