<\/p>\n
Commissioned by M\u00e1ximo D\u00edaz de Quijano, a lawyer who made his fortune in America, this original work by Gaud\u00ed was influenced by Oriental art and Arab architecture<\/strong>, and it anticipates some of the construction and decorative solutions that the Catalan architect would employ in years to come.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n More commonly known as El Capricho or The Caprice, Villa Quijano is one of the most emblematic buildings in Comillas<\/strong>, a Cantabrian coastal resort fifty kilometres to the west of Santander. In the 19th century Comilla\u2019s most illustrious figure was Antonio L\u00f3pez y L\u00f3pez (1817-1883), an entrepreneur that emigrated to Cuba at the age of fourteen and who, on his return, founded a shipping company, a bank and a tobacco company, activities that made him one of Spain\u2019s wealthiest businessmen and earned him the title of Marquis of Comillas, an honour created expressly for him by King Alfonso XII.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite living in Barcelona, Antonio L\u00f3pez held Comillas so dear to his heart that he was behind the construction of several monumental buildings in the town such as the Pontifical University and the Sobrellano Palace (designed by Catalan historicist architect Joan Martorell), and the Seminario Mayor (work of distinguished Catalan designer Llu\u00eds Dom\u00e8nech i Montaner), transforming Comillas into a popular and chic destination for the aristocracy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1883, M\u00e1ximo D\u00edaz de Quijano<\/strong>, the Marquis\u2019 wife\u2019s brother-in-law, who had also made his fortune in Cuba, decided to build a summer home in the gardens adjoining the Sobrellano Palace<\/strong>, enthused by this atmosphere of change in Comillas which was partly due to the Spanish royal family spending their summer holidays there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In order to carry out the project he was recommended the young Antoni Gaud\u00ed, Martorell\u2019s disciple and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of businessman Eusebi G\u00fcell, Antoni L\u00f3pez\u2019s son-in-law. However, the architect and the property developer never met as Gaud\u00ed actually worked on the villa\u2019s design from Barcelona, leaving the supervision of the work to his colleague Crist\u00f3bal Cascante.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Comillas\u2019 new summer residences were constructed with the additional purpose to show off their owners\u2019 wealth and social standing<\/strong>. The Caprice is a clear example of this, with a lively and original look.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The north fa\u00e7ade, which is parallel to the walkway that leads to Sobrellano Palace, holds the main entrance (which stems from a columned portico that supports the look-out tower or belvedere) and the public areas of the house: the visitors\u2019 room, the living room and the dining room.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite the fact that D\u00edaz de Quijano claimed he wanted a \u201csmall, but comfortable house\u201d, it is evident that the organization and, above all, the decoration of the main fa\u00e7ade was designed to impress those who visited Villa Quijano.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his general plan for the construction of the Caprice, Antoni Gaud\u00ed decided the south-facing fa\u00e7ade would be more appropriate for the developer\u2019s private activities and therefore incorporated rooms in this wing such as the master bedroom, the game room-guest room and the greenhouse, which takes up a large part of the mentioned fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Struck by the midday sun and sheltered from the cold, damp, north-winds thanks to the uneven land and the structural barrier created by the house, the greenhouse was rather like a kind of thermal regulator for the rest of the rooms as in the evening it would release all the heat it had accumulated during the sunny hours. Likewise, the Caprice’s greenhouse adapted to the \u2018U\u2019 shape of the property, leaving a wide roofed corridor that carried out the function of the main hallway of the house.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [metaslider id=1275]<\/p>\n Despite some decisions that indicate the genius of its creator, such as the distribution of the rooms around the greenhouse, the Villa Quijano has nonetheless quite a traditional organisation<\/strong>, based on the juxtaposition of rooms coming off a corridor and far removed from the innovative solutions that would characterize Gaud\u00ed’s later works.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Caprice is comprised of three floors, each one of them with different functions: the semi-basement and the attic were dedicated to the service areas where the servants carried out their numerous tasks, whilst the main floor, where the developer would reside, was found at an intermediate level, a location that led Gaud\u00ed to devise a system that would reduce transit between floors<\/strong>, with two discreet stairwells that were almost hidden away and which were surprisingly narrow for such an aristocratic residence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Caprice was one of the Gaud\u00ed’s first works<\/strong>, a display of his boundless imagination. Located in Comillas, on the north Spanish coast, this unique building was designed influenced by Oriental and Arabian art<\/strong>, styles that marked Gaud\u00ed’s early period.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This book<\/a> with more than 180 photographs and 3D illustrations<\/strong>, show in detail this unique building. It covers the structure of the Caprice as well as the original decorative details of its rooms.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dosde<\/a> has wanted to delve into this key work in Gaud\u00ed’s curriculum, given that many of its architectonic solutions would be applied in later projects.<\/p>\nThe history of Gaud\u00ed’s Caprice<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/qa-dosde.qamoon.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/el-capricho-gaudi-villa-quijano-comillas-fachada-exterior.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/qa-dosde.qamoon.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Boton-descubrir-mas-EN.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe public side of the house<\/h2>\n
![\"Public](\"https:\/\/qa-dosde.qamoon.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/el-capricho-gaudi-villa-quijano-comillas-lateral-exterior.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe private side of the house<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/qa-dosde.qamoon.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/invernadero-el-capricho-gaudi-villa-quijano-comillas-fachada-interior.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe distribution of the rooms of the Caprice<\/h2>\n
The book for a complete tour around the Caprice<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/qa-dosde.qamoon.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cover-back-the-caprice-villa-quijano-english-book-dosde-publishing_978-84-96783-76-8_20-010-01_B11.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is Gaud\u00ed’s Caprice? The Caprice of Comillas is the name that the Villa Quijano is most well known by, a house constructed between 1883 and 1885 by architect Antoni Gaud\u00ed in the locality of Comillas, in the north of Spain. He was one of the most important architects of modernisme. Commissioned by M\u00e1ximo … Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n