The Centro Mercantil in Oviedo: an approach to interior design in Asturias (1912-1917)

Abstract

This article goes round the Oviedo Mercantil Center, built by Julio Galán Carvajal, one of the most important architects during the first decades of the 20th century in Galicia and Asturias. This building was a private place of meeting and sociability for the city commercial and industrial members and it offered different activities for leisure time, inst ruction or cultural aims, with the last objective of establishing commercial and personal relationships between its members. The uses and functions of different spaces are analyzed and also the elements that configure its internal decoration are studied. These were done according the architect’s design and his furnishing. There is also references to the houses training who participated in their internal configuration. This analysis allows us to identify the social costumes, decorative preferences and the stiles which are representative of the Asturian interior spaces at the beginning of the 20th century.