Barcelona has a dispersed World Heritage site known as “The Works of Antoni Gaudi”, comprising seven of the works of the famous architect. The tourist sightseeing bus goes by several of them.
Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi’s 1912 building, Casa Mila, or La Pedrera (Photo credit Jill Browne)
From the open upper deck I had a good view of La Pedrera, as this organic-looking apartment building is called. It became a World Heritage site in 1984.
The building was completed in 1912, although not without some changes to Gaudi’s original plan, and some fights with the city authorities over building regulations.
In this photo I think it looks something like a honeycomb standing on its end. In real life, it struck me as more solid and massive, more reminiscent of rock than of wax.
One of the great things about Gaudi was his biophilia. From the Oxford Dictionary online:
“Definition of biophilia
noun
[mass noun]
(according to a theory of the biologist E. O. Wilson) an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world.”
When an architect makes buildings that look like living creatures of yet-to-be-discovered genera, surely that’s a demonstration of biophilia.
Disclosure: I had this adventure on September 25, 2012, and I paid my own fare on the tourist bus. I went alone but there was a nice couple from Edmonton sitting right behind me. Small world. Edmonton is about 300 km from home and is the provincial capital of Alberta, where I live. It’s also our rival city in everything.
More disclosure
Disclosure
This is my standard form of disclosure that I am retroactively adding to all blog posts done before April 1, 2018, and will add to all new posts.
1. Is this experience open to the public?
Yes.
2. Who paid the cost of me doing this?
I did.
3. Did I get any compensation or special consideration for writing this blog post?
No.
4. Would I be as positive about this place if I had gone as a regular visitor?
Yes. I did go as a regular visitor.
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