Emili Donato’s Brutalist Calafat

Calafat is a coastal development in the municipality of L’Ametlla de Mar, which began its construction in the early 1960s on the initiative of the Mangrané brothers. In the wake of the incipient tourist boom along the entire Spanish coast, the so-called Costa Daurada found locations to accommodate this model of leisure and recreation.

The company Urbanizaciones de Costas Españolas, with a name that speaks for itself, was responsible for its construction. Following the model of a low-rise garden city, like so many other developments of the time, it was built under the guidance of architects Emili Donato, Francesc Rius, and Dani Freixes.

This route aims to highlight the interest of these early works by Emili Donato, some of which are present in his later career. The commitment to the radical recovery of the Catalan vault as the driving force behind the construction of the houses connects these houses with Le Corbusier’s early experiments, as well as with such celebrated proposals as those of Antoni Bonet Castellana in la Ricarda.

In any case, what stands out is an uncompromising construction concept: stone extracted from the land itself, simple whitewashing, a robust structural approach, and programmatic experimentation in the floor plan. A modern vernacular expression steeped in dust that looks out to sea.

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