Two-seat sofa, Antoni Gaudí, 1904-1906. Carved ash wood, 104.5 x 167 x 75.5 cm. MNAC - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Barcelona.
Antoni Gaudí, one of the world’s most outstanding architects at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, was also a bold designer of furniture, ironwork and other decorative elements intended for his buildings. The architect created an unprecedented type of chair for Casa Batlló, on Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia, using rounded forms to adjust the furniture to the human body and do away with all the unnecessary upholstery and ornamentation of the time, offering the user a bare surface.
Gaudí was a pioneer in the ergonomic approach to design, rejecting academic dictates and anticipating industrial design, along with other architects of his generation.
