Barcelona 2007

We made our second trip to Barcelona in early June -- while Chuck attended a conference at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and discussed some cooperative research agreements with two faculty members there.

As we reported after our visit there a year ago, architecture is a big subject in Barcelona, coming up in all sorts of circumstances. This, of course, is to be expected in a city with so many striking buildings which was the center of the Modernisme movement in the early 20th century and the home of Antoni Gaudi, the best-known practitioner of the genre. This time we got to vist Gaudi's famous Casa Mila which seems to be considered by many as the premier example of the style.

Quoting from www.architecture.about.com: "The final secular design of the Spanish surrealist Antoni Gaudí, Casa Milà Barcelona is an apartment building with a fanciful aura. Wavy walls made of rough-chipped stone suggest fossilized ocean waves, while doors and windows look like they are dug out of sand. A comical array of chimney stacks dances across the roof.

This unique building is widely but unofficially known as La Pedrera (the Quarry). In 1984, UNESCO classified Casa Milà as a World Heritage site, and it is today used for cultural expositions."

The tour included a typical apartment within the building, furnished in the style of the 1910s -- and it was truly spacious and light-filled. Of course, the apartments in this building, which must have been a marvel of their time were intended for the upper-middle class or even wealthy.

Some of our Barcelona pictures are at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2976771#161073431