Kengo Kuma creates installation with chains on the staircase of Gaudí's Casa Batlló

As part of the new Casa Batlló Experience , Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was asked to design an emergency staircase dressed in 164,000 meters of aluminum chain that catches the light like fishing nets. According to the architect, the chains play with the light through the brightness, silhouettes and shadows created by its undulating shape. The design draws inspiration from Casa Batlló itself, the iconic modernist building designed by Antoni Gaudí located in Barcelona, more specifically the residence's courtyard of lights. Thus, the installation proposes a gradation of tones , starting lighter at the top, at the level of the roof, and darkening to the lower level until reaching black tones. The staircase appears to be suspended in the air and creates an incredible passage effect , designed to further enrich the experience of visitors to the iconic building.

Kuma explains: "we imagined this space covered in aluminum curtains , which with their materiality capture the light as if they were fishing nets and show us all its forms: luminosity, silhouettes, shadows ; thus dispensing with the use of any other material and erasing this blind box and its ladder using only chains." The project also faced the challenge of finding a solution to neutralize the sound of the chains . To this end, Montblanc’s Development and Innovation Department created innovative acoustic panels that cover the ceiling above the chains and neutralize the noise caused by their movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUfIAXV317E Source: Designboom, Archello and Arquitectura Viva