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Art Nouveau
•Art Nouveau , is an international movement and style
of art, architecture and applied art that peaked in
popularity at the turn of the 20th century (1890–1905) .
It is characterized by organic, especially floral and other
plant-inspired motifs, as well as highly-stylized, flowing
curvilinear forms.

Art Nouveau is an approach to design according to which artists should
work on everything from architecture; interior design; jewelry, furniture,
textiles, to household silver and other utensils, making art part of
everyday life.
In French it refers to 'new art’. Art Nouveau was underlined by a
particular way of thinking about modern society and new production
methods, attempting to redefine the meaning and nature of the work of
art, so that art would not overlook any everyday object, no matter how
utilitarian. Hence the name Art Nouveau - "New Art".
In German it is also known as Jugendstil for 'youth style', named after
the magazine Jugend, which promoted it, especially as a graphic artform.

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In architecture, hyperbolas and parabolas in
windows, arches, and doors are common, and
decorative moldings 'grow' into plant-derived forms.
Though Art Nouveau designers selected and
'modernized' some of the more abstract elements
of Rococo style, such as flame and shell textures,
they also advocated the use of highly stylized organic
forms as a source of inspiration, expanding the
'natural' regularity to embrace seaweed, grasses,
and insects.
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Although Art Nouveau fell out of favor with
the arrival of 20th-century modernist styles, it
is seen today as an important bridge between
the history and modernism.
Furthermore, Art Nouveau monuments are
now recognized by UNESCO on their World
Heritage List as significant contributions to
cultural heritage.
Art Nouveau's fifteen-year peak was strongly
felt throughout Europe—but its influence was
global. Hence, it is known in various guises
with frequent localized tendencies.
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Casa Batlló
( pronounced Casa Batyo)
Architect

Antoni Gaudi

Location

Barcelona, Spain

Date

1905 to 1907 timeline

Building type

Apartment building (remodel)

Construction system

Concrete

Climate

Mediterranean

Context

Urban

Style

Expressionist or Art Nouveau
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HISTORY
The house was originally built between 1875 and 1877 and in 1900 it
was bought by the Spanish industrialist who commissioned the
architect Antoni Gaudí to tear it down and build a new home in its
place.
The project was strongly discussed by municipal authorities due to a
lot of elements of the design of Gaudí over the bylaws standards.
The changes made by Gaudí on the old building were radical and
affect all the building.
Gaudí managed to convince Battló to remodel the existing building
instead of tearing it down, and between 1904 and 1906 he
completely redesigned and remodeled the exterior and interior

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• Gaudí added a gallery, the balconies and the polychrome
ceramics.
• Inside, the spaces were totally reorganized in order to
obtain in it more natural light and ventilation.
• Gaudí also added two floors to the building.
• Outside, Gaudí carried out one of the most impressive and
brilliant urban façades of the world.
• He used for it the typical modern constructive elements
such as the ceramics, the stone and the iron forged.
• Awarded as one of the three best buildings of the year
1906 by the Barcelona city Council.
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Tour to
Casa Battlo
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Gaudí, disliked straight
lines and preferred
organic, nonlinear
patterns instead.
The flow of the exterior of
the building cannot
properly be explained
with the use of straight
lines, but rather waves on
the ocean.
It seems that the goal of
the designer was to avoid
straight lines completely.
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• A facade includes a number of
small, elegantly curved
balconies that seem to stick to
the front of the house like
birds' nests on the face of the
cliff.
• There are no edges or corners;
even the walls are rounded
giving the essence of smooth
skin of a sea serpent about
them.
• The balconies remember
pieces of skulls with its eyes
and mouth.
• The columns of first floor look
like human bones
• The local name for the
building is Casa dels
ossos (house of bones), and
indeed it does have
a visceral, skeletal organic q
uality.

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• Much of the facade of the
Casa Batlló is made of
local sandstone covered
with colorful
mosaic made of broken
ceramic tiles that starts in
shades of golden orange
moving into greenish
blues.
• One of the first recyclers,
Gaudi used the rejected
and imperfect tiles from
his other projects to
complete the façade as
well as the mosaic on the
back of the building and
on the chimneys atop the
building.
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• The facade itself glitters
in numerous colours,
and small round plates
that look like fish scales
are let into it.

• The facade is impressive
so much if is
contemplated during
the day as during the
night, under a special
lighting.
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• The roof decorated with
polychrome ceramics of
brilliant colors is crowned
by a tower.
• The roof reminds of a
completely different animal:
The roof is arched and is
bordered by a rough line
similar to the backbone of a
gigantic dinosaur or dragon.
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A common theory about the building
is that the rounded feature to the left
of centre, terminating at the top in a
turret and cross, represents the
sword of Saint George, which has
been plunged into the back of the
dragon.

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The large window on the second floor, which
provided the main source of daylight for the Batlló
family apartment, and the oval-shaped windows on
either side and above it also earned it the
nickname “House of Yawns

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• Once inside the building,
however, one realizes that
these nicknames do not
aptly describe the interior
at all.
• Upon entering into the
building, the visitor is
greeted with a wide and
curving stairway which
leads to the second floor of
the building and the main
rooms of the apartment.
• The curving, wooden
handrail is expertly crafted
in such a way that it
perfectly fits the contours of
the human hand while
walking up the steps.
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• The anteroom boasts a fireplace nook with built-in
benches for a couple to sit on one side and a
chaperone to sit watchfully on the other.

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• The visitor slowly begins
to realize that there
seem to be no right
angles present
anywhere; instead,
everything, even the
walls and ceilings,
gently curve as if
mimicking the surface
of a calm body of water.
Walls turn into ceilings
and floors without
interruption.
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• Casa Batlló has a deeply
aquatic and natural
theme which runs
throughout the entire
building, from snailshell inspired lines on
the ceilings to the
aquatic blue tiled walls
of the inner stairwell.

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• Passing from room to
room, one crosses
through exquisitelymade doors made of
wood and hand-blown
glass, with bubbles of
air still trapped in them
from the day of their
creation.
• Looking into these
colored glass discs, one
even gets the feeling of
breathing underwater.
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• Gaudi used his genius to
maximize the amount of
sunlight that the main
apartment received,
solving the problems of
light and heat
distribution because of
window which was on
the second floor of the
six story building.

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• In the center of the building, Gaudí expanded the
existing patio and installed a large skylight. He placed
the elevator shaft and stairwell inside here, while
incorporating a way to distribute light evenly through
the building
• The patio walls of the upper floors are covered by
cobalt-blue tiles; proceeding downwards, the color of
the tiles fades to white. The darker tiles, which are
closer to the skylight, reflect less light; the white tiles
reflect more. When viewed from below, the patio
walls look to be a continuous blue color. Gaudí
placed smaller windows on the upper floors of the
patio and larger ones on the lower levels in order to
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ensure an even amount of light to flow inside.

• No tour of Casa Batlló
would be complete without
a trip to the recentlyopened top of the building
to take in the sights of the
attic and the chimneys.
• The colorful mosaic work on
the building’s chimneys is
breathtaking in its attention
to detail and it provides a
measure of grace and
beauty to an otherwise
utilitarian part of the
building’s infrastructure.
www.archidude.com

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