11
Barcelona
Two things inspired me to minor in architectural history
during my pursuit of a Fine Arts degree: a love for
designing structures on paper (a wholly aesthetic passion
unencumbered by rigid mathematics) and Gaudi’s Casa
Batlló in Barcelona. From the first time I saw photos of its
organic and multi-colored façade, with bones as windows
and rainbow tile moving up the exterior topped by the
spine of a dragon, I was intrigued and astonished.
BARCELONA’S HOUSE OF BONES
Originally built in 1877, along the enviable Paseo de Gracia
by one of Gaudi’s architecture professors, the nondescript
apartment building that would become Casa Batlló was
purchased by textile industrialist Batlló y Casanovas
in 1900. Gaudi was hired to redesign it in 1904 —
a
transformation that resulted in the nickname Casa dels
Ossos (House of Bones) from the locals, as well as the
distinction of being named one of seven Gaudi-created
World Heritage sites by UNESCO.
Think of drawing a house when you
were a child. A square building,
pitched roof, square windows,
rectangular door. It’s simple. It’s
obvious. And, it’s easy to draw.
Now imagine 10-year-old Antoni
Gaudí idly sketching the same thing
amid the sounds and smells of a
village in Catalonia, Spain in 1862. Is
it then when Gaudí, an architectural
force of nature who’d eventually
be considered the leading light
of Catalan’s seismic Modernisme
movement, suddenly questioned
the basic structure of a building?
Perhaps he wondered, “Why not
have waves instead of lines defining
each level?” Or, maybe he looked at
the branches of a tree and thought,
“Why can’t my house reach for the
sky like that?”
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CASA BATLLÓ