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Monday, July 4, 2011

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) Casa Batilo

Gaudi, the Modernista. Spain's most famous architect. One of my favourites too. He used nature as an inspiration. All of his buildings are intricate designs: art, light and nature interwoven to create smooth, flowing lines and bursts of colour. Our first tour was of a grand casa situated on the busy Passeig de Gracia. The casa is called CASA BATILO--for the Batilo family who commissioned it and lived in it. It is now owned by a Barcelona family, dedicated to restoring it and allowing the public to tour. I love this house--skylights everywhere as well as windows. Gaudi made sure light flowed effortlessly throughout the home, even in central passages.
I used a washroom in the attic that was a singular room (obviously used by the servants in the era when it was a busy Barcelona home as it was in the attic). All of the windows opened to roof top sights of Barcelona and I felt for a brief moment that I was living in a time, one hundred years before, when Casa Batilo was a busy family home and I was a guest.
As Tabs wants to be an architect, I purchased a beautiful print of the house to be framed for her. Gaudi is a true inspiration to any artist. Every detail based on dozens of models and sketches inspired by shapes and textures from nature. When designing any building, he studied the natural area around it and incorporated the colours, and shapes in his work.
I confess, I am hooked on Gaudi. I felt a kinship to him as he was very ill as a young child and would watch the other children play from the window of his home as he was too ill to join them--I was the same for most of my first 5 years of life. I think it encourages a creative mind.
Below are pictures from the exteriors and interior of the marvelous Casa Batilo.