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Casa Mila / La Pedrera

Modernist Building Before Its Time

Designed by architect Antoni Gaudí in 1906, Casa Milà is a private residence with a wavy stone facade and four apartments on each floor. The extremely creative patios, attic, and roof terraces of Casa Milà show Gaudí's ingenuity beyond his time.

In 1905, the wealthy Milà couple of Barcelona commissioned Antoni Gaudí to design a private residence for their own use that would also include apartment houses that could be rented out. This was Gaudi’s last commercial commission, and he fully integrated his understanding of natural elements and modernism into the design of this highly innovative Casa Milà (La Pedrera). After its completion in 1912, he devoted his full talent and energy to the Sagrada Família.

The Facade of a Continuous Curve of Casa Milà was carved in stone, and because the columns inside the building take on all the load-bearing functions, the facade can be shaped without limitation. The edgy curves and cave-like windows even brought Casa Mila a nickname “The Stone Quarry”.

Manywhere Trivia:
The Milàs were the first rich people in Barcelona to own cars, so Gaudi even built an underground garage for Casa Milà.

The Casa Milà is a six-story building, and Gaudi designed Four Apartment Houses for each floor. To improve the ventilation and light performance of the rooms, he divided them in irregular shapes, increasing the proportion of windows on the main façade, and also created two Circular Patios inside the building, allowing natural light to enter from the inner patios.

Gaudi's Ingenuity is evident in every corner of Casa Milà: top-track folding sliding doors, the ergonomic door handles, security windows on unit doors, plasterwork ornaments… a hundred years later, Gaudi’s design does not look dated.

The uppermost floor of the building has an attic, made up of 270 vaults joined together, a shape that greatly reduces the weight of the material so as not to stress the building. The attic is currently used as a Gaudi Showroom, filled with Gaudi’s works such as models, floor plans, etc.

Arriving at the Roof Terrace via the attic, you can find numerous strange columns, some covered with mosaic tiles and others decorated with helmet-shaped objects. On closer inspection, they turn out to be stair exits, ventilation ducts and chimneys, and their peculiar appearance attracts countless visitors to take pictures.