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| spanish architecture |
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| top ten spanish architecture |
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part of the essential architecture network |
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| Essential
Architecture- Barcelona Casa Mila |
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architect |
Antoni Gaudi |
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location |
Barcelona |
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date |
1905 to 1910 |
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style |
Art Nouveau |
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construction |
concrete |
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type |
House |
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Casa Milà Parabolic or catenary arches under the terrace of Casa Milà.Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (Catalan for 'The Quarry'), is a building designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1905 to 1907. It is located at 92, Passeig de Gràcia ('passeig' is Catalan for promenade or avenue) in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was built for Roger Segimon de Milà. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí". The building does not have any straight lines. Most people consider it magnificent and overwhelming -- some say it is like waves of lava or a sand-dune. This building seems to break our understanding of conventional architecture. The most astonishing part is the roof with an almost lunar appearance and dreamlike landscape. The building can be considered more of a sculpture than a regular building. Critics remark on its detachment from usefulness, but others consider it to be art. The Barcelonese of the time considered it ugly, hence the "quarry" nickname, but today it is a landmark of Barcelona. Casa Milà was a predecessor of some buildings with a similar biomorphic appearance: the 1921 Einstein Tower in Potsdam, designed by Erich Mendelsohn Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France, designed by Le Corbusier the Hundertwasserhaus and other words by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, by Frank Gehry Free exhibitions are often held on the first floor, which also provides some opportunity to see the interior design. There is a charge for entrance to the apartments and roof. |
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Casa Mila is structurally interesting, but the inside of the apartment
that visitors are allowed to tour is without interest. It is still
furnished with Victorian furniture and appliances. The apartment has a
dry Victorian feel, with none of the Art Nouveau beauty of Casa Batlló.
The apartment that is open for visitors is directly below the sub-roof floor. This level shows the beautiful masonry parabolic arches that Gaudi used to hold up the roof and which probably provide structural support for the rest of the building. Perhaps the most famous feature of Casa Mila is the roof and the sculptured chimneys. The chimneys have the look of helmeted Greek warriors or the imperial guards in the Star Wars movies. There are also several tiled and stuccoed sculptured forms that house the stairwells, giving the roof a playful feel that the rest of the building lacks. |
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links |
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| www.essential-architecture.com | |