Hospital de Sant Pau

Hospital de Sant Pau
1902-1912
Presented by Dane Kinney

Domènech i Montaner created a concentrated basement structure that occupies nine street blocks and avoids the functional dispersion of the pavilions, much criticized by experts in hospital construction at the time. It comprises 46 pavilions laid out around an axis running diagonally through the street block. Domènech thereby presented an open, innovative take on the model street block of the Cerdà grid. The structure of the pavilions comprises modular elements supporting brick vaults, allowing the wall system to adapt to the functionality of each pavilion.
The axis formed between the hospital and Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia by Avinguda Gaudí represents a unique monumental complex, at the ends of which stand two almost antithetical conceptions to the meaning of the new Modernisme architecture and its function in the context of the social needs of the time.