Looking for Inspiration. Furniture Designs of Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

Abstract

Josep Puig i Cadafalch, one of the most important architects of the Catalan Modernismo, was also the interior designer of many of “his” buildings. In similar fashion to the British Arts & Crafts movement, he wanted that “his” houses aimed for an ideal inspired by the medieval past, when the artisan’s work and the uniqueness of the resulting interiors were paramount. The Catalan context whose Renaixença had made the Medieval Ages up as a reference and the Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau were key for his idea of the building as a whole, where the references to the Gothic style were usual.

Even that, probably because he was also art historian, other art periods had a very important influence in his furniture designs. His sketches, preserved in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, allow us to see the other past art references that inspired him, as the Renaissance or the Baroque styles.