Rediscover the Casaramona factory

CaixaForum has become in recent years one of Barcelona's reference cultural centers. Thousands of Barcelona residents and tourists go there to visit its exhibitions and participate in some of its activities. But CaixaForum is much more than its content, and admiration should extend to its container, a jewel of industrial modernism by Puig i Cadafalch.

The old Casaramona textile factory was acquired by La Caixa after the 1992 Olympic Games and reopened as a cultural center in 2002 after a profound rehabilitation directed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, also the author of the Palau Sant Jordi. It left behind more than half a century of police use and an ephemeral industrial life, as the factory opened in 1913 and had to close in 1920 after going bankrupt as a result of the La Canadenca strike.

CaixaForum has started a series of guided Sunday visits to, precisely, showcase this unique building of Catalonia's architectural heritage, also the first factory to work with electric energy instead of coal. That's why it has no chimney.

Last Sunday, one of these truly interesting visits took place. Claudia, the guide, led about twenty visitors through the history of the building, which began at the main entrance, where Isozaki faced the great challenge of the building's renovation and where he left the imprint of Japanese architectural tradition.

And it is that when La Caixa acquired the building, it acquired 7,000 square meters, but needed double that to make its cultural project a reality. The solution was to excavate the foundations and use all this surface gained from the subsoil and also provide it with light. For this reason, Isozaki conceived a large open space below street level, wide, glazed, and made of goat marble. Thus, he transformed a dark and low space into what it is today.

The first surprise of the visit was precisely in this white marble ensemble, for which he also drew inspiration from the geometric block design of the nearby Mies Van der Rohe pavilion. It is in the midst of this rationalist conglomerate that opens to the sky where visitors come across a patio that goes unnoticed, very simple, following the continuous goat marble but without any ornamentation and which cannot be accessed because the floor is covered by a patina of water that imperceptibly springs forth. It is a space of contemplation and silence, very zen, with which the Japanese architect pays homage to the tradition of his country, just as he does with the tree-shaped sculpture that marks the entrance to the complex.

Before discovering the old factory spaces inside, the group heads to what was the main entrance of the factory on Mèxic Street. There, a recently restored mosaic can be admired, bearing the initials of the industry's owner, Casimir Casaramona.

The interior visit reveals the revolution that Puig i Cadafalch brought to industrial modernism. All the building's naves are equipped with numerous windows designed for interior lighting. In one of the two towers that preside over the complex, an elevated water tank specially designed for extinguishing a possible fire stands out. The Casaramonas were very aware of preventing such disasters after fire destroyed their factory in the Raval. A series of interior streets complete a design also intended to prevent the spread of a hypothetical fire.

In short, it is a highly recommended visit to a building that in the decades following the 1929 International Exhibition became almost invisible, due to its police use after the war and the new constructions that surrounded it. Take advantage and discover it.