Description
CaixaForum is the cultural center of the "la Caixa" foundation at the foot of Montjuïc in Barcelona, set in a red-brick Modernista textile mill: come for the temporary art exhibitions, and stay for the building.
The Casaramona factory is the work of Josep Puig i Cadafalch: low brick halls crowned with battlements, linked by inner streets that also served as firebreaks. Two towers stand on its axis, one with the factory's name in ceramic panels, the other a former water tank with a tiled dome.
Inside, an escalator takes visitors down to a lobby with a Sol LeWitt mural, then back up into the old halls. Outside, Arata Isozaki's glass-and-steel entrance spreads like a tree.
The mill closed within a decade of opening. It then stored goods for the 1929 International Exposition and spent decades as stables and a garage for the police, before the foundation restored it and opened the center in 2002.
The Casaramona factory is the work of Josep Puig i Cadafalch: low brick halls crowned with battlements, linked by inner streets that also served as firebreaks. Two towers stand on its axis, one with the factory's name in ceramic panels, the other a former water tank with a tiled dome.
Inside, an escalator takes visitors down to a lobby with a Sol LeWitt mural, then back up into the old halls. Outside, Arata Isozaki's glass-and-steel entrance spreads like a tree.
The mill closed within a decade of opening. It then stored goods for the 1929 International Exposition and spent decades as stables and a garage for the police, before the foundation restored it and opened the center in 2002.