The Casa Mila, better known as "La Pedrera" in its native Barcelona, is a building that has fascinated me long before I studied Architecture. I remember my dad brought me several books on Gaudi from a trip he made to Spain, he thought I would like them, he was right. He probably knew long before myself that I would become something like an architect, with my long hours spent playing with my legos (I still have some of those). I digress...
The thing is that as I learn more and more about Gaudi's architecture, I learn more about his genius. The Casa Mila, contrary to the standard of the time, has no bearing walls, only columns hold it up from the basement to the top floor. This was so for the simple reason that it allowed him to build curved walls, in plan and in section. So this, as far as I know, is the first free plan house.
According to history, Le Corbusier created the open floor plan in his Five Points of Architecture created during the 1920's, and epitomized in the Villa Savoye finished in 1931. The Casa Mila, with a very similar concept behind it was finished in 1910, 20 years before Le Corbusier published his Five Points. It is surely conceivable that, since Le Corbusier and Gaudi were contemporaries, they had met and talked about architecture over coffee, or that good ol' Corbu had studied Gaudi's work.It is certainly something to think about... Gaudi is definitely a prophetic architect, and his architecture is definitely a premonition of modernity and Modern Architecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment