After a first Art Nouveau stage ascribed to Art-Nouveau , under the guidance of Demetrio Ribes and Vicente Ferrer, came the Glasgow School and the Austrian Sezesion. This building, with innovative language almost unique at national level, is the most complete example of secessionist architecture in Valencia. This trend reached Spain through the “International Congress of Architects” in Madrid (1904) with the assistance of Otto Wagner, and various publications on the Exhibition of the Sezesión (1900) in which Mackintosh intervened or on the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts in Turin (1902) with works by Behrens and D’Aronco.

The influence of these authors is evident in the composition of Casa Ferrer. It was a family development of eight homes commissioned by his father, who presented as a typological novelty the grouping in only one of the courtyards and the location of the bathrooms in the corners of the corner. The language was not limited to the exterior as in most Valencian buildings of the time, incorporating itself into a lobby, staircase and houses. The façade is organized in three cloths with their own symmetrical compositional scheme, which are independent of each other and from the adjacent buildings with narrow sunken bodies.

 

Otto Wagner also uses a similar resource in Vienna's Casa Mayólica of 1899. The floors are hierarchical, highlighting the main one with viewpoints and multiplying the openings of the last level. The choice of geometric lines stands out from this work. Geometric are the grille and the typical Sezesión triglyphs that hang from discs from which, on the second floor, emerged canopies, now disappeared. The finishing hastiales have curved lines. The hollows, scarlet or lintel depending on the plant, have curved jambs on the ground floor.

The shape of the latter is reminiscent of Peter Behrens' mixtilinear arches for the German Pavilion at the Turin Exposition. A polychrome façade in soft tones incorporates ceramic panels in some sandwiches. Ceramics is also the upper garland and mulch of roses on the top of the chamfered hastial, the antecedent of which is in the lobby of Joseph Hoffmann's Stoclet Palace in Brussels. On the other hand, it includes corbels, grilles, portholes, discs, triglyphs, checkerboards and interior decoration by Raimundo D'Aronco, reproducing the carpentry of the Photography Pavilion of the Turin Exhibition in the lobby.

His attention to detail reveals Ferrer's interest in applied crafts, which led him to the position of Secretary of the Applied Arts Section of the Association for the Advancement of Sciences. This building was alien to the languages recognized by the Valencian bourgeoisie, such as modernism or historicismos. However, this bourgeoisie admitted the Sezesión in the minor arts. Ferrer held several positions in the Administration, producing little work and without creating a school.



Dades bàsiques

Direcció:

Calle Ciril Amorós, 29
46004 Valencia