This is Gaudí’s latest civil work, in which he places full emphasis on the experimentation with the structure and opts for risky and well-differentiated solutions from traditional procedures. The load-bearing straight feet are made of limestone from Garraf, combined with metallic elements, and are dimensioned and configured according to the casuistry of their specific position. The slabs are made of metal beams, which follow an irregular order according to the configuration of the floor. The façades on the street merge with the perimeter pillars in a monolithic and self-supporting system. Gaudí proposes to detach the forms from their material content and to look for a synthesis between the abstraction and the evocation of the elements of nature. This led him to turn the building into a large monument dedicated to the Virgin, which was to crown the house as if it were just a pedestal. The help of a naval engineer or the shapes suggested on the deck reveal a Gaudí forerunner of modern architecture, interested in freeing himself from the rows of masonry, orders or the weight of building materials. The Pedrera is a completely unfinished work that solves every spatial and constructive challenge through unpublished and sometimes incomprehensible solutions.
The Milà House constitutes a fundamental step in Gaudí's work, expressing to the maximum extent possible the formal vocabulary initiated in his previous works, especially in the Batlló House.
Popularly called La Pedrera (the quarry), it is presented to us as a monumental abstract sculpture. The façade, which is continuous, with an undulating shape which avoids the corners, has become over time the emblematic element of the building: modeled in simply roughened stone, with no other decorative element than the wrought iron railings designed by Jujol, it contrasts with the roof, covered in trencadís ceramics and topped by unusual chimneys.
The two independent accesses, one through the chamfer and the other through Provença Street, provide the building with unique characteristics in terms of organisation and conception, far removed from the typical solutions of buildings in the Eixample. Gaudí introduces an innovation, the elimination of the neighbours' stairs, so that the floors can only be accessed via the elevators or the service stairs. The building is thus arranged around two large courtyards, with a circular and ovoid plan, respectively, conceived as the second façade of the building (as in the Batlló House). The situation of the stables in the basement is also quite innovative, and it is accessed via helical ramps. Gaudí had planned to continue these ramps up to the upper floors, but in the end, everything remained on one staircase up to the second floor.
The whole structure of the building rests on stone or brick pillars and lattice girders, so that there are no load-bearing walls and the façade practically becomes a "curtain wall". This means that the interior organisation rests on a free plan, which allows Gaudí to break with traditional rectilinear geometry and organise a rich sequence of domestic spaces with curved parameters and polygonal traces, undulating low ceilings, etc. This situation of extraordinary plastic density culminates in the attic, resolved with diaphragmatic parabolic arches, in the manner of mansards with a sinuous profile above which a stepped roof runs, populated by surprising smoke and ventilation chimneys of almost anthropomorphic shapes.
As for the interior decoration, Gaudí designed all the elements of the finishes (doors, elevators, etc.), and Aleix Clapés directed both lobbies to an extensive pictorial decoration, which today is in a very poor state of preservation.
The expressionist nature of Gaudí's works reached its peak in La Pedrera, where it anticipated a series of approaches, which were later quite common, such as the façade with virtually no support function, or the free floor.
The house - actually two flats in the Eixample - was built for Pere Milà i Camps. In 1986, the Pedrera was acquired by a savings bank as the headquarters for its cultural activities, and restoration work began (1988). It is declared World Heritage by the Unesco (1984).
