The construction of Casa Milà

Construction work on Casa Milà began on 2 February 1906, after the project plans signed by Antoni Gaudí were submitted to Barcelona City Council and the building permit was requested.

Below we refer to two very illustrative examples of the interest sparked by the construction.

The first is issue no. 236 of the magazine Ilustració Catalana, dated 8 December 1907, which published news of the construction under the title “Arquitectura Moderna”, accompanied by three photographs and a footnote reading: “Details of the house being directed by the architect Mr. Gaudí on Passeig de Gràcia, corner of Provença.” The photographs show the construction system based on columns and pillars.

Ilustració Catalana was an illustrated weekly magazine which, in its second period between 1903 and 1917, counted on the collaboration of Josep Alemany, former director of La Ilustració Llevantina, and became one of the leading Catalan publications. Writers such as Joan Maragall, Narcís Oller, Joaquim Ruyra, Josep Carner, Josep M. Folch i Torres, and Magí Morera i Galícia, among others, contributed to it. The magazine upheld the spirit of the Renaixença, echoing numerous cultural initiatives and political Catalanism, and also published the supplement Feminal. (Source: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana)

The annual subscription cost thirty pesetas and, as stated on the back cover, “regular issues are sold everywhere for 50 céntimos” and “special issues are published at exceptional prices.” The editorial offices and administration were located at 287 Mallorca Street in Barcelona, right on the corner with Roger de Llúria Street.

The second example is issue no. 9 of the monthly magazine La Edificación Moderna, published by the builders’ association Centro de Contratistas Generales de Obras y Maestros Albañiles de Barcelona, dated March 1908.

The article “Las obras del arquitecto Don Antonio Gaudí,” which accompanies the photographs, is signed by Gabriel Borrell (1862–1944), architect and member of the magazine’s editorial committee. He praises the work being carried out by “Mr. Gaudí” on the house of “Mr. Pedro Milá” for its originality “in the art of construction.” Borrell explains that Gaudí sought to meet the needs of modern life “without the nature of the materials or their conditions of resistance becoming an obstacle that limits his freedom of action,” and he describes the column-based structure as an innovation that made it possible to create large, highly luminous spaces.

La Edificación Moderna, March 1908.