Could Antoni Gaudi have been a pioneering therapist? New research suggests that all the way back in 1914, the Spanish architect was working with the patients of a mental illness hospital on creating prototypes for buildings. Architect David Agulló and geologist Daniel Barbé claim that a bench at the Sant Boi hospital made in 1912 in Gaudi's signature broken-tile Art Nouveau style is not a badly-faked copy, as was previously thought, but a project directed by Gaudi and made by patients.

Barcelona is well known as the epicenter of Gaudi architecture — just ask Woody Allen, whose film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" swept over the curved lines and particolored surfaces of the architect's designs. But the Sant Boi bench actually predates the city's iconic Park Güell benches (as featured in the film) by two years, reports the Guardian.

The hypothesis that patients worked with Gaudi to create the benches in an early version of art therapy is further supported by the hospital's background. The architect's patron, Eusebi Güell, was "closely associated with the management of the hospital." Sant Boi's founder, Spanish doctor Antoni Pujadas, worked to treat mental illness as legitimate disease rather than a religious phenomenon, and was an early advocate of art-based ergotherapy, which "treats illness through physical activity." 

The American Art Therapy Association describes the occupation as "based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight." In that case, Gaudi's bench-building would fit right in with the modern idea of using creativity to treat patients' problems — an approach much in vogue these days.