In the summer of 1907 is one of the signatories of the Manifesto for Spanish regeneration alongside names such as Gabriel Alomar, Josep Carner, Amadeu Hurtado, his brother, Manuel de Montoliu, Josep Pijoan, and Francesc Pujols, among others.
The influence of Ruskin had a powerful impact on Montoliu in believing in the power of transforming education and in 1903, de Montoliu participated in a series of lectures on trying to convey what he had learned of the institutions of social culture in England and France.
He proposed a museum in Barcelona which would open its doors to coincide with the International Electrical Exhibition that had been planned in the city in 1917.
He was then influential in the development of Barcelona as a Garden City, and was noted for his ecological town planning.
[3] Notable works include Las modernas ciudades y sus problemas a la luz de la Exposición Cívica de Berlín (1913) and El sistema Taylor y su crítica (1916).