The civic and reflective architecture of Jaume Bach

BarcelonaFor architect Jaume Bach (Sabadell, 1943), the civic nature of his profession is key. "It's about offering a new way of looking at a society that is perhaps too self-absorbed, and the idea that architecture is a public matter, something that belongs to everyone," says Jaume Bach, who has completed the Reina Sofía Museum's auditorium-cinema with his son Eugeni and his younger sister, Anna Bach. The project is the result of the renovation of the old auditorium, which he carried out with Gabriel Mora in the 1980s. The inauguration coincides with the publication of Jaume Bach architect (Puente Editores), a monograph featuring some of his major works, with photographs by Eugeni Bach and texts by younger architects, including Jaume Mayol and Bet Capdeferro. This last point is a sign of how he has become a reference point for new generations and of the timeless quality of his work.

Over the years, Jaume Bach has come to the conclusion that he became an architect for reasons such as the confluence of his early interest in the arts and the impact of two houses where he spent his youth: a modernist summer house in Castellar del Vallès and a rationalist house in Sabadell. "Among my early influences, I also recall some examples of liturgical architecture," Bach explains. "I never saw myself working in engineering, and instead, architecture has allowed me to have an artistic component." His education took place during the Franco regime, when the intellectual ferment was happening outside the classroom, but he remembers some excellent professors like Federico Correa and Oriol Bohigas. "We've always held the view that, to achieve improvements, whether small or large, you have to turn things around, and that everything is designed to improve people's lives. In those years, we were completely captivated by the debate surrounding the modern myth, and we felt that the solutions offered by the modern movement were often incomplete. You found it incredibly interesting."

Fieldwork in late Francoist Barcelona

Jaume Bach is considered one of the leading figures in recent Catalan architecture. "With this book, I don't intend to write a testament, mind you," he cautions. He finished his degree at the end of the dictatorship, when everything was yet to be done. "I graduated in 1969, but in 1968 I was already working for the Metropolitan Corporation, trying to reconcile architecture and urban planning with a broader vision that would encompass the complex reality of the city." Thus, with a group of other students, he carried out a project on green spaces and sports areas that was later incorporated into the 1976 General Plan. "We did an enormous amount of fieldwork, covering all of Barcelona and the twenty-seven surrounding municipalities, because back then, the scope of intervention only extended this far," he explains. All of this was documented in two issues of the magazine Notebooks on architecture and urban planning which were awarded at the International Union of Architects (UIA) congress.

Bach also collaborated briefly with Bohigas, an aspect that highlights the intellectual depth of his career and how it fits into a tradition of great architects. "I collaborated with Oriol when I was at school, I think from 1961. At that time, Oriol was looking for people to prepare a congress on Catalan culture, obviously clandestine. We analyzed what had been built, what hadn't, and what was missing, poring over magazines from the beginning of the last century up to the years of the Republic. This gave me a broad view of how architecture had developed in Catalonia," he recalls.

He also worked in Bohigas's studio, MBM, and in Federico Correa's studio. "That relationship of continuity between people who had been in contact with architects, including Puig and Cadafalch, because they had been their teachers, is something special. Later on, it seemed that this was something to be belittle or break, but I have always understood that it is a good way to reflect and maintain some connection with previous architects,"

Versatile architects

Like many architects of his generation, Jaume Bach is an architect who, far from specializing, has worked across a very broad range of typologies. "Those were controversial years, years of debate about postmodernism. In 1966, Robert Venturi published the famous book Complexity and contradiction in architecture"And it was a revelation because it compelled us to question things we had already identified. We were prepared to do everything we could," he emphasizes.

There are two very important moments here: the commissions that the Barcelona City Council gave to some architects during the Transition, among them Bach's L'Alzina school, where he began to put into practice the social improvements that architecture could bring. Narcís Serra, advised by Oriol Bohigas, undertook projects like the Gràcia squares. What does it mean to lay paving stones, curbs? This project forced us to critically review everything we had to implement. Some squares were never built, but I'm very happy with the project because it was about rediscovering spaces and considering what it meant to transform them into a square, and each one has different connotations and uses. And we invented one like the Trilla square," he explains.

Reflection as a starting point

Jaume Bach's collaboration with Gabriel Mora began with the Cerler apartments in 1979 and lasted until 1998; afterwards, he partnered with Eugeni Bach. Throughout his career, he emphasizes the importance of reflection, which is also a way of distancing himself from trends. And the book documents buildings that have stood the test of time. "The development of art is not a matter of keeping up with the times, but of making a judgment and, from there, seeing what you can do," he says. Among his most outstanding early works is Casa Tello (1973-1975), the result of remodeling an old modernist summer house and its wine cellar, whose central section was raised to store the barrels underneath. Bach used ideas from "radical Italian architecture" and transformed the house with small staircases that connect the terrace to the site's varying levels, eliminating the large window on the main façade and replacing it with other openings. "Architecture depends on many things, but you must transcend this dependence," he advises. Another of his first houses in Olèrdola, on a very challenging plot of land. Furthermore, the owner used concrete blocks, which meant he had to comply with very strict regulations.

One of Jaume Bach and Gabriel Mora's most emblematic works is the Raventós cellars, where the owners requested that the building not encroach upon a listed, centuries-old oak tree so that the tree would retain its public character. Thus, the project resulted in a "large circle" that envelops the oak with a celebratory air. "Furthermore, the circle has the virtue of marking all directions and fits well with the Puig i Cadafalch winery in front. What you're always looking for is a superimposition of elements that gives you such a powerful formal image, always in accordance with the essence of what you're seeking, what's next to you, what the idea is." "One of the most important things is having a good client, because we're very aware that economics is a very important part of architecture, and that it can be a constraint, but we must stop trying to play all the cards," says the architect.

In the field of sports, Bach and Mora are the architects of the Terrassa Olympic hockey stadium. "With the allocated budget, there wasn't even enough to get started. The work area covers 14 hectares and includes a football field that was left unfinished. So we built an entire underground playing field, where a slope protrudes instead of a concrete structure," he explains. One of the building's iconic elements is the grandstand, and another is the view towards La Mola and Montserrat. "That's how I understand landscape design, knowing where you are and trying to appreciate the landscape," the architect emphasizes.

Internationally, Jaume Bach won the competition to redesign the presbytery of Parma Cathedral, adapting it for liturgy by creating the altar, the pulpit, the bishop's chair, and the auxiliary chairs. "The pieces are like mobiles, seemingly levitating," says Bach, recalling how Chillida gave lightness to heavy materials. "They are allegorical pieces: the throne resembles an open book, and liturgical texts are engraved in the main modern languages, including Catalan."

Among Bach Arquitectes' latest major works is the Banc Sabadell headquarters in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Its starting point is the transformation and expansion of an office building he himself designed more than twenty years ago, following the route of the B-30 highway. The new five-story office building features a large landscaped area in the center of the site, which becomes the entrance to the various buildings. "I'm aware that over more than fifty years I haven't repeated any motif more than twice. There are underlying strategies that transcend purely stylistic elements. I don't have a formally recognizable way of working," he asserts.

At the other end of the Reina Sofía cinema, the planned conversion of Telefónica's headquarters, a Bach building in the Olympic Village, into luxury apartments has stirred controversy. This case raises the issue of the heritage status of recent architecture. "That needs to be raised with the institutions, although I don't know how. It's impossible to preserve everything that's been done, but there must be systems in place to protect what has been accomplished since the return of democracy. This generation that gave all of this a boost cannot be forgotten," says Jaume Bach.