La Pedrera - Casa Mila

Today was all about Gaudi. Too much Gaudi for one post so we've split today into two instalments.

A bit of an early start for us, having to be out the door by 10am for our entry time into La Pedrera. This was our first taste of Gaudi. To be honest we knew very little about Gaudi before today, but after experiencing some of his work, it's absolutely conclusive that he was 100% a visionary and a genius... but also 100% crazy.

After arriving at La Pedrera we collected our free audio guides - honestly everywhere needs to have these included - and made our way up to the apartment. The apartment was the least interesting part of La Pedrera with the most interesting part being the use of marble for some of the detailing, and the patterned floor tiles.

Afterwards we went up into the attic space. One of Gaudi's traits was taking inspiration from nature, so the attic space and the structure for the roof is modelled on the rib cage of a whale. So we made our way through the belly of the beast, admiring the models made for La Pedrera - including a parking garage - there was barely a straight line in the whole place. There was also one of Gaudi's string models, where he would hang strings from the ceiling and, using small bags full of lead shot, he would identify the perfect angles for structural stability. He also used this method when designing Sagrada Familia.

Next we headed onto the rooftop. This place was a treasure trove, with arches to frame Sagrada Familia, chimneys designed to look like helmeted soldiers and stairwell entrances like seashells. We spent a significant amount of time up here just enjoying the architecture and ambience.

We finally dragged ourselves off the roof and back down to the ground floor where we walked through the two courtyards built into the apartment building; the butterfly courtyard and the flower courtyard. Again the detail was incredible, with thought given to parking cars (which was quite novel at the beginning of the 20th century), grand stairwells for hosting parties, and detailed ceiling paintings depicting mythological scenes. There was a strong feeling of being underwater in these courtyards, very likely because of the curvature of the building as well as some of the decor.

We left La Pedrera - Casa Mila apartment block feeling very excited about architecture and looking forward to having a closer look at the Sagrada Familia this afternoon...Read more