Historically occupied by residential apartments and later used as a conservation and maintenance workshop, Casa Batlló’s second floor will, for the first time, open to the public as a gallery dedicated to contemporary art.
It will host two contemporary art exhibitions per year establishing itself as a new cultural hub in Barcelona. The new space will be accessible to the public either as part of the full Casa Batlló visitor experience or with a standalone ticket to the space.
Maria Bernat, Director of Casa Batlló Contemporary says:
“Casa Batlló Contemporary aims to foster a dialogue between the past and future, situating Antoni Gaudí’s legacy within a contemporary framework. Through art and architecture, it explores his radical vision with present-day thinking, remaining faithful to his spirit of innovation and disruption while engaging with Barcelona’s dynamic artistic landscape.”
Beyond the Façade: The Opening Exhibition
The gallery will debut with Beyond the Façade, an exhibition by United Visual Artists the London-based art practice founded by Matt Clark. Their work, blending art, architecture, and technology, has been presented at institutions including the Royal Academy of Arts in London, YCAM in Tokyo, and the Sydney Biennale.
For the exhibition, United Visual Artists will explore life’s myriad cycles through light and movement, inviting visitors to glimpse themselves within the artwork. Matt Clark has also been selected as the artist for Casa Batlló’s 2026 Mapping, for which he will present a new piece for the façade, conceived as a prologue to the exhibition.
Architectural Dialogue with Gaudí
The redesign of the second-floor space into a new gallery, directed by Mesura, preserves the building’s essence while articulating a contemporary architectural language.
It has been restored carefully preserving its original features—most notably the woodwork and stained glass—while being reimagined as a meeting point between architectural memory and contemporary artistic creation.
The space’s newest intervention is a curved metal ceiling, screen-printed with concentric ripples evoking a drop of water on a calm lake. Produced using robotic technology, it bestows the space with a distinct identity while fulfilling structural requirements.
“Intervening in a Gaudí building is both a dream and an enormous responsibility. Our goal was to create an echo of his work, a whisper that adds to his universe without altering it,” explains Carlos Dimas, partner at Mesura.
A Commitment to 21st-Century Heritage
For Casa Batlló, the inauguration of this new gallery reaffirms its dual commitment to rigorous conservation and cultural innovation.
“We aspire for Casa Batlló to remain a cultural beacon both locally and globally, a reference for how living heritage can evolve with purpose, sensitivity, and innovation. Opening this space in the centenary of Gaudí’s death and in the framework of Barcelona as World Capital of Architecture represents a significant milestone for the city, enriching its cultural landscape” says Gary Gautier, General Director of Casa Batlló.
In this way, Casa Batlló asserts its identity as 21st-century heritage: radical and avant-garde, able to reinterpret its own history through contemporary art and architecture while remaining true to its essence.
The project originates from a proposal launched in 2015 within the framework of Casa Batlló’s Master Plan—a strategic management tool that sets the guiding principles for its conservation, use, and dissemination, and is endorsed by local institutions, the Ministry of Culture, and UNESCO.
“Something we envisioned 10 years ago will soon become a reality: reviving a historic space, opening it to the city, and giving it a new purpose that continues to expand Gaudí’s legacy,” says Xavier Villanueva, Chief Architect of Casa Batlló.
About Casa Batlló Contemporary
Casa Batlló Contemporary is the house’s artistic program, which engages innovative and interdisciplinary artists to expand their artistic practice by creating new work inspired by Gaudí’s radical legacy. Rooted in creative freedom, experimentation, and immersion, the initiative echoes the dynamism of Barcelona’s avant-garde cultural scene.
Since 2021, Casa Batlló Contemporary has commissioned works by internationally renowned artists such as Refik Anadol, Sofía Crespo, and Quayola, who have created mappings on the façade of Casa Batlló and exhibited within the monument.
Casa Batlló works closely with artists, offering its various spaces as a canvas, along with accessto its private archives and institutional resources.
About Mesura
Mesura is an architecture and design firm founded in 2010 in Barcelona. Since then, it has been offering creative and sustainable solutions, rethinking traditional ways of understanding architecture.
The studio was created by five partners after winning the prestigious European Urban Planning Award (Europan). These fifteen years have been a learning process to decipher the complexity of each challenge until reaching its conceptual essence.
Mesura explores a wide variety of disciplines (architecture, interior design, furniture design, urban planning, among others) that allow new ideas to come to life, always with dedication and a firm commitment to excellence.
The transdisciplinary and constantly evolving process conceives each project as open research, where the journey is as valuable as the final result.
Practical Information
- Opening: January 31th 2026
- First Exhibition: Beyond the Façade by United Visual Artists (Matt Clark)
- Access: Included in the cultural visit or available with a standalone ticket
- Frequency: Two exhibitions per year
- More information about Casa Batlló Contemporary