The use of iron in the Casa Mllá of Barcelona

Abstract

The materials and construction systems, even the conception of the general structure, were for Gaudí no more than mediums at the service of the formal and spatial expression of his architectural imagination. Sometimes, the use of certain materials was indiscriminate or without sufficient guarantees. The Casa Milá is a good example. The use of laminated iron in the Pedrera, which allowed Gaudí to conceive a story independent of the façades —wall-screens of stone which seem to defy the law of gravity—, have been, at the same time, the main cause of the deterioration of these façades. In the case of the structure, the conceptual solution based on the use of iron has responded well to the static needs. This has not occured with the solutions —no less ingeneous but too improvlsed and risky— foreseen, also based on iron, to hold up the façade. Here, the material, subjected to the effects of humidity —favored by the form given to the stone—, has not resisted the passage of time very well.