A Work of Craftsmanship

In order to achieve a correct implementation of the ceramic covering projects, workers with a certain artistic sensibility were selected and trained in six-month courses. In the end, a group of eight operators combined well the colors.

The production reached in the placement of the ceramic-between 0.6 and 0.7 square meters in a nine-hour day-is a veritable work of craftsmen. It is not so simple as breaking a tile and placing the pieces. There is an important aspect of manual manipulation.

Regarding the vaults, the greatest difficulties involved the reflection of light when selecting different hues of white (21 hues in total), the necessity to adapt to small curve radii at the joints between the vault and the lintel without producing niches or size distortion.

In order to ensure maximum protection of the hues and the original position of designs on the bench, the workers used photographs of the original, taken every 50 centimeters. All the pieces were laid out nearby, to make it easier to select the different pieces that needed to be placed at every moment.

Although old pieces were found, stored in the park's caves, in the recovery of contemporary buildings which had been demolished, and in a search which was made at the dump in Cornellà-used very much at the beginning of the century-new pieces had to be manufactured using a totally artisan method.

Thanks to all these searches and tasks, the final results that have been obtained-in regards to the colors-seems totally satisfactory to me. The collaboration of Toni Cumella in the identification of tiles and the fabrication of the white earthware for the bench was very important.

Luis García Guillén
Construction Manager