Photo Essay: Gaudi's City

Barcelona is Gaudi's city.

I visited the Catalan capital when I was an architecture student studying abroad in Europe during the fall of 2006. During those ten days, I discovered that Barcelona is a city full of varied, unforgettable experiences. I will never forget Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, where truly “less is more”, Calatrava's incredible Telecommunications Tower at Montjuïc, Barcelona’s history through the streets of El Barri Gótic, the impromptu skateboard demo outside the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), the delicious wine and tapas, and the street performers at Las Ramblas. Barcelona is a city to get lost in, to wander aimlessly through and find, by chance, that perfect little shop to take a piece of the city home (in my case, a hand-made tile jewelry case). But in between the 2 am gelato excursions, the incredible Barça vs Zaragoza game, during which we were exposed to the contagious passion of Spanish fútbol fans and which we won (go Barça!), and the saké bombs in a Japanese lounge we randomly discovered one night, there was Gaudi’s architecture. There is arguably no other place in the world where one architect's work and vision has defined a city's identity.

Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 in southern Catalonia, in the province of Tarragona, to a family of coppersmiths. In 1868, he moved to Barcelona to study architecture. Much of his career is defined by ideas of imitating and learning from nature and he used this concept to develop structural and formal concepts that are visible in his work. Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell, some of Gaudi's more well-known architectural creations, epitomize these ideas and are essential to any travel itinerary. There is no better place to experience the city and its culture through its architecture than Barcelona.

Casa Batllo, named fittingly as "Casa del ossos" (House of Bones) by locals, was built in 1877 and later remodeled by Gaudi in 1906. The building reminded me of a sleeping creature. The rooftop forms are the spine that connects to the skeletal, undulating façade, which is made from lime mortar, ceramic and colored glass. From an architecture standpoint, Casa Batllo is all about the details. Every room is a new discovery that challenges preconceived architectural conventions. Ascending his stairs revealed a place of curvilinear and unusually-shaped spaces and the play of light and shadow on his organic forms accentuated every detail.

Partly inspired by Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, which means "the Quarry" in Catalan, was completed in 1912. Originally built for Pere Milà and his wife (the building is also known as Casa Milà), the rooftop is arguably the most unique part of the building. The rooftop is accessed by a subdued spiral stair from which I was transported to an architectural playground where conventional rules did not seem to apply. Surrounded by the roofscape of the city, the shapes and forms Gaudi created seemed unexpected yet not unfamiliar. The whimsical chimney forms are covered by beautiful white tiles and are a counterpoint to the somewhat austere sentinel-like forms that also reside on the roof. It was one of my favorite places to sit down and sketch and while I was there with my classmates, the rooftop was a mixture of us architecture students trying to capture Gaudi’s genius with a paper and pen, and visitors just enjoying its beauty.

La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's largest project and the culminating point of his career. A work in progress, it has been under construction for about 125 years. A reflection of his own ardent Catholic beliefs, he devoted his later life exclusively to the project. Departing from traditional gothic architectural techniques, part of Gaudi’s ingenuity was discarding the use of flying buttresses as a support system; instead the weight is concentrated on the columns. As I climbed up one of the twelve towers (one for each apostle), a pause at intermittent openings revealed breathtaking views of the city and opportunities for up-close examinations of the intricate reliefs. The presence of numerous construction cranes was somehow unobtrusive and were a reminder of the expansive and long-term nature of the project. Gaudi, aware that he would be unable to finish his last work, left behind indications of his ideas of form and structure for future builders to follow.

Park Guell, commissioned by Count Eusebi Guell, was originally envisioned as a housing site. Its construction spanned from 1900-1914 with the park opening officially to the public in 1922. I visited the park around late afternoon and was excited to see how Gaudi's ideas would manifest in a landscape setting. Gaudi’s goal was to create a design that was respectful of the existing landscape while taking full advantage of its beauty. While I made my way through the park with no specific route in mind, I remember hearing deep horn sounds emanating from somewhere ahead of me. Feeling a bit like Hansel and Gretel, I followed them until I came upon an open space. This open esplanade, designed as a Greek theatre that rests on top of the Sala Hipóstila, a marketplace made up of 86 columns, was a musical venue that day. I joined the other visitors sitting on the beautifully-tiled, curved bench that defines the perimeter of the esplanade and listened to the musicians while enjoying a view of the city and the sea. The high point, literally, was a cross that sits at the peak of the park and which seemed a favorite spot of tourists looking for a moment of respite or the perfect city view; for me, it was a perfect Kodak moment.

As I look back at the photos of Gaudi’s architecture that I took on my trip, I realize that each one is a snapshot of the combination of a city’s cultural identity and one man’s vision. There is so much more of Gaudi and Barcelona that I didn’t have a chance to see and I am seriously craving some authentic wine and tapas. Not to mention, all of my classmates and I made a pact to return the year La Sagrada Familia is to be completed. Who could miss a piece of architecture 150 years in the making? Although circumstance will probably prevent some of us from returning and 18 years is a long time, all I have to say is, to Barcelona and to Gaudi, I will see you in 2026.