The Inspiration
The Rooftop Chimneys
On the roof of Palau Güell, Gaudí for the first time turned conventional chimneys into genuine architectural sculptures, foreshadowing a language that would later become essential to his work. The twenty chimneys crowning the palace display different shapes, volumes and crownings, many of them clad in trencadís of ceramic, glass, marble, vitrified stone and earthenware. What was meant to be a simple functional element is thus transformed into a landscape of unusual, polychrome forms, where Gaudí begins to experiment with an idea that would shape much of his architecture: turning necessity into beauty, colour and imagination.
