Casa Milà, La Pedrera: Barcelona
May 26, 2012 - Barcelona, Spain: Gaudí, Casa Milà, La Pedrera. A project of Antoni Gaudí i Cornet of 1905, built between 1906 and 1910 for Milà family.This is one of the main Gaudí residential buildings and one of the most imaginative houses in the history of architecture, this building is more a sculpture than a building. Some of the collaborators in the works (following Permanyer) were the architect, Joseph Maria Jujol, the brothers Badia as iron forgers, the founder Manyach, the builder Joseph Bayo and the plasterer Joan Beltran (plaster ceilings of that building are truly exceptional). The façade is an impressive, varied and harmonious mass of undulating stone without straight lines. The forged iron is present in the shapes of balconies imitating vegetal forms. The lofts are supported by the traditional Catalan "totxo" (brick) arching walls following the style developed by Gaudí in Santa Teresa school and Bellesguard also in Barcelona. The roof shows an exuberant fantasy, the chimney's vanguard shapes remind one of warriors in a forest of surprising figures. The building was recognized by UNESCO as "World Heritage" in 1984. (Thomas Long/POLARIS)