On Dallas architect, Steve Cambers’ brief visit to this site, it is clear to that Gaudí respects and appreciates nature. He does not view it as a monotonous object, but seeks to understand all its nuances and deepen the visitor’s understanding of it through his work. He uses nature as a reference and source of inspiration in his work and reinterprets it in unusual ways, breaking many architectural paradigms. Nature is the architecture here and architecture is but one more piece in its natural order. Parc Güell preserves the essence of “mountain,” its natural charm and its magnetism. Gaudí uses all the elements that nature provides, working its forms, curves, and stone. On a barren hill, almost absent of vegetation, he devises a system that accumulates rainwater that seeps through rocks in an underground tank and supports all of the vegetation. New native Mediterranean species are planted: palm, carob, pine, cypress, fig, almond, plum, lavender, thyme, rockrose, sage, mimosa, and magnolia–the overall effect is stunningly lush.

The park, originally an integral part of a housing site, was the idea of Count Eusebi Güell, after whom the park was named. Güell was inspired by The English Garden City Movement, a method of urban planning originated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard who was himself inspired by the Utopian novel, Looking Backward. Garden cities were self-contained communities surrounded by “greenbelts,” a planned symbiosis of nature and shelter that contained proportionate areas of homes, commercial structures, and agriculture. When one garden city reached critical capacity, another was put in place nearby, all energized by connected roads and railways.

The rocky hill with little vegetation and few trees where Parc Güell is sited, called Muntanya Pelada (Bare Mountain), already included a large country house called Larrard House. The intent was to take advantage of the fresh air, away from smoky city factories, and the beautiful views of Barcelona. Sixty triangular lots were provided for luxurious villas. In 1906, Count Eusebi Güell added to the cachet of the development by moving into the Larrard House. Ultimately, only two houses were built, neither designed by Gaudí. One was intended to be a show house, but when there were no buyers into the development, Gaudí, at Güell’s suggestion, bought it with his savings and moved in with his family and his father in 1906. Gaudí lived in the home from 1906 to 1926. It contains original works by Gaudí and, since 1963, called the Casa Museu Gaudí (Gaudí Museum). In 1969 Parc Guell, a failed commercial endeavor, was declared a historical artistic monument.

Gaudí incorporated many motifs of Catalan nationalism, elements of religious mysticism, and ancient poetry into the park. The public buildings that flank the entrance, with their fancifully shaped roofs and pinnacles, fit in well with the botanicals and are more inconspicuous in this environment than other flamboyant buildings designed by Gaudí that lie within the Barcelona cityscape. A smiling dragon covered in trencadís (small broken colorful ceramics that conform to sinewy shapes) guards the stairway behind this entrance and the focal point of the entire park, a high main terrace surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. The curves of the serpent bench form a number of groupings and encourage social gatherings within the plaza attracting artists and musicians to assemble and perform. To design the curvature of the bench surface, Gaudí purportedly used the shape of buttocks left by a naked workman sitting in wet clay. The park’s high-point offers the most complete and compelling panoramic view of Barcelona and its bay. It is possible to view the temple of La Sagrada Família and the Montjuïc area in the distance. Several thousand years ago, Iberic Celts settled on Montjuïc, a hill southeast of Barcelona’s current city center and was later used by the Romans as a ceremonial place. Underneath the high terrace are magnificent Doric columns that support the plaza and form a roof for a lower court, creating a counterbalancing enclosure of reverential quietude.

Roadways around the park to service the intended houses were designed by Gaudí as structures jutting out from the steep hillside or running on viaducts, with separate footpaths in arcades formed under these structures. This minimized the intrusion of the roads, and Gaudí designed them using local stone in a way that integrates them closely into the landscape. His structures mirror the natural vegetation, with sloping columns like tree trunks branching to form vaults under the roadway. The roadway resembles the pine trees of the park. In order to fit in, the road and walkway structures between the terraces were built with stones quarried within the park. Stone bird nests have been installed in the vaults of the walkways. Occasionally, green birds can be seen flying with pigeons and sparrows. These are monk parakeets that became a common species started from escapees from captivity in the 1970s. The roads meander like rivers with undulating and slightly sloping columns or tree-shaped stalactites, caverns, and materials of the region that impart a sensation of constant movement.

After walking the park, it is worth a visit to the Gaudí Museum in the architect’s former residence, where many of Gaudí’s personal belongings and some of his distinctive furniture is seen. The architecture of this home (not designed by Gaudí) is disappointingly ordinary for its time when compared with his other creations, especially the surrounding environs of Parc Güell. It is a remarkable contradiction, however, for visitors to the park to see how the architect actually lived and where we expect him to spend his days, considering it housed an architect with such an exceptionally non-derivative and creative mind. It also makes us wonder how the 60 villas Gaudí planned to design might have been enhanced by this mastery in landscape design and adds to the complexity and our curiosity of this extraordinary architect.

(Photography credit: Stephanie Chambers)

Pictured in gallery below: public building design; the interior and furniture of Casa Museu Gaudi, the architect’s home for 20 years; a photo of the home’s pink stucco exterior and fanciful Art Nouveau stencils; various photos of our group’s walk (and bench rest!) through the park’s walkways and roadways; botanicals; close-up of dragon; finally, Doric columns forming lower terrace.