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Antonio was a genius who transformed a terraced house which was characteristic of the 19th century into one of the most spectacular buildings in Barcelona. The house was called Batlo' house. Gaudi added a gallery to the facade of the house as well as new balconies and polychorme ceramics. Within the building itself he completely reorganised the spaces and unified the courtyards as well as the existing stair case. This was carried out in order to create better lighting and ventilation. Gaudi finalised the completion of his work on this house with the addition of two floors and a fantastic ceramic crowning.
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The spectacular crowing on Casa Batlo' |
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Organic Architecture
When I visited Casa Batlo' in Barcelona I was amazed at the undulating balconies on the facade of the building it is truly a visually stunning building, it would seem as though Gaudi deliberately removes harsh straight edges from the equation. In a world were contemporary buildings and designs were epitomised by straight edges, the challenge for architects to move toward the more organic and natural shapes is presenting itself and although his work suffered a phase of unpopularity as with many great artists it is now back in vogue again putting Barcelona in the forefront for design inspiration in 2004. |
Above the undulating facade of Casa Batlo' |
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COLOUR
Gaudi had a great love for the use of colour in his architecture he believed that grey buildings were unatural looking and he prefered to use colour instead just the way it would have appeared in nature. Antonio Gaudi's mosaics are frequently feaured in his more sculptured works as they lend themselves easily to this type of colour application
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Above: A montage of ceramic and various other types of building crowngs. |
