November 2012 - Barcelona

importance of the natural light and the
sense of calm created by the central
light well.
She remembers the market in the car
park, the boarding house on the first
floor and the bingo hall – all businesses
started by the owners of the building
during the 1950s, to generate some
income for a work of genius that was
running at a loss. The architect Barba
Corsini renovated the loft and laundry
rooms – the space that now houses the
Espai Gaudí – to create 13 duplex
apartments. ‘It was the only full-scale
modern-day reworking of one of
Gaudí’s works by a Barcelona architect
who was important in his own right,’
says Joaquim Ruiz Millet, author of a
monograph on Barba Corsini, and
director of the gallery H2O.
Barba Corsini created parabolic
arches, played with curves, designed
small lofts to optimize the use of space
and experimented with what he called
‘interior architecture.’ He designed the
lighting and the furniture. All that
remains of these efficient living spaces,
as striking as film sets and inhabited by
the in-crowd of the period, are Francesc
Català Roca’s photographs, the
architect’s drawings, some film footage
and the odd newspaper report. The
apartments themselves were destroyed
in 1995, despite an initial agreement
with the Caixa Catalunya bank –
owners of the building since 1986 – to
preserve two of them.
The building as a whole is
supported on columns, which means
that the façade is not load-bearing, and
becomes a curtain wall, allowing free
distribution of the internal spaces.
Gaudí could move the façade and make
each apartment different, and kept
trying out new ideas until the client’s
patience ran out. The client in question
was Rosario Segimon, a wealthy
widow who married Pere Milà, a
developer. He promised her the finest
house on the Passeig de Gràcia, but she
ended up paying for it. The signing of
the construction completion certificate
was delayed until 1912, although the
building had been completed two
years earlier.
Música
Festival
del Mil·lenni
Founded 14 years ago, at the end of the
century – and of the millennium, hence
the name – this festival’s original
raison d’être was to plug the gap in the
city’s musical calendar during the last
and the first months of the year,
traditionally a live music desert. Times
have changed, and the city now has a
steady stream of gigs to keep us warm
through from December to February.
But the Festival del Mil·lenni has
grown too: this year the festival begins
in November, and, just for comparison,
last year’s festival went on well into
spring. It starts with a bang: the first
acts are The Divine Comedy and Patti
Smith who – and this is another of the
festival’s defining characteristics – will
both be playing stunning venues. Neil
Hannon will be performing The Divine
Comedy’s back catalogue of baroque
pop alone, and at the piano – a format
that allows him freedom to interact
with the audience – in the welcoming
ambience of the Casino de l’Aliança in
Poblenou. Meanwhile Patti Smith will
be promoting her most recent album,
the magnificent Banga (2012), backed
by a four-piece band, at the Palau de la
Música. –Marta Salicrú
THE DIVINE COMEDY
Casino de l’Aliança.
3 November.
PATTI SMITH
Palau de la Música.
19 November.
E. MAPPLETHORPE
Arts
November 2012 Time Out BCN Guide 25