Located in the district of Les Corts, the complex known as Casa Provincial de Maternitat is located on the block of houses bounded by Travessera de Les Corts and Maternitat, Doctor Salvador Cardenal and Mejía Lequerica Streets. The main access to the complex is from Travessera de Les Corts. The complex is made up of a large group of pavilions built in different phases and distributed within a large, enclosed area. The original core of buildings, located at the southern end of the plot, is composed of five pavilions arranged around a large rectangular courtyard. These buildings have a height development consisting of a semi-basement, two floors and attics. They show a clear compositional unity and general arrangement, with a unique treatment of façades and the interplay of textures achieved by mixing exposed brick with stone walls. While on the plinths of the buildings the device is made of regular stone blocks placed at break joints, on the other levels the work is of common masonry. These textures are separated at the level of the slabs by rows of work with a slight overhang, where polychrome ceramic friezes stand out along the entire perimeter of the building. The crowning consists of a barbican that goes around the entire perimeter simulating a defensive enclosure. The constructions started during the period of the Mancomunitat; so, the Pink and Blue Pavilions, were designed by Josep Goday and Casals in a style closer to Noucentisme. The Pink Pavilion recovers the characteristic motifs of the Catalan Baroque, with the inclusion of sgraffitos (geometrising borders and baskets) and terracottas. The putti and the shield of the main door solved in the form of a shell were done by Canyellas, while the crowning is based on balusters and vases. The Blue Pavilion has earth-coloured sgraffito coverings on its façades; it got its name from the name of the glazed ceramic dome that crowns the central body. The Pavilion of Helios represents a turning point, bringing to the whole a building within the rationalist trend of the GATCPAC. Founded in 1853, the Provincial Maternity and Exhibition Centre was originally located in the Casa de Misericordia (Carrer Montalegre), in the old town. With the hygienist currents of the moment, the city council decided to improve the conditions of the institution by promoting the construction of buildings suitable for its sanitary function. For this purpose, in 1878 it acquired the farmhouse of Can Cavaller, in Les Corts. The architect of the Provincial Council, Camil Oliveras i Gensana, together with the architects General Guitart i Lostaló and Josep Bru, designed between 1885 and 1889 the Lactation Pavilion, the Weanling Pavilion, the two Infectious Pavilions and the Laundry. In 1920, the transfer of powers of the charity services between the Provincial Council and the Mancomunitat took place. The construction plans, which until then had been carried out by the institution, basically concerned the exhibition section, so Josep Bori drew up an ambitious project for the maternity section that should be developed on the land located to the north of the site. In 1915, the construction of the Pink Pavilion began, started by Rubí i Bellver and completed in 1924 by Josep Goday, intended to accommodate secret pregnancies or unmarried mothers. Between 1928 and 1942, the same architect built the Blue Pavilion, destined for the Maternity Clinic. Between 1933 and 1936, Goday built the Helios Pavilion, intended for tuberculosis children, following the structural and aesthetic guidelines of GATCPAC's own rationalism. After the Civil War, the institution lost the progressive and renewing attitude of the previous dynamic period and returned to being governed by the traditional concept of Christian charity, abandoning the concept of modern public service. In this context, the economy of the institution was very precarious and the construction of a new pavilion for children aged 2 to 3 could only be carried out thanks to the legacy of two million pesetas by Francesc Cambó i Batlle. The architect Manuel Baldrich i Tibau oversaw its construction between 1953 and 1957. With the start of work on the Mundet Apartments in 1954 and seeing that the buildings of the Maternity Hospital were no longer suitable for the social needs of the moment, the Council began to reconsider the uses of the site. Finally, in 1985, the Action and Planning Plan for the Maternity Home was approved, drawn up by the architects Josep Lluís Canosa and Carles Ferrater. This document laid the foundations for converting the existing buildings into public buildings intended for equipment and services, concentrating all hospital services in the Blue Pavilion and turning the outdoor spaces into a park. Currently, the Lactation pavilion is occupied by the Consortium of Resources for the Integration of Diversity (CRID), the Tourism Delegation, the Area of Economic Promotion and Employment and the Tax Management Organization (ORGT); the Weanling Pavilion is now the seat of the Ministry of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia; in the former infectious disease pavilions there is the Directorate of Urban Planning and Housing Services, the Institute of Urban Management and Local Activities (IGUAL) and the Institute of Local Housing (INHAL); the Historical Archive of the Barcelona City Council was installed in the Laundry; the headquarters of the Distance Education University (UNED) was installed in the Pavilion of the Kitchens; the Pink Pavilion would cease to fulfill its function in 1974 and, fifteen years later, would host the offices of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The Blue Pavilion has hosted, since 1993, the Hospital Clínic Health Consortium; the Pavilion Cambó has been home to the Jordi Rubió i Balaguer University School of Library Science since 1991; and since 1989, the Prat de la Riba Pavilion has been home to the Les Corts Secondary School.

The project is the result of the merger of the Hospital de Sant Pau and the old Gothic complex of the Hospital de la Santa Creu, which created one of the elements with the greatest urban impact on the city. The hospital occupies nine blocks of houses in the Eixample Cerdà, at one end of Gaudí Avenue, with the Sagrada Família at the other end. Domènech i Montaner opts for the same organisation in pavilions rehearsed at the Institut Pere Mata, although creating an underground concentrated structure that prevents the functional dispersion of the pavilions, much criticised by some experts of the time in hospital facilities. It is a set of 46 pavilions located around an axis that crosses the large block of houses diagonally. Domènech thus operates an open and innovative reading of the island of typical houses in the Cerdà plan. The structure of the pavilions is modulated in elements that support brick vaults, favouring the adaptation of the wall system with the functionality of each pavilion. The axis formed by Gaudí Avenue represents a unique monumental ensemble, at the ends of which stand two almost antithetical conceptions of the meaning of the new architecture and its functionality in the social needs of the time.