Law Faculty Building (UB)

Av Diagonal, 684

Built in 1957, it is an example of the change in public architecture after the civil war. The innovative building has three main sections: the classrooms, organised around a hallway and interior courtyards; the seminar rooms, spread over five floors perpendicular to Avinguda de la Diagonal, and a third block housing administration, the library and the lecture hall.

Rationalist and functionalist inspiration

The architects Guillem Giráldez Dávila, Pere López-Iñigo and Xavier Subias Fages opened an architecture office in 1956. Together they began to research into a contemporary architectural language all their own, that rejected the academic and monumental styles prevalent in the country at the time. In 1957, the team undertook the project for the Faculty of Law, which the following year won them the first FAD prize for architecture. For the architect Oriol Bohigas, it was “the first modern and civilised public building constructed in Catalonia after the war”.

Integrating the arts

The building exudes the rigour of volumes and structure, including transparency in the façade composition. In addition, it integrates the arts, as exemplified by the mural located on the main door of the faculty: Les taules de la llei (the Tablets of Law) by the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs and the ceramics artist Antoni Cumella. The Faculty of Law features in Barcelona’s architectural, and historical and artistic heritage catalogue.