Casa Vicens: Gaudí's first major work and why you should visit it before the Sagrada Familia

What is Casa Vicens and where does it come from?

Casa Vicens was built by Antoni Gaudí between 1883 and 1885 — his first major work after graduating as an architect. The commission came from Manuel Vicens i Montaner, a manufacturer of hydraulic tiles who asked Gaudí for a summer house in what was then the town of Gràcia (not yet annexed to Barcelona). Gaudí, at 31 years old, designed a neo-Mudejar house of Arab and Persian inspiration — completely atypical for the Catalan architecture of the time. The house was in the hands of the Vicens family for almost 100 years. In 2014 it was purchased and restored by the MoraBanc bank and opened to the public in 2017. UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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

Casa Vicens is where you can see Gaudí before being Gaudí. Before the Sagrada Familia, before Casa Batlló, before Park Güell. It is the work of a young architect experimenting with the first ideas that would later become his signature. For a creator in training, seeing the first Gaudí is seeing how one's own voice is built step by step.

How to take advantage of it (concrete practice)

Book online — the house is small and fills up. The first one of the day arrives (10:00). Pay special attention to the dining room with the carnation tiles (each tile is unique, handmade by Vicens himself in his factory), to the ceiling room with painted vegetation, and to the terrace with the Arabic brick. Take a notebook and draw a detail — a tile, a window, a doorknob. You take with you Gaudí's DNA in a detail.

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 Vicens 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.