Gaudi of Barcelona

"Color in architecture must be intense, logical and fertile," wrote Catalan architect and designer Antoni Gaudí in his diary in the late 1870s. Known for his sensuous, curving, almost surreal Art Nouveau buildings, Gaudí (1852-1926) is today one of the best known architects in the world. Over the course of four decades, he designed an incredible variety of architectural structures, including apartment houses, private residences, park complexes and religious and secular institutions, most of which were erected in or around Barcelona-such as the Park Güell, the Casa Batlló, the Casa Milà and his masterpiece, La Segrada Familia. With nearly 150 color reproductions, this volume offers a new standard overview of his extraordinary career. Here, Gaudí's undulating tiled roofs, pinnacles and towers that rise like plants or tentacles, chimneys that take on phantasmagoric shapes and colors are accompanied by plans and drawings that provide a clear picture of Gaudí's structural innovations. Luís Permanyer places the architect's ouevre within the context of Catalan and wider European developments of the time, but he also describes the more personal mystical impetus that lay at the core of Gaudí's inventions. For those already familiar with the architect's work, Melba Levick's superb and detail photographs will prove a revelation; for those just discovering Gaudí, this book is the next best thing to experiencing the buildings themselves.