Historic, Vintage, Cool (Spain)

By Karen Beishuizen

I have this thing for anything historic, vintage or cool. Especially when it comes to hotels, restaurants, diners, cafes and music venues. I want to show you landmarks around the world which are Historic, Vintage and Cool.

We are in the city of Antoni Gaudi: Barcelona!

Casa Batlló

Casa Batlló is a building in the center of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí, and is considered one of his masterpieces. A remodel of a previously built house, it was redesigned between 1904 and 1906 for the textile industrialist Josep Batlló who gave him complete creative freedom. The architect completely transformed the façade, and turning the interior into a true work of art. He created an exuberant, marine-inspired façade with sculptures and objects he turned into art.

The effect of a wavy surface stands out, where stone, glass, and ceramics take center stage. When the façade receives the first light of the morning, the shine and glimmers bring it to life, giving it harmonious and balanced movement, as if it were a living element of the urban landscape.

The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as it has a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It is located on the Passeig de Gràcia in the Eixample district, and forms part of a row of houses known as the Illa de la Discòrdia (or Mansana de la Discòrdia, the “Block of Discord”).

Like everything Gaudí designed, Casa Batlló is only identifiable as Modernisme in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, has unusual tracery, irregular oval windows and sculpted stonework with sinuous, squiggly forms and much of the façade is decorated with a colorful mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles.

It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur.

The loft is considered to be one of the most unusual spaces. It was formerly a service area for the tenants of the different apartments in the building which contained laundry rooms and storage areas. It contains a series of sixty catenary arches that creates a space which represents the ribcage of an animal. Some people believe that the “ribcage” design of the arches is a ribcage for the dragon’s spine that is represented in the roof.

The Atrium or the light well is in the central part of the house and delivers air and lighting to all corners of the house. The wall of the atrium has different tones of blue as well as a diamond textile pattern all around the walls. The blue tiles allow an equal distribution of light to all the floors. The well has windows with wooden splits to allow them to be open and closed for ventilation. Gaudí wanted to make the bottom of the well feel like the bottom of the sea.

The noble floor is larger than seven-hundred square meters. It is the main floor of the building. The noble floor is accessed through a private entrance hall that uses skylights resembling tortoise shells and vaulted walls in curving shapes. On the noble floor there is a spacious landing with direct views of the blue tiling of the building well.

Light and color come together to invite you on a journey through the sea, beauty, and joy created by a genius.

In 2005, Casa Batlló became an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For more info, check out Casa Batlló ‘s website: HERE

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