Lluís Domènech i Montaner was one of the major representatives of Catalan modernism, although today he is less known outside of Spain than his younger contemporary Antoni Gaudí.
After the industrial revolution in Catalonia in the second half of the nineteenth century, Barcelona became one the most dynamic European cities. The generation of architects active at the turn of the twentieth century faced two tasks: to find ways of working with new technology and to help build a local identity that would further distinguish Catalonia from the rest of the country.
Domènech i Montaner embraced technological progress and loved Catalonia, whose culture had previously peaked in the Middle Ages. He created an architecture that married steel frames with traditional Catalan features, such as riffled vaults of ceramic elements. Mixing gothic and Moorish motifs, he added forms borrowed from nature, with skill that may be explained by the fact that, along with the history of art and archaeology, he studied botany and zoology at university.
Like other key modernist architects, Domènech i Montaner did not design mere buildings but complete environments, thinking of every small detail, including furniture, lights, textiles, acoustics, ventilation, and natural lighting (he also taught applied physics at Barcelona's school of architecture). His design for the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau complex showed that Domènech i Montaner was able to work on urban planning and socially sensitive projects with the same attention to detail.