Welcome to “My Kind of Room,” a new column in which the design world’s most influential players share the one space they return to for inspiration again and again. Here, ELLE DECOR A-List designer Rodney Lawrence shares a surprising work by an architectural icon.
“I first encountered Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Lara-Vinca Masini’s book Art Nouveau when I was around 12 years old. I was so fascinated that I kept the book almost constantly on loan from my local library for two years. Gaudí was a revolutionary. He designed everything in the spaces he created—not just the architecture, but the furnishings, lights, even the door hardware. He was selected in 1904 by a textile industrialist, Josep Batlló y Casanovas, to update his Barcelona home, built in 1877. Gaudí spent the next two years overseeing extensive renovations. Casa Batlló transports you to an alien-yet-familiar world with its abstract references to nature and the sea, which also influence my work. This space taught me the importance of creating interior architecture that can stand alone without anything else in it.”
This story originally appeared in the Summer 2023 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
