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Palau Güell displays 150 Antoni Gaudí windows and reveals his use of light until October
Barcelona adds a new cultural plan that changes how its buildings are seen: Palau Güell hosts an exhibition centred on more than 150 windows designed by Antoni Gaudí. Available until 25 October, it focuses on how light affects the experience of those moving around the city.
Under the title Gaudí: Windows to the Future, the exhibition occupies the palace attic and examines for the first time the structural and creative role of openings in his architecture. The project brings together experts and students from Tokyo and Barcelona, in collaboration with the Japanese firm YKK AP.
The tour makes it possible to understand how Gaudí turned windows into leading elements. In the building itself, constructed between 1886 and 1890, the almost 80 openings surrounding the façade stand out. The exhibition includes models of works such as Casa Batlló, La Pedrera and Casa Vicens, as well as videos, reproductions and an interactive wall.
Among the most striking pieces are stained-glass windows inspired by Sagrada Família and Catedral de Mallorca, alongside original elements such as handles and grilles. Curator Ayano Kikuchi thus brings together years of study into how Gaudí combined technique, aesthetics and comfort in every detail.
Beyond the visual, the exhibition presents a key idea: for Gaudí, windows were not merely openings, but tools for connecting inside and outside, regulating temperature and making use of natural light. An approach now also interpreted as ahead of its time in terms of sustainability.
Palau Güell, one of the most representative works of Modernism, thus reinforces its role as an active cultural space in central Barcelona. The exhibition turns an ordinary visit into a different experience: looking upwards and understanding how an apparently simple detail can completely change the way a city is inhabited.