Casa Milà & German Pavilion: Architectural Marvels
Casa Milà
Datasheet
Author: Antoni Gaudí
Chronology: 1906 – 1912
Type: Civil
Materials: Iron, stone, brick, and ceramic
Style: Modernist
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Description and Formal Analysis
Description: The curved line dominates the facade, which includes a ground floor, two separate five-story buildings, and a penthouse with a terrace. Each floor is separated by a ripple that runs along the entire facade, giving it a pronounced horizontality. The windows and balconies, molded with plant motifs made in wrought iron, also follow the same curvilinear style. A cover is placed over the chimneys. Inside, there is a private, open-air patio that provides ventilation and natural light. Around this courtyard, each floor is distributed irregularly and without apparent logical order, resulting in polygonal rooms.
Materials: It is made of stone and brick, using new materials such as iron, glass, and painted ceramics. The stone carving shows a kind of grainy consistency that gives it an almost geological appearance. The combination of stone blocks with the vaguely organic forms of the iron balconies creates a very strong expressive power. Gaudí used stone sculpture with a specific purpose.
Analysis and Interpretation
Building Elements: The building is supported by an iron structure combined with stone and bricks, eliminating load-bearing walls. Their function is replaced by leaning parabolic arches and columns. The facade is an autonomous, self-supported structure made from a complex system of beams and iron turnbuckles. This allows the interior of each floor to be freely distributed.
Interior Space: The space distribution on the ground floor is whimsical and totally free, organizing the building with irregular shapes around two courtyards that become uneven. Gaudí created authentic interior walls. The yards are wide and were originally decorated with frescoes. He broke with the traditional concept of symmetry in the organization of the plant. This play in the organization of the plant is possible by using a construction system that was extremely bold and advanced for its time: the replacement of load-bearing walls with iron structures to concentrate the weight at a few specific points and introduce curved lines in the design of the plant, giving a feeling of movement, conveying to all floors and the entire height. The shapes are curves that define the plant, creating a plant in motion.
Outdoor Space: The facade, made of wavy stone blocks that were carefully designed and cut on-site, is an independent structure that could stand by itself. It binds to the body of the building with a system of straps and iron beams. It presents a large plastic unit and significant movement since the rows of balconies undulate inwards and outwards. The iron railings on the windows are worked in wrought iron with organic shapes, imitating seaweed on rocks and sand from the beach. The forms presented by the facade as a whole are organic: they evoke the sense of waves that break the stone structure in a natural continuity with the mountains of Catalonia.
The windows that open in the front are numerous and very large, with wavy shapes and curved shots, giving a feeling of motion and visual unity.
The terrace is another essential element of the work. We find a veritable forest of organic forms: banks of elevators and boilers, as well as sculptural forms that take on the appearance of water tanks, like great warriors as guards. The chimneys are grouped helicoidally, screwed up so that the air circulates and facilitates the expulsion of smoke. Like the ventilation openings, they take on fantastic shapes that are an enigma. The attic provides insulation for the other floors. The vault is covered with parabolic arches, absorbing all the different weights from the sides.
Theme, Meaning, and Function: Originally, it was exclusively residential. The Milà couple ordered it to keep the main floor for themselves and rent the remaining flats to middle-class families.
Context
Landmark: In Catalonia, Modernism is a deeply rooted movement with its own personality, endowed in many cities. The prosperous, cultured, and nationalist industrial bourgeoisie of the late 19th century supported Modernist architecture.
Influences: Influenced by the forms of nature. The sculptural treatment of the stone is a forerunner of the German Expressionist architecture of Bruno Taut and Erich Mendelsohn.
German Pavilion
Datasheet
Author: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Chronology: 1929
Type: Exhibition Pavilion
Materials: Colored marble, travertine, glass, steel, and gold onyx
Style: Rationalist
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Description and Formal Analysis
Description: It rises on a travertine podium, accessed by steps that also lead to a pool located to the left of the platform. Behind, there is an area of integrated services separated by a travertine wall with a bench of the same material, which joins the main roof of the building. This roof is completely flat and horizontal, with a cantilever extending below the support structure on the far left and revealing the opposite corner, where there is a small, closed rectangular patio with a small pond and a bronze female sculpture. Most of the wall structure surrounding the building is glazed, allowing a fluid relationship between the interior and exterior.
Materials: New materials allow the roof to be sustained by just eight metallic pillars, releasing the walls from their normal load-bearing function. Illusory colored marble and clear glass create the perception of an open, multi-purpose venue, in stark contrast to traditional compartmentalized spaces.
Analysis and Interpretation
Building Elements: Support Elements: Eight very slender, cruciform, stainless steel pillars with a silver chrome finish. The walls, free of their loading function, are arranged in a grid at regular intervals.
Theme, Meaning, and Function: The function was to showcase German advancements to the world at the Barcelona International Exhibition. It contrasted sharply with the classical buildings surrounding it, such as the Palace of Maria Cristina de Puig i Cadafalch. Van der Rohe’s Pavilion announced the new forms of modern and rational architecture.
Context
Landmark: The Pavilion was designed as a state space representing Germany at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929. After 1918, when Germany lost the war, this was the first opportunity to present itself to the world as a peaceful country devoted to trade. Countries presented their products in spaces provided by the organization or raised their own flags. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was commissioned to plan the exhibition of all German products at the Exhibition and also to represent the Pavilion. He was an architect with specific experience in exhibition design.
Influences:
Style: Rationalism is certainly the most clearly marked architectural movement in construction activity throughout the 20th century. It developed between 1920 and 1933, and its precedents are found in the Chicago School, especially in the work of Sullivan, who argued that the main interest of architecture is its functionality, and form must be subject to function.