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Ignasi Iglésias School construction project

Date
1901 - 2000
Archive
Municipal Archive of Girona
Document type
Textual
Reference code
CAT-AMGi-1-510746
Link to the online document
Description

Construction project for the Ignasi Iglésias School in Montjuïc (Girona). The center was designed by Ricard Giralt i Casadesús, municipal architect. The school was inaugurated in September 1932 by Francesc Macià, president of the Generalitat. This, at the inauguration ceremony, highlighted the role of the new school within the school renewal movement that the Republic was betting on and which wanted to equate the levels of literacy and schooling in Catalonia with those of Europe.
The Girona architect Ricard Giralt was part of the GATCPAC (Group of Catalan Technical Architects for the Advancement of Contemporary Architecture) which was part of an international stream of young architects interested in the urban planning of cities, which had become large industrial and economic centers and, therefore, poles of attraction for migratory movements, and in the planning of works that were useful in solving the social problems of the moment.
The school became one of the iconic buildings of the Republican City Hall. In this sense, it was intended to care for one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city, assuming the role of education as a tool to transform society and help those with fewer resources. In addition, at an architectural level, it was equipped with innovative lighting, ventilation and heating measures; it also had a school canteen and a space to teach children how to brush their teeth. Of the Ignasi Iglésias School, the construction record and the plans are kept and a detailed photographic report made by Valentí Fargnoli on the occasion of its inauguration.
This document is important at a European level because it is an example of the currents of renewal that were taking place in Europe at that time, both in the field of education and urban planning and architecture. In school architecture, the needs of the renovating pedagogical movements were combined, with new ways of educating that required new conceptions of space, where students were at the center.