Antoni Gaudí i Cornet created a style of architecture so unique that it is difficult to imitate. In doing so, he brought attention not only to Spain but also to his native region of Catalonia. Most often described as blending Art Nouveau with neo-Gothic, the two main architectural movements of his day, his architecture is more accurately described as living sculpture. Using the parabola and motifs found in nature, Gaudí designed using scale models as well as architectural drawings and plans. Gaudí incorporated elements of art—color, form, and texture—into his architecture. His work is known for its use of ornate ironwork, wide parabolic arches, and symmetrical designs emphasizing open interior space. His greatest achievement was the development of the “slanted” column to replace the flying buttresses used in Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals. His columns lean at a slight angle and branch at the top to further support the ceiling stresses of the tall and open buildings that he created.
Gaudí was born in Reus, Spain on 25 June 1852. He was plagued by rheumatic ailments from an early age. Unable to play with other children, he spent time observing the world around him and drawing what he saw. Perhaps it was during this time that he developed his keen observation of the elements in nature that would influence his architectural designs.
Gaudí first showed an interest in architecture and design while attending secondary school in 1867. With the help of two friends, he drew up plans and a proposal for the restoration of the monastery of Poblet, which at the time was abandoned and in ruins. César Martinell, in "Gaudí: His Life, His Theories, His Work," describes the fascination that the ruins had on the youth and its lifelong influence on his vocation: “The crumbling vaults and arches revealed in skeletal form the mechanics of architectural structure which he had never seen so explicitly in well-preserved buildings.”
In 1873, at the age of 17, Gaudí enrolled in the Provincial School of Architecture in Barcelona. To supplement the meager financial assistance that his family was able to offer, he worked as a draftsman for a number of architects in Barcelona. Perhaps it was this practical, hands-on learning that saved him, for his enthusiasm for his studies was erratic. His work for at least one project, that of a water depository, led to his passing his class in resistance materials. The professor, a friend of the architect, learned of the unique solution that Gaudí had suggested and allowed those results, along with a cursory exam, to provide Gaudí's grade for the class.
“He does not seem to have been a particularly good student, but good enough to acquire solid training in the fundamental principles of architecture,” wrote Rainer Zerbst in "Gaudí—A Life Devoted to Architecture." Zerbst describes how Gaudí was given the mark of “outstanding” on a draft for a cemetery gate: in order to give his design-drawing more ‘atmosphere,’ he had started by drawing a hearse and, apparently, rendered a much more precise drawing of this carriage than of the subject matter at hand.
Although Gaudí completed his studies in the proper manner, acquiring the title of Architect in Madrid in March 1878, "he soon parted ways with the prevailing rules of architecture,” according to Zerbst.
As a full-fledged architect, Gaudí was in his element. From his first commission, that of a decorative lamppost for the city of Barcelona, he demonstrated a zeal and precision that he never came close to as a student. He presented the municipal board with sketches, a watercolor rendering, and a detailed study for the project, which included a budget, the placement of the fixtures, and the details of their construction. Although never fully compensated for this project, “his professional dignity insisted that the first of his projects to be put on public view, small as it was, should be executed with the greatest possible perfection without regard for expenditure of effort or for personal profit,” according to Martinell.
Gaudí had established the first of his “trademark” designs: ornate ironwork with motifs from nature. This design would be repeated and developed further throughout his career. He blended ornate ironwork with unplastered brick, patterned with brightly colored ceramic tile in two private homes that he designed during the 1880s. The result was reminiscent of Arabian architecture.
This mixture of materials continued with Casa Vicens (1883—85) for Don Manuel Vicens in Barcelona. The exterior included the trademark ornate ironwork. The interior of the building combined cheap stone, or rubble, with ornamental ceramic tiles. The result pointed to a Moorish influence on the young architect. “The costs nearly drove Gaudí's sponsor to the brink of bankruptcy,” wrote Zerbst. “However, he was richly compensated in years to come: Gaudí’s use of ceramic tiles initiated a veritable wave of fashion in Catalonia, and Vicens manufactured large quantities of these tiles.”
The use of two wide parabolic arches dominates the facade of the Palacio Guell (1885-89), a villa designed for Count Eusebi Guell, a textile manufacturer and leader in the Catalan new industrial development. The rooftop formed a sculptural composition of chimney pots and ventilators. The main feature of the interior was the central domed hall, which rose to the top of the building. The hall was lit by the cupola, lined with hexagonal tiles and numerous small openings that punctuated the dome like stars. The design for the stables at Palacio Guell demonstrates Gaudi’s structural independence. He used an elaborate vaulting system sectioned off with arches formed by mushroom columns. The horses descended into the stables using a spiral ramp that allowed an open, flowing space at the ground level.
As Gaudi took on new commissions, his style grew more expressive, combining design with recent influences on the architect—from art and the latest architectural fad to the books that he read in his leisure. He sought to create what he termed “Mediterranean Gothic" from the classic elements of Greek architecture, the engineering of Gothic cathedrals, and the decorative nature motifs of the Romantic movement. He worked to adapt architecture to the climate of the Mediterranean, allowing light and air a freer reign in the finished structure.
Each design also gave Gaudi an opportunity to find solutions for stress support problems that had impeded architects for centuries and that had intrigued him since his adolescence. He studied the angles and curves of natural structures, such as trees, instead of the geometry of rectangles and circles. He took his structures from nature, studying what forms allow trees and humans to grow and stay upright,” said Joan Bassegoda, a Catalan professor, in the 28 January 1991 Time magazine article, “Heresy or Homage in Barcelona?” Using the helicoids, hyperboloids, and paraboloids that he noted in nature, he experimented on scale models, performing calculations to properly engineer columns, vaults, and arches that would allow a taller ceiling height with a more open floor area.
In the Episcopal Palace (1887-94) at Astorga, Gaudi developed a symmetrical design emphasizing open interior space. The rooms of each floor surround a vertical central open space. In the College of Santa Teresa de Jesús (1889-94) in Barcelona, the exterior walls feature patterned rubble, brick, and terra-cotta. The interior demonstrates an exercise in structural precision—narrow parabolic arches of plaster on brick piers.
In Casa Milà, the elevation appears to be in constant motion. Deep-cut, overlapping ledges bring to mind an influence of ocean waves and cliffs. The building is locally known as “La Pedrera” (the quarry). William J. R. Curtis describes the building in "Modern Architecture since 1900": “The contrived textures of the ledges give the impression that these forms have come about over the years through a process of erosion.”
Park Güell, which Gaudi began in 1900, culminates his experimentation with the slanted column. In this 38-acre exercise in landscape architecture, he studied the topography and struggled to retain the original structure of the landscape. The concept was based on the English country garden suburb, and his original design called for homes to be built surrounding the park, which never came to fruition.
“The richness of Gaudi’s art lies in the reconciliation of the fantastic and the practical, the subjective and the scientific, the spiritual and the material. His forms were never arbitrary but rooted in structural principles and in an elaborate private world of social and emblematic meanings,” according to Curtis.
To prevent destruction of the natural landscape, Gaudi carefully selected materials to blend in with the natural elements. Rough stone or warped surfaces built of brick were decorated with sand broken-glass mosaics. Park Güell creates a surrealistic atmosphere in an intricate system of roads, footpaths, and curving retaining walls. Road overpasses are supported with massive tilted columns, as are the covered areas and open-air theater stage, which doubles as the roof of the marketplace.
Gaudi's greatest architectural influence and most famous project is the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, better known as the Church of the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi took the commission in 1883, taking over from the original architect, Francisco de Paula del Villar, for whom he had worked while a student. This project shows the phases of Gaudi's continuing stylistic development. The mosaic decoration, elaborate finials of the spires, and ornamental nature-motif decorations suggest Art Nouveau influences, but neo-Gothic, Moorish, and primitive African influences are also evident.
By 1908, Gaudi relied more on three-dimensional models for designing elements in the Church of the Sagrada Familia and less frequently on design drawings. He performed exact calculations to determine loads and stresses on the “tilted” columns that he was developing for the church and used models with weighted wires to verify his calculations. The columns slanted slightly and branched at the top like trees. Elaborating on the tilted columns used in Park Güell, Gaudi achieved a height in the nave of the Sagrada Familia of 325 feet (100 meters). "He treated the piers as tree-trunks, tilting them inwards so as to counteract the thrust of the vault without recourse to any props or flying buttresses, which he dismissed as ‘crutches',” describes David Watkin in "A History of Western Architecture." Sweeney and Sert explain Gaudi’s theory: “Each branch of the ‘tree-column’ is directed towards the center of gravity of the section of the vault that it is supposed to carry. Each of these sections of the vaults is reinforced by steel rods, their shapes are hyperboloids and hyperbolic paraboloids.
Gaudi worked on this project intermittently for 31 years and exclusively for the last 12 years of his life. Even after 43 years of design and construction, the Sagrada Familia was not yet completed when Gaudi died in 1926. On 7 June 1926, he was hit by a trolley car while crossing the street. He died on 10 June 1926. The funeral procession stretched half a mile as it wound from the hospital to the crypt of the Sagrada Familia, the final resting place for Spain's most renowned architect.
Lisa A. Wroate
Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.2 (G-O). Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005. |
