02.04. Renovation of the Fémina Cinema. 1951
Architect: Antoni de Moragas i Gallissà
Location: Pg. de Gràcia, 23
The Fémina cinema, located on Passeig de Gràcia, was one of the first cinemas to be built in Barcelona. The comfort of its seats became famous and, as a result, and because of its location in one of the main centres of the city, it became one of the most distinguished cinemas in Barcelona during the silent film era. Then it got old; it began a gradual decline, until, when the owner changed in 1949, a renovation was in order. A new roof was needed to fix a series of leaks. Since the roof needed to be replaced, it was worth ensuring that the new one would allow for building an amphitheatre. Ultimately, the Fémina cinema became a building site, and a new cinema need to be designed. The construction was carried out in two phases: the first during the summer of 1949 and the second during the summer of 1951.
During the first phase, the seating area, the proscenium and the roof were completed. The second phase included construction of the amphitheatre and the entire body of the building corresponding to carrer Diputació.
The entrance to the floor seating is through the lobby off Passeig de Gràcia, today still unfinished. The entrance to the amphitheatre is on carrer Diputació. They were like two entirely different cinemas with a single screen. As a result, spectators of different classes would never find themselves in the same lobby, avoiding the consequent complications.
It is perfectly clear where the first phase ends and the second begins. Two years had gone by, which were decisive in the aesthetic evolution of the architect. The first phase still included frank neoclassical reminiscences in mouldings, ceilings, etc., while the second phase entailed a real effort toward an aesthetic shift.
The most outstanding features, which contribute to giving the design personality, are the undulating wood-based surface of the façade and the wooden planks beneath the amphitheatre in the interior.
The façade on carrer Diputació, in its top section, conforms to the most rigid functionalist concepts; upon reaching ground level however, like someone doing a pirouette, an undulating surface, drawn with feeling, appears. It’s as if they wanted to demonstrate that one era has ended and another has begun, or that it’s possible to combine a clear, geometric architecture with irrational forms and materials that are comfortable like wood.
The section of ceiling that corresponds to the floor seating, located beneath the amphitheatre, needed to avoid any sensation of weight. This is achieved through a series of wooden planks, which, set at a short distance from the ceiling, are fitted with rows of tube lighting on the top side. The impossibility of making out the distance that separates them from the ceiling, along with the uncertainty of where the light is coming from, leads to a true sensation of brightness and transparency in anyone standing under the ceiling.
Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, no. 138, June 1953, pp. 31-34.