Barcelona

An industrial space

From a textile mill to a museum of contemporary painting. Can Framis, an old textile factory dating back to the 18th century and now a museum, is a place for contemplating art, an area where innovation and new production methods are leaving their mark. The idea was not to leave this past behind, so in reclaiming this old wool mill, at first glance a building with hardly any architectural interest, it was decided to use materials that would form a collage of textures. The museum, with its rough concrete, bare brick walls and boarded up windows, all covered with a sheen of grey paint, seeks to represent the passing of time and show how the different interventions have turned the Can Framis wool mill into one of the city’s most interesting pictorial museums. The quiet Miquel Martí i Pol Gardens, with their neutral colours and whites, poplar trees silently caressing the benches and the ivy that covers the avenue, are a respite from the hyperactive 22@ neighbourhood.

An oasis of art

The Can Framis collection is a Vila Casas Foundation project with some 600 paintings and contemporary artworks from the 1960s to the present day. The whole complex, comprising the museum, factory buildings and gardens, contrasts with the technology that surrounds it, a half-hidden oasis of peace well worth a visit.