Casa Bruno Cuadros, Barcelona

Casa Bruno Cuadros is the corner building whose façade turns an umbrella shop into a theatrical advertisement. A zinc dragon holds a bamboo-shaped lamp, with an umbrella hanging below; Josep Lomas made the dragon, and this trio served as the shop’s emblem. At street level, wooden display windows sit beneath a pagoda-like cornice, while painted women with parasols appear between the windows.

Higher up, zinc groups of parasols and fans fill the wall spaces between the balconies. The building occupies a trapezoid plot with three street fronts, and Vilaseca added a fourth floor beneath the roof terrace. Between 1883 and 1885, architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas remodelled the house and shop in an eclectic design with an oriental emphasis. Look at the dragon and the umbrella together: they preserve the visual signature of the business that once operated here.