Donation of the archives of Juli Capella, architect and design promoter

The archive is an extensive collection of documents related to designers, companies, and institutions involved in design. It is not material generated by Capella over his professional career, but rather the documentation with which he worked, including correspondence and original documentation resulting from his relationships with other professionals, companies and institutions. The donation contains documents dating from 1983 to 2013.

The documentation is the result of Juli Capella's activity on his many projects: as director of specialized magazines (De diseño, Ardi) and collaborator on various magazines and newspapers (El Periódico, Avui, El País, Barcelona Metròpolis Mediterrània); as author of many books about design (Diseño de arquitectos en los 80 -Gustavo Gili, 1987-,  Dictionnaire International des Arts Appliqués et du Design -Editions du Regard, 1996-, Perché un libro su Enzo Mari -Federico Motta Editore, 1997-, Rafael Moneo, diseñador -Santa & Cole / ETSAB, 2003-, Cocos, copias y coincidencias -Electa, 2003-), etc.; lecturer and professor in a number of national and international faculties and design schools; curator of exhibitions and events that have been significant in the history of Spanish design (Diseño Barcelonés del Siglo XX: de Gaudí a las Olimpiadas, Oriol Bohigas, passió per la ciutat, Oscar Tusquets Blanca. El Laberinto: Arquitectura, diseño y arte, Cocos, copias y coincidencias or the biennial Primavera del disseny).

He received, together with Quim Larrea, an honourable mention in the National Design Awards in 2000. He was the president of the FAD (Foment de les Arts i del Disseny de Barcelona) and promoter of the Year of Design (2003) and took part in the selection of industrial design pieces for the Museu de les Arts Decoratives de Barcelona (1995).

Juli Capella's donation is made up of more than 60,000 documents including: company catalogues, product portfolios, slides, photographs, sketches and technical drawings, biographies and resumes, press releases and collections of articles, etc. All of the documents are related to design and architecture, but there is a highlight on industrial design documentation focussed on creators (designers and architects) and producers.

Juli Capella (Barcelona, 1960) began his industrial design studies at the Escola Massana and then left them to begin studying architecture at the ETSAB (Escola Tècnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona), where he received his degree in 1991. Capella developed his professional activity in the fields of design and architecture, as wells as taking part in creative projects in graphic, industrial, and interior design, architecture, and urbanism as the basic theory of these disciplines. From 1982 until July 1997 he worked with Quim Larrea and from his new studio - Capella, Arquitectura & Design. In 2001 he created Capella Garcia Arquitectura for architectural projects.

The Documentation Centre of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona is a public space for consultation and research that specializes in decorative and design arts. Its collection comes from the old libraries of the Decorative Arts Museum, the Ceramic Museum, the Museum of Textiles and Apparel and the Museum of Graphic Arts of Barcelona. Other institutions that have integrated their libraries and archives include: the FAD (Fostering Arts and Design), the ADG-FAD (Association of Art Directors and Graphic Designers of the FAD), the ADI-FAD (Association of Industrial Designers of the FAD), the BCD (Barcelona Design centre), the Association for the Study of Furniture (Associació a l'Estudi del Moble), the College of Public Relations and Publicity of Catalonia (Col·legi de Publicitaris i Relacions Públiques de Catalunya) and the designers Yves Zimmermann and André Ricard.

The donation of the archives of Juli Capella to the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona highlight, once again, the heritage value of design and furthermore, makes this information available to citizens to help better address the importance of this discipline.