Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudi is the architect of this building, built for a middle-classed family on the street Passeing de Gracia in Barcelone, Spain. Catalan Modernism and Art Nouveau influenced Gaudi while designing this building. Catalan Modernism is a movement that suggests rejecting bourgeois, traditional, religious values and instead it suggests using art to change the society. Art Nouveau is a movement where curvilinear and more elegant forms appear in arts.
In this piece by Gaudi the first thing that comes to mind is that this place looks as if it is magical. It also attracts attention because this building has a completely different skeleton in comparison to the buildings around. It is as if it has no vertical or horizontal straight lines. The façade is covered with colorful ceramic discs and glass windows. When you go inside starting from the first stairs the rounded structures give a dreamlike and floating feeling. Giving the sense of movement of water to the whole house influences Gaudi. Even the ceiling of the living room is shaped as the movement of the water surface after water drops. The windows are colored with different tones of blue and green and the distorted glass windows in the hallway give the feeling of being underwater. The details that Gaudi added to the walls and rooms of the building gives the sense that you are inside a wild huge animal. For example one of the rooms looks like the thorax of a giant animal.
Also ergonomics is one of the most important things Gaudi pays attention to. It is said that Casa Batlló can only be fully understood by touching and looking at the same time. The window handles, chairs, stair handrails are all designed to be ergonomic.
Another aspect of this building is that Gaudi designed the letters on the doors for this house; he didn’t simply use numbers. This detail also shows that he has planned every detail of this house for it to be unique.
Filed under: Architecture | 2 Comments
Tags: architecture, Casa Batlló, Gaudi
aslı. 
It sure looks magical. It looks like it is designed for a children movie. It is like there is a building under the water and we are looking at it. Like you say, there is this sense of water and floating. I can’t comment on the ergonomic part you know I’ve not been there. 🙂
Also I liked your photographs.
I like the photos you take 🙂 I went there many years ago and I was really impressed. The asymmetrical and wavy shape of the building attracts me much. Also the roof is like the backbone of a dinosaur. Every part of the building gives me the sense of nature.