Set in the middleof a city block on Barcelona's principal residential street, this building consists of four upper floors and an attic in addition to the ground floor and main floor.
There are two key facts to be borne in mind in considering this scheme: first, that Josep Puigii Cadafalch had completed his Casa Ametller, directly adjacent to Gaudi's building, in 1900; and second, that Gaudi's Batlo house was a conversion to a typical house in Barcelona's "Ensanche", as laid out by Cerda.
Gaudi is conscious throughout of these two circumstances, to such an extent that we only have to look at the end result to recognize how far the fact of working next door to the Casa Ametller determinded his project. The stepped parapet is extremely important in conditioning the sequence which his house establishes with its neighbour. Gaudi studied the relationship between the two buildings in great detail, and the outcome is apparent in the form of the cylindrical turrt crowned by the four-armed cross, the symbol of his architecture, which perfectly regulates and compensates the change in height, as well as surprising us with the curving lines of the crown, with its scala-like finish of tiles, rising and falling, form and texture creating a harmonius whole. The trencadis on the facade is smoothly undulating and outstanding in its use of colour, undoubtedly the work oj Josep Maria Jujol, a perfect support for the curving crown; of note too are the wrought iron balconies whose form compensates and continues the volumes of the contious gallery on the main floor. It is here that Gaudi has intervened mos tellingly. The separate entrance, customar on the main floor of such houses, leads us in to an almost magical space in which the hot stucco-work, the woodwork, the furniture and the ceilings all combin in one smoothing movement. The entire space was designed by Gaudi.
The large interior space housing the communal stairs and accomodating the two light wells which communicate with each other by way of the openings on the landings has some of the qualities of a second fecade; almost of another house. The ceramic tiling, in which the blue ceepens in intensityas it nears the top of the stairwell, compensating for the light being stronger as it enters through the large skylight marking a longitudinal axis -a section of the house- is almost white at the point where these light wells reach ground level, gives a graduation to the whole which contributes to the almost uniform diffusion of the light, and as a result makes it easier to appreciate the space, almost like a lined coffer, and its absolute coherent and rational execution.
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