01. Ideas Competition on the Issue of Affordable Housing in Barcelona. 1949

Winning team: Francesc Mitjans, Antoni de Moragas, Ramon Tort, Antoni Perpinyà, Josep Antoni Balcells and Josep Maria Sostres

Organizer: COACB (Architects’ Association of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands)

Jury: Pedro Cendoya Oscoz (Dirección General de Arquitectura); Manuel de Solà-Morales i de Roselló (COACB); Buenaventrua Bassegoda Musté (Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB)); Adolf Florensa Ferrer (Barcelona City Council); Francisco de P. Nebot Torrens (Housing Administration); José María Ayxelá Tarrats (Provincial Civil Government); José Feliu Gusiñé (Chamber of Urban Property); José María Segarra Solsona (architect nominated by the competition participants)

Prizes 1st – 30,000 pesetas; 2nd – 15,000 pesetas; 3rd – 10,000 pesetas

On 13 January 1949, the Architects’ Association of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands convened an ideas competition to address the problem of affordable housing in Barcelona. The winning team centred around Francesc Mitjans, along with Josep Antoni Balcells, Antoni de Moragas, Antoni Perpinyà, Josep Maria Sostres and Ramon Tort. It was the first time since the GATPAC that the major Catalan architects came together to take on an issue of enormous social importance.

While preparing their proposal, they participated in the 5th National Assembly of Architects, which was held in Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Valencia from 10-17 March 1949. One of the topics discussed at that meeting was the need for comprehensive urban planning for the Spanish State that would provide solutions for the housing needs of the popular classes. During that 5th Assembly, an exhibition of contemporary Ibero-American architecture took place in the Saló del Tinell in Barcelona. At the Llotja de Valencia, where the Assembly ended, Gio Ponti gave a lecture on architectural modernity that fascinated the attendees. Just days before, on 7 March at the Ateneu Barcelonès, the Italian architect Alberto Sartoris gave a talk called “Le Founti della Nuova Architettura”, as part of a lecture series organized by the COAC, the aim of which was to explore the new currents in European architecture and urban planning.

The winning proposal analysed the situation of housing for workers based on a complete economic and sociological study, almost without positing any architectural solutions. The project contained a series of floor plans with different distributions for various types of houses as a foundation for calculating surface areas in relation to prices, financing, rents, necessary land, etc.

This investigation led the Barcelona City Council and other official entities to set in motion the creation of two large complexes for workers’ housing during the 1950s: the Congrés Eucarístic housing and, later, the Montbau estate.

The competition and the 5th National Assembly of Architects planted the seed for the emergence of Grup R in 1951.