Introduction
Walk through the old quarters of Barcelona and you will start noticing it: façades covered in pale, incised patterns, geometric or floral, carved into the render itself rather than painted on. The technique is called esgrafiado, and it has been used on Catalan buildings for centuries. It is also what the façade of Còrsega Residences is made of.
How does esgrafiado actually work?
Two or more layers of coloured lime render are applied to the wall. While the top layer is still soft, the craftsman scrapes parts of it away to reveal the colour underneath. The pattern is not applied to the surface, it is cut out of it. That is why it survives weather and sunlight in a way paint does not, and why it keeps a texture you can read from across the street.
Why is it so Catalan?
The technique travelled from Italy and took root here in the eighteenth century, then was taken up again by the modernista architects as part of a wider revival of Catalan craft. Barcelona has an unusually dense surviving stock of it, which is why the city reads as textured rather than flat even in its plainest streets.
Why use it on a new building?
Javier García Alba chose esgrafiado for Còrsega Residences because it does two things at once. It roots the building in its street, which is lined with protected modernista façades, and it ages well. Render that is incised rather than coated does not peel, and the surface improves as it weathers. The geometry here is contemporary and precise rather than historicist, so the building reads as new without reading as foreign.
A façade built to age well. Request the dossier, or book a private visit.
FAQ
What is esgrafiado?
A render technique in which patterns are scraped out of a wet top layer to reveal a different coloured layer beneath. The pattern is cut into the wall, not painted onto it.
Where can I see esgrafiado in Barcelona?
Across the Eixample, Gràcia and the old town, on both eighteenth-century buildings and modernista ones. Once you notice it you see it everywhere.
Who designed the Còrsega Residences façade?
Architect Javier García Alba of AGAS Estudi, with interiors by MINIM Barcelona and kitchens and bathrooms by Gunni & Trentino.
