The Building

The original building of the Gas Museum was built in 1899, in the romantic neoclassic period, under the direction of the modernist architect Juli Batllevell.

The industrialist John Bruges Pellicer, owner of La Energía, S. en C., a company that in 1913 became part of Catalana de Gas y Electricidad, S.A., commissioned the work to build an industrial building to produce electricity.

This building is popularly known by the name of La Energía and it was located in Sabadell, in the Duc de la Victòria square where currently there is the Plaça del Gas. It was a power station producing electricity from gas engines.

Restoration and conversion into a museum of La Energía, the new headquarters of Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation (FGNF)

The first reform of the building was carried out in 1976 by architects Pedragosa, Sauquet I Valls. The reform consisted in the renovation of the ground floor and an extension of the building by adding the attic.

The most important work of rehabilitation took place in 1988 with the addition of a corner building on Carrer Advocat Cirera, carried out by the architects, Gómez I Ferrer. It added a new floor to the production hall, extended the basement and completed it with two floors of the building on the corner with Carrer Advocat Cirera and opened new accesses to the Plaça del Gas.

In 2007, the Gas Natural Foundation awarded the architectural design study of the Gas Museum to Dani Freixes & Varis Arquitectes. The following year they were also awarded the project for the museum interior and, in 2009, work began on a new remodeling and part of a new construction, ending in the autumn of 2011 with the opening of the Museum. The museum project of Varis Arquitectes represents a clear example of the recovery the industrial heritage to offer a new cultural facility to the public.

Currently, the La Energía building is protected by the Sabadell Heritage Protection Plan (PEPPAS, 1988) and the Sabadell Special Plan for the Protection of its Heritage (PEPPS, 2005).

A Sustainable Building

The Gas Museum has an efficient and sustainable building which makes these qualities evident in its design. Therefore, both in the rehabilitation and construction of the building, as in the initial demolition of the unprotected parts, they have applied sustainability criteria based, among other things, on reducing energy requirements, efficient power generation from renewable sources and the efficient use of water, the use of materials of low environmental impact and minimising waste generation.

Some examples of this adaptation, from a bioclimatic perspective, are the use of recycled materials in the door frame of the new facade, the building of a cistern and a photovoltaic pergola for the Observation Deck, installing low consumption lighting or the placement of an energy mirror that provides data on the indoor and outdoor climates, as well as on the energy consumption that occurs at every moment.

The Architect: Juli Batllevell

Juli Batllevell i Arús was born in Sabadell in 1864. He was the son of a master builder who passed on to him the passion for the construction of buildings. His apprenticeship began in architectural studies and he obtained the title of architect in 1890. Batllevell developed a great part of his works in Sabadell, until 1900 when he moved to Barcelona with his family.

The talent of Batllevell is evident in his early works. The Euterpe theatre (1892-1893) and the Bru Miralles house (1893) favoured his appointment as municipal architect of Sabadell, a position assigned to him in 1895 and which he retained until 1910. This is the stage of the constructions in Sabadell such as the State Schools (1895-1897), the Prison (1897) and the Guardia Civil barracks (1911), as well as the town planning of the public gardens in front of the Town House, of which he also redesigned the façade (1900).

Batllevell worked for good customers from the emerging middle class in Sabadell. His reputation and good work earned him the title of municipal architect for Badalona and the collaboration with Antoni Gaudí on the Casa Calvet and the Casa Trias, at Park Guell. He also made a great number of projects for private buildings in Sabadell, Badalona, Barcelona, Castellar del Vallès, San Lorenç Savall, Sitges, Mataro and Vallvidrera.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Juli Batllevell was auditor of the accounts of the Section of Fine Arts of the Barcelona Athenaeum, technical advisor of one of the Special Committees of the Association of Architects of Catalonia and technical inspector of the " Comisión de Asilos y Albergues "at the time of its constitution. He also worked for the Mancomunitat (Commonwealth of Catalonia) and was appointed technical member of the Board of School of Civil Servants. In 1923 he was elected to serve on the Board of the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona. He died in Barcelona in 1928.