Antoni Gaudi, a Spanish architect, is world-renowned despite working on only twenty major projects in his lifetime. He was born 150 years ago and was not initially well-regarded by other architects. However, Gaudi knew how to create distinctive architectural pieces without artistic or technical prejudice. He emphasized the importance of quality in architecture and meticulously considered tastes, materials, procedures, and styles when designing. Gaudi received the official title of architect from Barcelona’s Escuela Technica Superion de Arguitectura.
His first projects included neo-gothic and Arabic influences. During his later years, he reached a point in his career where he conducted many experiments and turned his workshop into a laboratory. He searched for resistant materials such as granite, basalt, and porphyry. He also incorporated mirrors and photography into his designs. His new and original ideas surprised many, and few people understood them. However, they resulted in fantastic and impressive designs, such as the Crypt of the Coloma Guell, the Pedrera, Park Guell, and the Temple of the Sagrada Familia.
Francesc Pujols, a popular philosopher of the time and a friend of Gaudi, stated that In all the works of the great Gaudi, no one liked them, nor was there anyone who dared to say it to his face because he had a style that asserted itself without pleasing.” Gaudi was often criticized for his work on the Sagrada Familia because he took so much time with it. It is still being completed today, 72 years after his death. This obsessive attention to detail and perfection annoyed those wanting to see the Sagrada Familia completed.
The Sagrada Familia was originally designed in a neo-gothic style by architect Francisco de Paula del Villar for the congregation of Saint Joseph. Construction began in 1882, with the first stone laid on March 19th, the day of Saint Joseph. However, Villar resigned a year later due to arguments with the committee. The committee’s director, Joan Martorell Montells, recommended that Gaudi take over the construction. At the time, Gaudi was 31 years old. Unlike Villar’s neo-gothic project, Gaudi envisioned a church with many technical innovations. He superimposed a Latin cross over the initial crypt.
Above it, the main altar is dedicated to the Passion and the Birth, and the principle facade to Glory. Above each facade are 12 towers with 4 designs representing the apostles, and a central one symbolizing Christ, around which 4 more are dedicated to the evangelists and one to the virgin. After Gaudi’s death, he was buried in the crypt where he had spent the last years of his life. The construction of the Sagrada Familia continues thanks to donations from people around the world who want to see the impressive temple completed.
The Colonia Guell is one of Gaudi’s most original and interesting works, and this project remains incomplete. Construction began in 1908, but the project was abandoned when Count Guell died in 1914. The assignment was to create a housing development for a small settlement of workers next to Susebi Guell’s Textile factory in Santa Coloma de Cervello, which is 20km from Barcelona. Gaudi designed a complex settlement with constant references to nature.
Gaudi’s plan was to use organic forms and a studied polychrome so that the dark tones of the trees were transformed into blue and white in order to blend with the sky and clouds. For Gaudi, this special chromatic plan represented nature and also symbolized, at a deeper level, the path of the Christian life. Although there are finished outlines, sketches, and even a model of the construction, Gaudi was only able to build the Crypt, which can be considered as a small fragment of a majestic project.
The crypt is a complex and perfect skeleton made of brick, stone, and blocks of basalt. Its floor plan has the shape of a star, made possible by the inclination of the exterior walls. The crypt is covered by a vault walled up with long, thin bricks on ribs of brick, giving it the appearance of a tortoise shell from the exterior. Inside, it appears more like the enormous twisted skeleton of a snake. Four columns of basalt stand at the entrance. Gaudi remains a strong influence on today’s architecture, and his buildings serve as a reminder of his greatness.
