Tour groups regularly stream past her door, which means Ana Viladomiu can no longer put the trash out while still wearing her PJs. The Guardian profiles the 70-year-old writer, one of two final long-term residents of Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila in Barcelona, Spain, a UNESCO-listed landmark also known as La Pedrera. Viladomiu has lived in the airy, curving apartment on the nation's priciest street since 1988 under a rare, fixed-rent contract that lets her stay until her death, paying far below market rate while about a million tourists a year circulate around her. "I'm used to all the visitors," she says. "It's a World Heritage Site, but it's my home and has been for almost 40 years."
Viladomiu describes raising her daughters (now both architects) inside Gaudi's sculpted walls, the oddity of being treated as part of the attraction, and why she refuses to change even the old brass light switches, despite the surprising fact that there are apparently no rules about what she can do with the place. The story traces the building's journey, from being derided for looking like part of a quarry to its current status as a cultural icon, and follows Viladomiu's effort to capture its past tenants and famous guests—including fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier—in her book, The Last Tenant. As for the one other resident, who lives on the other side of the structure, Viladomiu says, "We don't share a lobby, elevator, or staircase; we only see each other when we take our dogs for walks." For more, read the full article here, or a 2019 New York Times piece on Viladomiu's residency.
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