How many buildings did Antoni Gaudí imagine but never build?? How many projects remained trapped between plans, sketches, and calculations, never making it off paper? For more than a century, these unknown constructions of his universe have been accessible only to architects, researchers, and scholars of his work. As of September 22, however, they can also be visited.
It will be possible thanks to Codi Gaudí, the exhibition with which Grup Mediapro will inaugurate Espai Imagina (Avinguda Diagonal, 177), its new center for immersive experiences in Barcelona. Rather than focusing on the modernist architect's masterpieces, but on how he conceived each of them. The exhibition aims to, then, decode this "code" that connects all his work: the way of designing based on geometry, engineering, and the observation of nature that runs through both his most well-known works —from the Sagrada Família, to La Pedrera or Casa Batlló— and the projects that never came to fruition.
Before becoming part of the exhibition, this code has been the subject of years of research by researchers and specialists. The team from the Gaudí Chair of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) has analyzed original plans, drawings, and calculations to reconstruct, with scientific criteria, projects that never left paper. Based on this work, Mediapro Brands&Xperiences has developed the three-dimensional models that, for the first time, allow these buildings to be virtually explored.
The exhibition opens in a particularly symbolic year: the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death. Codi Gaudí is part of the official program of the Gaudí Year 2026, a commemoration that throughout the year showcases the legacy and relevance of the language created by the architect. But the intention of the exhibition is not only to explore the buildings that were never built, but also to understand how Gaudí thought, designed, and solved his architectural challenges.
And perhaps the best way to decipher this "code" is to see it applied to the projects the architect existed only on paper. From the monumental fountain he imagined for Plaça de Catalunya as an student project to the Hotel Attraction —the 150-meter skyscraper he conceived for New York— or the Paranimf of the University of Barcelona, the exhibition recovers some of his most unknown projects.
The Gaudí that remained on paper
The history of one of the central pieces of the exhibition —and, in a way, also Gaudí's own career— begins long before the Sagrada Família or Casa Batlló. Specifically, in a classroom of the Provincial School of Architecture of Barcelona —today converted into the Barcelona School of Architecture of the UPC—. It was the year 1877 when students were commissioned to design a monumental fountain for Plaça de Catalunya as an academic exercise.
Gaudí, who often defined himself as a bad student, decided to take the project home to finish it during the night. The professor did not look favorably on that decision, but Gaudí replied that in a single night he had advanced more than many of his classmates in two months. Despite the architectural quality of the project, the tribunal finally awarded it a B grade, penalizing him for having taken the work home to finish it during the night.
With nearly fifty meters in height and sixty-six in diameter, the fountain turned water into another architectural element. The large parabolas, which years later would become one of the most characteristic features of his work, not only responded to an aesthetic question: Gaudí had designed them so that visitors could walk under the arches of water without getting wet.
The fountain, however, was never built. Nevertheless, Galdric Santana, director of the Gaudí Chair at UPC and commissioner of the Gaudí Year, joked a few months ago, during the presentation of the exhibition and the commemorative program, that this architectural design "could be a good solution, as it would help to improve the square." For now, however, the work can only be explored virtually in Codi Gaudí thanks to a reconstruction developed from the original plans and research by the Gaudí Chair, which will allow visitors to experience it through virtual reality.
This will be just one of the technologies present in the tour. The exhibition combines virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and large audiovisual installations to allow visitors to walk through buildings designed by the modernist architect that were never built —from the Paranymph to the Hotel Attraction— or enter the workshop where Gaudí shaped his ideas. In fact, through mixed reality, visitors will be able to manipulate the same tools with which the architect designed his buildings and understand, first-hand, the logic behind all his work, that is, the "code" that gives the exhibition its name.
Barcelona's newest immersive attraction
Codi Gaudí is, however, only the first chapter of a much broader project. The exhibition will serve to inaugurate Espai Imagina, the new experience center promoted by Grup Mediapro, which will open its doors on September 22 on the ground floor of its headquarters on Diagonal Avenue, with tickets starting from 16 euros. With more than 1,000 square meters, the new facility is born with the aim of becoming a permanent space dedicated to virtual experiences, with a minimum program of two annual exhibitions —both in-house and international productions—, complemented by parallel activities.
An objective that the space itself summarizes in the motto "there are realities that are better understood when experienced". With this idea, Espai Imagina wants to explore new ways of bringing culture to the public through technology. In addition, for Grup Mediapro, the project also marks a new stage: after years developing experiences and audiovisual content for third parties, the company opens its first permanent venue, from which it also wants to consolidate itself as a new player within Barcelona's immersive offering.
Just a few years ago, immersive experiences occupied an almost testimonial space in Barcelona. Today they are already part of the city's cultural daily life. IDEAL paved the way as the first center dedicated exclusively to this format, and initiatives such as the Casa Amatller or the new Espai Imagina show that this map continues to expand. A rapidly evolving landscape that, for sure, is likely to keep generating new projects that El Radar will be following closely.