Güell park restoration

Barcelona, Barcelona, Cataluña.
Special mention / Diploma in the category Conservation / Conservation and adaptive reuse in the year 1995.

Dating of the building: 1900-1914.

Applicant: Jaime Ortiz de Saracho Sueiro.

Reason for the award :

For the deferential restoration work in Park Güell.

  • © Agencia digital Maneki Neko
  • © Agencia digital Maneki Neko

The Ministry of Culture financed between 1987 and 1994 the rehabilitation of what some consider the most excellent work of Antoni Gaudí.

Park Güell is one of the main tourist attractions in Barcelona. Built by Antoni Gaudí between 1900 and 1914 for his protector and friend Eusebi Güell, it stands on a hill with panoramic views over the city. The initial idea predicted the urbanization of a residential neighbourhood of sixty houses, so from the outset, it had a surrounding wall. The complex was never built and only the home of Gaudí’s potentate was constructed near the main entrance. The park, a unique example of organic architecture, is unmatched in its originality and eclecticism.

There are many stylistic references to Mycenaean architecture with cyclopean walls, but also to Doric archaism and oriental art. The natural sinuosity of the park is converted into architecture without a visible transition, and its caves do not seem like the work of an architect, but rather the whims of nature. Very well-known are the magnificent balcony with a trencadís bench, the original Gaudinian puzzle of broken tiles, and the dragon in the main hall, also in trencadís, a reference to Sant Jordi, the patron saint of Catalonia. The conservation works, financed by the Ministry of Culture, were developed in three phases between 1987 and 1994 and affected those areas previously restored with little success.

Others awards in Cataluña: