Casa Batlló: Gaudí's masterpiece as a date with the artist (beyond the tourist)

What is Casa Batlló and where does it come from?

Antoni Gaudí renovated Casa Batlló between 1904 and 1906 at the request of the textile industrialist Josep Batlló. It was not a new building — Gaudí redesigned a pre-existing house from 1877, completely transforming it: façade, interior layout, patio, terrace, roof. The façade is a visual allegory of the myth of Sant Jordi and the dragon — the roof is the scales, the balconies are the masks of the victims, the upper cross is the nailed sword. The building has been a World Heritage Site since 2005. It was opened to the public as a house-museum in 1995.

Why go — and what's the purpose of your appointment with the artist?

Casa Batlló is a total work of art. Gaudí did not accept the separation between architecture, sculpture, painting and furniture design. He designed the doors, the handles, the tiles, the windows, the fireplaces, the knobs. Visiting Casa Batlló is seeing up close what a work made without compartments means.

How to take advantage of it (concrete practice)

Buy the first ticket of the day (8:30 in the morning). You will have the house almost empty. Take a notebook. Stop especially at the light well — where Gaudí changes the color of the tiles from dark blue below to light blue above to reflect light evenly — and at the terrace with the helical chimneys. Draw one of the chimneys. It's the best visual lesson in combining geometry and organic out there.

Why this place connects with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way

The practice of the appointment with the artist that Julia Cameron prescribes in The Artist's Path has a principle: creativity needs to be fed before I can produce. Cameron calls it 'filling the well.' The metaphor is exact: if it doesn't rain, the well runs dry. If you don't expose your brain to non-work stimuli once a week, your ability to generate new ideas quietly declines, week by week.

Casa Batlló is an ideal place for a date with the artist because it meets the three conditions that Cameron asks for: It takes you out of your routine (a place other than your work and home), does not require production (you are going to receive, not create), and exposes you to curated stimuli (someone with judgment decided this was worth watching). Three conditions, an hour or two, once a week. It is probably the practice with the best mental ROI that you are going to add to your routine.

If you haven't taken the course yet, this is the place to start. Your Artist's Path is the free 12-week program that applies Julia Cameron's method to your life — including two hours a week blocked off on your calendar for appointments like this. More about the course at the end of the post.