Kengo Kuma’s intervention at Casa Batlló in Barcelona reimagines an emergency stairwell as an ethereal exploration of light, paying homage to Gaudí’s genius through shimmering, reflective abstraction.
Rather than imposing a competing materiality, Kuma distills the essence of Gaudí’s vision into a poetic abstraction of light. The installation—delicately wrapped in cascading aluminum chain curtains—turns the stairwell into an ephemeral void, dissolving the boundaries between enclosure and illumination.
This intervention operates as a conceptual counterpoint to the central courtyard’s iconic blue gradient, which masterfully orchestrates daylight throughout the house. Where Gaudí layered color to modulate natural light, Kuma achieves a similar effect through texture and reflection. The metallic curtains, shimmering like nets catching light, transform the stairwell into a vessel for spectral movement—where shadows stretch and contract, light fragments into glimmers, and the perception of space becomes fluid.
Beyond its visual impact, Kuma’s stairwell is an experiential narrative that parallels Gaudí’s own lexicon of light. The aluminum subtly shifts in tone as visitors descend, from brilliant silver at the rooftop to near-black at the depths of the former coal cellar—an inverse echo of the courtyard’s chromatic descent. In doing so, the stairwell becomes a silent conduit for Casa Batlló’s conceptual essence: a continuous, immersive meditation on light, form, and perception.
