Casa Batlló, Antoni Gaudí’s inventive art nouveau house in Barcelona, has opened a new contemporary art gallery to coincide with the centenary of the iconic Catalan architect’s death – and the Unesco-UIA designation of Barcelona as the World Capital of Architecture 2026.
The 230 sq m exhibition space, Casa Batlló Contemporary, is designed by emerging local architecture and design studio Mesura. It is located on the building’s second floor, within rooms previously inaccessible to the public.
Step inside the new Casa Batlló Contemporary
Designed by Gaudí between 1904 and 1906 as a remodel of an 1877 building, Casa Batlló is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Barcelona’s biggest tourist destinations, having opened for public tours in 2002. It is remarkable for its organic, flowing, and decorative architecture, known as ‘modernisme’ – a Catalan version of art nouveau.
Major refurbishments of the building took place in the 1970s and 1990s, but Gaudí’s unique vision has remained throughout the years, with preservation and restoration efforts ongoing.
The new gallery occupies space historically used as residential apartments and later as a conservation and maintenance workshop. Now, it is a place for the public to engage with contemporary art in a storied architectural landmark. The space will host two exhibitions per year, each seeking to explore Gaudí’s vision through new thinking and creativity.
Maria Bernat, director of Casa Batlló Contemporary, explains that the project ‘required an intervention that could engage the present while respecting the building’s legacy’. She believes Mesura’s design honours Gaudí’s spirit of experimentation, craftsmanship and material innovation while having its own ‘distinct character’.
Mesura was careful to balance the desire for creative contemporary architecture with the need for historic sensitivity. ‘Our approach was not about adding, but about listening,’ explains Carlos Dimas, partner at Mesura. ‘We understood the project as a dialogue with Gaudí’s work rather than an imposition upon it.’ The team embraced Gaudí’s guiding philosophy of architecture as a living organism, deeply connected to nature.
The primary gesture in the space is a rippling, metallic ceiling, inspired by a drop of water falling onto a calm surface. It references the Mediterranean Sea that Barcelona faces, and is reflective of the wavy lines so central to Gaudí’s nature-inspired geometry. Metal was chosen for the way it reflects light and evokes water, behaving ‘almost like a liquid surface, constantly changing’, says Dimas.
To create the ceiling, Mesura collaborated with Oxido Studio – a local specialist in engineering, craftsmanship and digital production. Together, they adapted an industrial process commonly used in the automotive sector, impulsion-based metal-forming, using a robotic arm to mould 1.2mm-thick aluminium sheets into undulating shapes based on the form of concentric ripples.
The topography also strengthens the lightweight material: ‘On their own, the metal sheets would lack rigidity,’ says Dimas. ‘But by introducing this rippled, three-dimensional geometry, the surface gains structural strength. The curvature and relief stiffen the metal, allowing the ceiling to support itself without heavy secondary frameworks.’
The other new element in the space is a floor made from microcement, which when completed in May 2026 will be green, picking up on hues in the mosaic-covered façade and deepening the connection to nature. Its smooth, calm surface is designed as a counterpoint to the dynamic ceiling above.
Mesura collaborated with the Casa Batlló team to research the house and its architecture – including Gaudí’s use of materials and colour. The in-house restoration team, led by architect Xavier Villanueva, carefully recovered and restored original elements of the space, including woodwork and windows.
Intervening in Gaudí’s masterpiece was ‘both a privilege and a responsibility’, says Dimas. ‘Gaudí is not only a reference within our profession; he is a cultural figure who transcends architecture and forms part of our collective identity [in Barcelona]. His work has shaped the soul and imagination of the city.’
Casa Batlló ‘carries an extraordinary historical and symbolic weight’, he adds, ‘and working within it requires an understanding that the building itself must always remain the protagonist’.
The refinement of Mesura’s architectural intervention reflects this thinking, but was also intended to leave space for the exhibition works to communicate with the public. The gallery’s inaugural show is ‘Beyond the Façade’ (31 January – 17 May 2026) by London-based Matt Clark, founder of United Visual Artists; it brings together light studies, projections and kinetic sculpture.
The exhibition expands upon an audiovisual projection-mapping artwork that Clark has produced for the building’s façade, Hidden Order (being shown on 31 January and 1 February). Continuing a series of artistic façade mappings bringing Casa Batlló’s exterior to life for the public, this projected work explores the idea of the mysterious order within nature that influenced Gaudí; a deep logic beneath the chaos.