The magnificent 14th century church of Santa María del Mar in Barcelona was burnt in 1936 and among its greatest losses was the monumental 16th century organ.

This project called for its replacement by an organ dating from the 18th century, formerly in a monastery in Vic, but totally dismantled and incomplete since before the Spanish Civil War. The challenge was not only to reassemble this jigsaw puzzle of hundreds of pieces and restore the organ and its case but also to determine the ideal location for this relatively small instrument in such a huge church, design a new organ loft and re-create many missing elements.

The classical Catalan location was chosen on the wall of a side aisle, as close as possible to the choir, but with the great advantage of leaving the main perspective of the nave unaffected. A supporting arch exists on the north aisle, but this has been reserved for the future reconstruction of the monumental organ, so it has been necessary to re-construct a new loft opposite over a chapel on the south side between the buttresses. The form of this organ loft is closely modelled on existing examples and photographs of others lost in the 30's, and was designed to harmonise as closely as possible with the instrument and integrate the 'Cadireta' (small division behind the organist) in the parapet.

The carvings from the top of both the main case and the 'Cadireta' had disappeared, leaving a rather square and unfinished appearance. These were re-constructed in the same style as those still existing projecting a hypothetical analysis of the original geometry and basing the elements on photographs of other cases which existed from the same region and approximately the same date (1730-50).