Lluis Domenech Y Montaner
b. Barcelona, 1850;
d. Barcelona, 1923.

Spanish architect, historian and leading figure in the Catalan Modernismo movement. A contemporary of Gaudi, Domenech received his diploma from the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid in 1873. The principles of Modernismo - a potent mixture of Art Nouveau, the Modern style, the Jugendstil and the Secession - were first established by Domenech in his article “In Search of a National Architecture” (1878). The movement’s aim was to make a rational transition from late c 1 9 eclecticism to a modern idiom without sacrificing the essential characteristics of national Catalan identity. Domenech’s early works are eclectic, but a hotel constructed in 83 days for the Barcelona Universal Exposition of 1888 was based on a modular system which anticipated some of the technological processes of industrialization. The Palau de la Musica Catalana (1905-8) and the Hospital de Sant Paul (1902-10), both in Barcelona, were produced during the central and most important period of Domenech’s career. The Palau de la Milsica combines a radical, modern purity in its iron and glass structural form, with decorative ceramic embellishment of Art Nouveau origin. The Hospital de Sant Paul makes an important urban contribution to the regular street grid of the Barcelona Extension (conceived by the engineer Ildefonso Cerda in 1859). Another hospital, the psychiatric Institute of Pere Mata in Reus (1897-1919), also combines modernity with fragments of national Catalan tradition, especially in the use of Catalan arched vaults and ornamentation. Along with Gaudf, Domenech was an influential figure in the development of Catalan historical, cultural and political identity. Between 1900 and 1919 he was Director of the School of Architecture in Barcelona, which he transformed from a stagnant Neo-Classical institution to a crucible of second-generation Catalan Modernism.

List of major buildings / works
Institute of Pere Mata, Reus, 1897-1919.
Hospital de Sant Paul, Barcelona, 1902-10.
Palau de la Mtistca Catalana, Barcelona, 1905-8.

Bibliography
Maria Lluisa Borras, Lluis Domenech y Montaner, Barcelona, 1970.
Oriol Bohigas, Once Arquttectos, Barcelona, 1976.