Casa Milá-la Pedrera

Casa Milá-la Pedrera
1905-1910
Presented by Maria Sauvageau

Casa Mila was designed by Antoni Gaudi, and was built between 1906 and 1910. The exterior is made out of limestone and is often called "La Pedrera", which means the Quary in Catalan. The building is divided into three sections: apartments, attic, and rooftop. The apartments are based on a free-plan. This is possible because the building is structured around beams. It is described as being structured like clusters of lily pads with steal beam veins. The walls of the apartments therefore carry little to no structural value and could be placed as the owners desired. The attic was created as a buffer zone for the apartments. It would keep them warm in the winter, and in the summer the windows would open and allow cool air to come in. Gaudi also intended this space to be the communal area for the tenants, where laundry and drying facilities would be placed. The rooftop gets its shape from the parabolic arches below, therefore it is created with a series of steps which undulate over these arches. The rooftop contains 30 chimneys, which are often grouped together in groups of threes or fours.They are called the "espantabruixes", or witch-scarers.