Ryan BarbaPark Guell

Barcelona in the early 20th century found new economic stability and innovation in the

arts. Among these artistic statements was Park Güell, a paradisal real estate project whose failure

as such brought it new life as a public park when purchased by the Barcelona city council in

1922. (Sullivan) The plot was owned by textile merchant Eusebi

Güell, a long term patron and supporter of Gaudí who

commissioned the work that would become his garden suburbia.

The park is found in a mountainous region of Barcelona popularly

known as Muntanya Pelada and was designed and built by Antoni

Gaudí from 1900 to 1914. (Kent & Prindle 26) Much of Antoni

Gaudí's work is categorized as Art Nouveau. While Art Nouveau

influence would typically influence biomorphic form in

smaller details, Gaudí applied this way of thinking to the form of the park in it's entirety. His

Gaudí's model for Park Güell made from sheets and cables.

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

initial models of Park Güell were constructed from cloth and cables. (J.S.Volpe, personal

communication February 24, 2015)

A symmetrically constructed set of staircases covered with ceramic skin marks the

entrance to Park Güell. The same ceramic skin covers a salamander in the center of this entrance.

An Art Nouveau style fence. Gaudí had originally trained as an iron worker.

The entry staircase and the salamander nicknamed “El Drag.”

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

Much of this work was done with the help of Josep Maria Jujol, a specialist in ceramics. (Zerbst

144) The entry area is elaborately decorated and leads from the street to the intended

marketplace—a massive enclosure with 86 columns supporting it's roof. (Zerbst The columns are

doric, but with no entasis and a wide circular capital. The twenty foot columns rise up to an

undulating ceramic surface across the ceiling.

On the roof of this structure is the

proposed theaer—258 by 120 feet in area.

(Zerbst 158) large bed of clay surrounded

by a massive serpentine bench. This clay

collects rainwater which travels through the

columns into a hidden 2600-gallon cistern.

(Zerbst 153) Gaudí's works were not

typically constructed in such harmony with

the landscape. In Park Güell, the landscape is

immersed in all aspects of the environment.

Ergonomic innovation can be observed in the

unexpected comfort of the mosaic serpentine

bench that surrounds the clay roof of what would

have been the covered marketplace. Gaudí was

said to have traced the outline of one of his

workers while they were sitting to perfect the shape of the bench.

The clay roof of the marketplace and the serpentine bench.

Much of the mosaic work, having been constructed from broken tiles, resembles collage.

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

The serpentine bench again bears mosaic ceramic work with the help of Josep Maria Jujol.

The serpentine bench surrounds an area of land which was intended as a theater.

Park Güell's was also constructed in adherence to the limits of the landscape, both in

mostly using materials found in the site and by organizing it's structure in accommodation of the

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

landscape. Surrounding this market/theater are roads and pathways twisting in compromise to a

hilly landscape nestled with stone walls, columns, planters, staircases and railings. Some of Park

Güell's features are constructed in dense layers for structural support. This was often the result of

ideas which needed adjustment for structural stability. (Zerbst 151)

Religious and symbolic imagery can be found

throughout the park, and Conrad Kent and Dennis

Prindle describe Park Güell's as “an instructional

program for entering paradise at every level from the

domestic to the theological.” (Kent & Prindle 33)

This idea of a garden as a paradise is by no means a

novel concept especially considering the religious

undertones of the park, but Park Güell is unlike prior

concepts of paradise /garden cities such as those in its

respect for it's landscape. It's 300 planned inhabitants

A dichotomy of advanced technique and primitive materials can be seen in these roadside planters and throughout Park Güell

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

had to agree not to modify the terrain. Gaudí would be one of three to ever live there. (Roe 177)

Ryan BarbaPark Guell

Works Cited

Zerbst, Rainer. Gaudi, 1852-1926: Antoni Gaudi I Cornet: A Life Devoted to Architecture. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1988. Print.

Kent, Conrad, and Dennis Joseph Prindle. Park Guell. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1993. Print.

Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey, and Fred S. Kleiner. "29." Gardner's Art through the Ages. 11th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College, 1996. N. pag. Print.

Sullivan, Mary A. "Park Guell by Gaudi." Park Guell by Gaudi. Bluffton University, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Volpe, Joe S. "Park Güell." Roots & Branches of the 20th & 21st Century. MA, Amherst. 24 Feb. 2015. Lecture.

All photographs property of Joseph Volpe.