Mobles 114 was founded in Barcelona in 1973 by designers JM Massana, JM Tremoleda and Mariano Ferrer. Its first headquarters was located at 114 Enric Granados Street, and that’s where the name comes from: a location in the center of a city that was beginning to participate in the social and cultural changes that had begun in Europe in 1968.
Mobles 114 reads and recovers the modernity proposed by GATCPAC. This was a group of Catalan architects in the 1930s who followed the influences of European rationalism, an architectural movement initiated in the 1920s by Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto and Walter Gropius, among others. Another influence is the Bauhaus school, which Gropius founded in 1919 and which was closed in 1933.
The proposals of the GATCPAC architects promoted a modern way of conceiving spaces to live in that was close to Mediterranean culture. Unfortunately, this movement was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In addition, subsequent historical events left the country disconnected from the rest of the world in many respects. Torres Clavé died during the Spanish Civil War, Josep Maria Sert went into exile in the USA and Germán Rodríguez Arias fled to Chile, just to name a few examples.
Massana and Tremoleda, well aware of this evolution, follow a path that also proposes tradition and modernity with a character that does not drop its Mediterranean roots. Tradition is well represented in the recovery and re-edition of classics of Catalan design, while modernity is evident in their own proposals and in the choice of designers or authors who will contribute to the Mobles 114 catalog.
Tradition and modernity have ensured that the Mobles 114 catalog maintains the same validity it had in its beginnings and that many of its older products coexist naturally with those that have just been incorporated.
Since 1973 up to the present, the company has launched more than 150 products on the market. Some of them are still in the catalog, others are part of the Barcelona Design Museum. Almost all the products published during these years have followed the faithful character of their founders in designing furniture where modernity is very present and respect for tradition is evident.
Recently, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Mobles 114 donated its archive to the Documentation Center of the Barcelona Design Museum, and it was the first archive of a furniture publisher to be part of this collection.
Throughout these 50 years, our catalogue has included furniture and objects designed by Álvaro Siza, André Ricard, Antoni Arola, Carlos Riart, Enzo Mari, Eugeni Quitllet, Gabriel Mora, Gabriel Ordeig, Germán Rodríguez Arias, Isamu Noguchi, Isidre Ferrer, Mariano Ferrer, Javier Mariscal, Joan Gaspar, Jorge Pensi, José Antonio Coderch, Josep Maria Jujol, Josep Torres Clavé, Lagranja, Lluís Pau, Lluís Porqueras, Martín Azúa, Massana-Tremoleda, Josep Mora, Miguel Milá, Montse Padrós, Oscar Tusquets, Pete Sans, Rafael Marquina and Santiago Roqueta.
Over the years, we have received several awards, but we are convinced that the best recognition is not given by a jury, but by the people who live with our furniture. For decades, this recognition has made it possible for this timelessness to transcend generations. This spirit of permanence, of staying forever, of accompanying, is what has guided us as a company to do things with coherence and discretion, with respect for tradition and admiration for modernity.
“What’s old I adore, what’s new elates me”
J.V. Foix – Sol, i de dol (1947).