The Invisible Garden at the Parc Sanitari de Sant Joan de Déu, designed by Antoni Gaudí

Following intensive research and the presentation of a doctoral thesis by David Agulló, supervised by Juan José Lahuerta, the leading authority on Gaudí, and awarded cum laude, it can be stated that the Invisible Garden at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu was a space for architectural experimentation by Antoni Gaudí. The research shows that this space was the workshop where Gaudí articulated the formal break and stylistic change that he made between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, committing himself to expressionist naturalism and a more organic architecture.

During the period when the Invisible Garden was being built, the former Sant Boi Mental Hospital offered workshops to mental patients to teach them the trade of bricklaying. The patients’ participation in the modernist garden can be seen in the simpler interpretations, sometimes naive in their language, which coexist with others of great structural complexity and artistic quality. There are also neglected architectural features similar or identical to various parts of Gaudí’s works.

The Parc Sanitari de Sant Joan de Déu is currently promoting the restoration of the complex, with completion scheduled for 2030. So far, restoration work has been carried out on the benches, which feature complex and sophisticated mosaic combinations alongside very simple sides made of stones and pieces of bottles that appear to have been made by patients. These benches were built at the same time as those in Park Güell, although those in the Invisible Garden were completed two years earlier, in 1912.

The Glòria Soler Foundation supported the research that has confirmed the authorship of the complex and reinforced the commitment to bring art to the most vulnerable people, especially those suffering from mental illness.

Jardí Invisible Web