The industrialist Josep Batlló i Casanovas commissioned Antoni Gaudí to renovate the house he owned in Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia. Gaudí worked on the project between 1904 and 1906 and radically changed the façade, the entrance hall, light well and main floor, for which he also designed the furniture. He substituted the façade's primitive brickwork wall with a daring Montjüic stone structure over which he designed an elaborate multicoloured ceramic tile wall crowned by a very pronounced roof hiding two attics.

The building was bought in 1954 by an insurance company that in turn sold it to the Bernat family in 1994. Currently, the company Casa Batlló S.L. manages the building's different spaces and areas. Visits are allowed during its long opening hours and its most representative areas and spaces are hired out for diverse social events. The building was restored by the architectural firm of Josep Maria Botey i Associats S.L. and later by Joan Bassegoda.