Casa Bau is an imposing Art Nouveau building designed by architect Josep Plantada and built between 1912 and 1915. It was commissioned by Josep Bau, an entrepreneur who made his fortune selling Tortosa olive oil to the South American market.
The five-story main facade is designed around a central axis of symmetry and includes two lateral towers above the top floor. The upper floors have balconies and all openings have trilobate arches. For the façade lighting STRIP SQUARE linear fixtures were chosen in order to celebrate the materiality of the surfaces and enhance the architectural details with a minimum of aesthetic intrusion.The overall lighting is integrated with STEEL SQUARE recessed fixtures to illuminate the Art Nouveau architecture of one of the city's most distinctive buildings.
A series of arches on the ground floor feature columns with capitals decorated with naturalistic motifs and support the predominant part of the building, the grand Art Nouveau first floor gallery with gargoyles and sculptural corbels with floral stone decorations. The remainder of the exterior is plastered and painted. The wrought-iron work on doors, windows and balconies is also of considerable value. Inside the building the ceiling is beautifully decorated with plaster mouldings. Currently the house serves as headquarters for the Associations of Architects and Journalists of the Terres de l'Ebre region.
