1878

Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense

1878-1882

Gaudí designed the emblem of Mataró’s Workers’ Cooperative, the Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense, in 1874. In 1878, this same organisation, founded in 1864 by the textile magnate Salvador Pagés Inglada, commissioned Gaudí to create a manufacturing and residential compound in the town of Mataró, where the entity transferred its facilities from Barcelona’s Vila de Gràcia.

This was the first important commission that Gaudí received, but it never fully came to be due to the lack of funds. Gaudí only created the building for the bleaching room between 1882 and 1885: a large hall built with three parabolic arches that ensured a clear, wide-open space without any columns or pillars.