The Gaudí Chair was established by ministerial decree on March the 3rd 1956 to be attached to the School of Architecture in Barcelona. The first Chair-man was Professor Joan F. Ràfols i Fontanals, -biographer and specialist in Antoni Gaudí- until 1960, when the academic direction of the Chair was assumed by Professor and Architect Josep Mª Sostres. In 1968 Professor Joan Bassegoda Nonell assumed the leadership until his formal retirement in 2000. From this date he got the title of Curator of the Gaudí Chair, until the end of 2008.

The Chair settled in 1968 in the old stables of the Finca Güell in the district of Pedralbes and remained there until 2008. After a few years at the Scientific Park of the University of Barcelona, the gaudí Chair was finally returned in March 2011 to the Barcelona School of Architecture.

The batches are varied and of remarkable value: the documentary batches are composed by the photographic archive, the original Gaudí drawings and a big amount of investigations. As well, the Chair counts on a specialized library and several items in furniture and decorative arts, available to organizations and institutions for exhibition and dissemination of the Antoni Gaudi’s work.

The Gaudí Chair wants to maintain its founding goal as a center for documentation and research on the work of Antonio Gaudi and his architectural and cultural environment of the early twentieth century.