The roof terrace at la Pedrera and the Sagrada Familia

            photo + hdr + ps oleo

The roof terrace at La Pedrera-Casa Milà is unique. Walking around it is like being in a museum full of Gaudí-style sculptures.

On the roof you’ll find order, aesthetic quality and great functionality in the elements of the construction: the staircases providing access to the attic, the ventilation towers and the chimneys.

To soften the volumes of the staircases, Gaudí uses curves, all of them deriving from the regulated geometry which lightens the building using concavity, convexity and conical shapes. Four of the six stairwells are covered with recycled stone, marble or ceramic trencadís mosaic in monochrome shades. The other two are covered in stucco made from lime mortar and plaster. The ventilation towers help renew the air in the attic.  The chimneys (smoke outlets) are grouped into threes and fours. To give them their sculptural shapes, Gaudí turns them on themselves, using an internal and external layout that follows the aerodynamic movement of the smoke. There is one group of chimneys covered with pieces of cava bottle in an original version of trencadís.

Caixa d'escala
 
Reixa 1911
Because of the Milà family’s financial problems, Gaudí did not have time to finish some details of the house. Part of the decoration/protection of the elements on the roof terrace is not finished. Most of the chimneys and two of the staircase exits should have been covered with trencadís made from ceramics, stone, bottles or other materials. This technique had an aesthetic function but it also served as protective waterproofing. For the perimeter grille, Gaudí began designing a model that would follow the sinuous shape of the roof terrace. In 1911, as we know from photographs of workers on the terrace, the owners decided to install the current grille, although it did not correspond to the design Gaudí would have wanted.

However, we can still enjoy one of the most outstanding roof terraces in all Gaudí’s architecture, with some sculptural and architectural elements to set the imagination racing way beyond their functionality and attractive appearance.

Taken on: October 26, 2014

Tags:

barcelona

pedrera

catalonia

hdr

oleo

summer

blue

orange

yellow

light

new

old

subreal

gaudi

sun

cityscape

roof

terrace

city

art

clouds

house

building

sky « less

Groups appears in: • Pure real and virtual works of art

Stats: 5,071 views / 3 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder