○ Unique Houses
Casa Felip
Ausiàs Marc, 31 – Barcelona
The house of a textile industrialist
As we know, Manuel Felip (1855-1913) was an important textile manufacturer of wool, cotton, printing and dyeing.
History
The block where Casa Felip is located, between the streets of Sant Pere, Bruc, Ausiàs Marc and Girona, was known as the “golden textile zone”, and rose in wealth at the end of the 19th century when the bourgeoisie moved there; in other words, artists and liberal professions that coexisted with textile manufactures.
In 1901, the architect Telm Fernández i Janot (1855-1926) was commissioned by Manuel Felip to build what would be his residence.
The house would consist of a basement, ground floor, first floor, three further floors and, lastly, the attic, where the household staff, driver and porter would live. A new feature of the time was the elimination of the ground floor to provide space at street level for commercial premises.
The building is an outstanding example of the innovative ideas of the time, led by Domènech i Montaner, defender of an architecture understood as “total, noble and integrative art” and who championed the revival of craftsmanship. Important artists and craftspeople were involved, who decorated both the facade and the interior: Manuel Ballarín (ironwork), Enric Cardellach (the lift), Eusebi Busquets (carpentry), Joan Busquets (decorator), Antoni Bordalba (stained glass), etc.
Fundació Vila Casas
Casa Manuel Felip, located on Carrer d’Ausiàs Marc, 20, is the headquarters of the Fundació Vila Casas, which was created in 1986 by the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Antoni Vila Casas.
Fundació Vila Casas is a private non-profit organisation whose main objectives are the recovery of architectural heritage, the promotion of contemporary Catalan art and the formation of public opinion in the field of health.
It has five exhibition spaces in Barcelona, Torroella de Montgrí and Palafrugell, all located in emblematic buildings where the owner’s private collection is exhibited.
The first location and current headquarters of the Fundació has, since 1997, been located on Carrer d’Ausiàs Marc in Barcelona. Vila Casas recovered the main floor of the property known as Casa Felip, a modernist building. What’s more, in 2004 it acquired the ground floors and basements of the adjoining house, no. 22, the Espais Volart, to create more exhibition rooms. The premise of Vila Casas was that “tradition and culture are the main signs or axes of identity of our country”.
What will we visit?
We will be able to visit a modernist interior that preserves the work of modernist artists and craftspeople.