Architecture and Collective Identity

While reading Paul Jones’s “Architecture and Commemoration: The Construction of Memorialization,” I was reminded of the Palau Güell by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain), how its architecture served as an exhibition of Catalan nationalism and identity. At a time when Catalonia’s economy was thriving from a prosperous industrial revolution, many of the newly bourgeois class began to focus on creating a rebirth of a national identity that reflected Catalan pride. They did this by forming a national character, turning to Catalonia’s past to help frame its present and future. For years, Catalans lived in a repressed society under King Phillip V of Spain. His attempt to eradicate Catalan culture and identity and his attempt to supplant the “Spanish way” onto the people of the region only fueled the Catalan resolve in preserving culture and identity.

            One such Catalan to do this was Eusebi Güell, a textile entrepreneur and a prominent figure in Catalan politics. In 1885 Güell commissioned Gaudi to design his family residence in the El Raval neighborhood in Barcelona. The Palau Güell not only functioned as his residence but also as a place where he could entertain his elite contemporaries and other dignitaries. Güell spared no expense in the building of the Palau—Gaudí used only the finest materials including the finest woods and stone, detailed ironwork, stained glass windows, and furnishings. In comparison to the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood, the Palau Güell is a monumental sight. It is a seven-story structure built to fit within the narrow landscape of its neighborhood. Evidence of Catalan identity, as well as Güell’s, are clearly visible on the onset. In between the two front gates is the Catalan coat of arms with a helmet crown and a phoenix placed above. Gaudí’s representation of the coat of arms resembles that of the coat of arms of the Aragonese monarchs of the 13^th and 15^th centuries. The latter depicts a fire-breathing dragon above the crown while Gaudí’s version uses a phoenix, a symbol or rebirth or resurrection. In the phoenix Gaudí places the rise of an independent Catalan nation, back to what most Catalans considered was its most natural state. Another representation of the coat of arms appears on the interior of the Palau in a stained glass window at the top of the main staircase and in the carpet that adorns stairway.

Aragon Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms at Palau Guell

            In the Palau Güell, both Güell and Gaudí saw it as a way to represent the hopes of a people and to push a political agenda. The goal for Catalans then (as it is today) was to return Catalonia to its glorious independent state, free of Spanish rule that attempted in vain to destroy their culture and identity. The architecture symbolically unified them as a nation. I think this is very similar to what Libeskind’s attempted to do with the architecture for Ground Zero. But I question if it’s indeed possible for that to happen in a country of diverse cultures where many feel disenfranchised. Can it really be feasible to expect a monument to represent the experiences and history of a diverse group? Ground Zero represents a horrific event that happened in one country. The new architecture at the site seeks to unify but does it create a collective identity?