The house that houses the ideas of great architects

BarcelonaThe architect Ignacio de Solà-Morales (1942-2001) occupies an exceptional place in the history of Catalan architecture. Due to his dual training in architecture and philosophy, he was also a prominent intellectual. Solà-Morales was a deeply socially committed figure and one of the most internationally renowned architectural critics of his time. Like his career, the management of his legacy also reflects the two aspects of his activity. According to ARA, his children, Oriol, Pau, and Clara—the latter two architects—have donated his archive to two institutions: the theoretical part at the prestigious Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), and the projects and works, including the reconstruction of the Art of an Art of Art by Col'tec at l'Arc de Arte de Colu.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture is located in Montreal, and since its founding by Canadian architect and philanthropist Phyllis Lambert in 1979, it has always had an international vocation. The building opened its doors ten years later, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the center acquired numerous archives that were added to those Lambert had collected. Later, the collections grew thanks to donations, so the center concentrates its budget on the costly cataloging of the archives. The list of architects and theorists whose collections the center holds is anthological, and one can find, among many others, the legacies of James Stirling, Aldo Rossi, Alvaro Siza, Toyo Ito, Peter Eisenmann, and the two studios whose members wanted to leave their legacy at the CCA before separating: Ábad's and his grandfather.

The CCA represents a solid "research collection," as explained by Barcelona-born architect and director of publications at the institution, Albert Ferré. This means that the collection can be read by scholars according to their interests and that the institution's aim is, above all, "to have an impact on architectural discourse." "The CCA's way of collecting is very different from that of a museum like MoMA. Here, we have complete archives, archives that allow you to relate or understand how an architect's thinking is constructed," adds Ferré. "You need to have the correspondence, the sketches, and see budgets in order to truly understand what is done with the clients, what relationship is important for constructing their research."

Another feature of the collection is that it is designed taking into account the relationships that may exist between the different legacies. "The important thing in accepting an archival collection is to understand precisely how this archive can be part of our ecosystem and enrich it, making it more complex," says Ferré. This is where the figure of Solà-Morales fits in. "I had also spoken with Pau some time ago, and the CCA seems like a logical place for all of the theoretical work of Ignasi Solà-Morales, who had a very strong connection with the world of architectural thought in New York and also academically with Princeton and Columbia," says Ferré.

Solà-Morales was one of the founders of the Architecture New York Corporation (AÑO), with fellow architects Cynthia Davidson and Peter Eisenmann. The CCA already housed the archives of Davidson and Eisenmann, so Solà-Morales's will complement the AÑO Corporation's holdings and, at the same time, coexist with those of other theorists and historians of his generation. "During the 1990s, Davidson, Eisenmann, and Solà-Morales convened annual monographic meetings, the AÑO Conferences, one of which took place at the CCCB in October 1994. These conferences brought together all the architectural thinkers and avant-garde architects of the current change of the century, of liberalization, of globalization, and I believe these conferences were moments that greatly influenced 21st-century architectural thought," says Ferré.

Likewise, the fact that part of Solà-Morales's archive is moving to Canada doesn't mean it's disconnected from the Catalan part. "You can't understand one without the other; that's also very important. It's very important that we find a way for what comes here to be accessible from Catalonia, and for the work in the COAC to be accessible from here," warns Ferré. Furthermore, Solà-Morales's heirs will continue to preserve his extraordinary library, which is key to understanding how he forged his thinking.

The mutual enrichment of the CCA and the COAC

"The donation came about by chance. I first spoke with Albert, whom I've known for years, to see if the Canadian Center would be interested in transforming the exhibition that La Virreina dedicated to her father in 2019 into a catalog, and during the conversation the possibility of making the donation came up," recalls Pau de Solà-Morales. "In donating Solà-Morales's legacy, it was essential to carry out the same operation that the CCA carried out with the Alvaro Siza archive, which is housed in two other institutions, the Gulbelkian Foundation and the Serralves Foundation. "From the beginning, it was clear that the CCA is primarily interested in the more academic and intellectual aspects, so to speak, but we were soon told that many archives had made three-way agreements. "I am asked to give the entire archive to a foreign institution and that nothing would remain here and it will keep it perfect: So the agreement has been perfect: the presence of the father in Catalonia," says Pau de Solà-Morales. The agreement between the CCA and the COAC is also important institutionally: "I found it very interesting, because in this way the CCA approaches the funds that the COAC has, and the COAC comes into contact with an institution that also provides it with a more intellectual dimension, or a way of making archives somewhat broader than those they have here, which are more project-based," he explains.

As for the projects and works that they have given to the COAC, they include everything from his initial stage as municipal architect to the latest major projects, such as an essay on the reorganization of the Marseille seafront. And among the most notable are the Valls and Torelló theaters, the rehabilitation of the Pati Llimona and the Correu Vell, in Barcelona, ​​​​and the reconstruction of the Mies van der Rohe pavilion.

The COAC often holds exhibitions of the legacies it receives. In the case of Solà-Morales, they haven't spoken yet, but a recognition is planned for next year, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of his death, as part of the World Capital of Architecture events. Furthermore, the Solà-Morales brothers have also donated the archive of their mother, the interior designer Eulàlia Serra, to the DHUB. Serra is known for various works at the Liceu, including the gigantic chandeliers in various spaces of the theater, and for the Lluís Companys Hall at Barcelona City Hall.

Among researchers and the general public

The Canadian Centre for Architecture has been directed since 2020 by Italian architect Giovanna Borasi, and the director of collections is Martien de Vletter. This facility is part of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums. Each year it welcomes around 900 researchers, a significant portion of whom arrive with some type of grant. For Ferré, the center's scale and budget remind him of those at MACBA, which has an annual budget of around €12 million. "We are a team small enough for things to work in a very transversal way and at the same time large enough for there to be a high level of specialization," explains Ferré.

But the CCA doesn't have a permanent exhibition of the collection, and visitor numbers aren't an overwhelming concern. "We're lucky that being in Montreal puts us on the outskirts," says Ferré. "We're not in a major center like London, New York, or Paris, and we know we shouldn't try to attract the same audience as an art museum, for example. The number of people who can come to see one of our exhibitions is very limited compared to the number of students from schools and universities, but we also prioritize researchers."