Architectural history is full of colorful characters. Spend a day touring historical sites in Chicago and you’ll find yourself reading about the influences of Burnham and Root. Spend an afternoon viewing monuments in Rome and you will hear how Michelangelo and Bernini shaped the city. Walk the streets of Barcelona for five minutes and you’ll find yourself inundated with the influences of Antoni Gaudí.

 

Few architects have achieved the international status of Antoni Gaudí. He produced some of the most unique and controversial buildings in the Art Nouveau movement. A genius before his time, Gaudí’s work was often the target of ridicule by even the progressive artists of his era. His flamboyant designs drew praise and his deep religious conservatism created rifts between him and his critics. Reviled by some but respected by all, he was an architect, artist, catholic, patriot, and ecologist all rolled into one.

 

Antoni Gaudí’s birth on June 25, 1852, carried tragic undertones that would permeate his life. Born a weak baby, Gaudí fought lung infections and eventually developed rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that would dramatically influence his designs later in life. Stricken with painful arthritis, Gaudí would often have to miss school. Unable to partake in many of the activities enjoyed by young boys, Gaudí spent much of his time observing nature. He became transfixed with the forms that nature created, the ways in which animals moved, and how the sun reflected off of the local stones. Gaudí was once quoted as saying “Those who look for the laws of nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the Creator.” Gaudí would call upon these early observations throughout his career.

 

Gaudí was also exposed to the principles of creating three-dimensional forms at an early age. Descended from a long line for copper smiths, he would spend hours watching his father work and rework copper to create beautiful vessels. This had a profound impact on Gaudí’s design process. Due to his arthritis, Gaudí spent immense amounts of time exploring his designs through three-dimensional models rather than through two-dimensional drawings. In his biography, titled Gaudí, Gijs Van Hensbergen stated that a deeply religious Gaudí marveled, “The intelligence of man can only function on one plane, that is in two dimensions … but the intelligence of angels is in three dimensions; they can work directly with space.”

 

 

 

 

 

With a strong religious background, an understanding of spatial composition, and panache for creating organic forms, Gaudí broke onto the architectural scene in 1884 when he was named the official architect of the Sagrada Família Cathedral (he had unofficially taken the position and started work a year before in 1883).

 

Though he had completed a number of projects since he passed his qualifying exam, it wasn’t until he took over the work on the Sagrada Família that Gaudí was considered one of Barcelona’s top architects. Initially designed in a conventional Neo-Gothic style by Francesc de Paula Villar I Lozano, construction of the crypt was under way when a rift formed between Villar and the Junta temple, causing Villar to resign from the project. Antoni Gaudí, only 31 years old, was selected to take over the immense project. Initially, Gaudí continued with Villar’s original design. He lamented the orientation of the cathedral, but with the construction of the crypt at an advanced stage, he was unable to change it. However, in March of 1884, Gaudí won arbitration and was allowed to redesign the rest of the cathedral. In place of the Neo-Classical design, Gaudí called for an organic cathedral of grand scale with three facades. Gaudí decorated the facades with sculptures and stained glass depicting select stories from the bible that symbolized the foundation of the church. The east facade - the direction that the sun rises - was adorned with scenes of Jesus’ birth. The west facade - the side on which the sun sets - had scenes depicting the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The main sea-facing facade was to be decorated with scenes of humans partaking in the fruits of salvation.

 

“The intelligence of man can only function on one plane, that is in two dimensions … but the intelligence of angels is in three dimensions; they can work directly with space.” -Antoni Gaudí

 

The design and construction of Sagrada Família proved to be a task that would continue throughout his life. Funding for the cathedral was limited to private donations and Gaudí’s dedication to accurately recreating nature didn’t help matters. Gaudí once wrote, “It is a mad man to try to represent a fictional object.” Determined to produce an exact replica of nature in his facade, Gaudí went to great lengths to find the perfect models for his creations.

 

 

 

 

Locals who bore a resemblance to biblical characters became immortalized in the facade. A goat herder was used to create Pontius Pilate, a six-toed bar patron became Goliath, and a sculptor became Simon; it was not uncommon for an animal to be chloroformed, greased, and cast in plaster. Gaudí gathered skeletons from the local hospital, observed autopsies, and cast many still born babies to be used as the hundreds of children slaughtered by Herod. Throughout the construction, Gaudí’s studio amassed an extensive collection of models and sketches. Unfortunately little of this remains today as the Sagrada Família was burned and Gaudí’s grave desecrated by a mob in 1936.

 

While working on Sagrada Família, Gaudí was commissioned by Eusebi Güell to design a residence indicative of his social status. The Palau Güell - Gaudí’s first building to be built in the heart of Barcelona - drew immediate praise and was championed throughout Europe as one of the foremost examples of the Canal Renaxian movement. The building was connected to another adjacent property of the Güells by a courtyard.

 

It was not uncommon for an animal to be chloroformed, greased, and cast in plaster. Gaudí gathered skeletons from the local hospital, observed autopsies, and cast many still born babies to be used as the hundreds of children slaughtered by Herod.

 

The street facade features two massive parabolic arches splitting the facade in half with gigantic gates of woven iron. Between the arches a two-meter tall iron sculpture of an eagle taking flight from a Catalan shield celebrates the residents’ Catalonian heritage. The interior of the building is intricately detailed and well insulated from the sounds of the exterior. A large parabolic dome sits atop the atrium and creates a constant starry sky effect through the use of sunlight and well-positioned lamps. The rooftop features 20 of Gaudí’s iconic sculptural chimneys to ventilate the eight-story building.

 

Set in an exceedingly poor area of the city, Palau Güell was built using Gaudí’s trademark labor-intensive methods made possible by an unlimited budget; critics thought the construction of such an opulent building in a poverty stricken area to be offensive. The criticism was amplified when the Güells only occupied their expensive palace for a short time because Eusebi’s wife and mother of 10 felt that it was too big. Though controversial, Palau Güell proved to be one of the most important commissions of Gaudí’s career as it began a long working relationship with Eusebi Güell that would afford Gaudí the creative 

 

 

 

 

freedom and financial security that few architects enjoy. Throughout his career, Gaudí would collaborate with Güell on numerous projects that would help shape the city.

 

 

 

 

 

With a polarizing personality and progressive work, Gaudí was a lightening rod for criticism. In addition to the Sagrada Família and Palau Güell many of his projects, such as the Casa Batlló and the Casa Milà, were completed with outlandish budgets. Gaudí was also growing more and more outspoken in his support for the Catholic Church. In 1894, Gaudí began a rigorous Lenten fast that put his health at such serious risk that it was detailed in the daily newspaper. He was prone to explosive rants criticizing people’s lack of devotion and support of the church. This proved an unpopular stance at a time when many of the local citizens were struggling to get by and drew the ire of many of his peers. Pablo Picasso was an outspoken critic, as was George Orwell, who once called the Sagrada Família “one of the most hideous buildings in the world.” A 1950s critic reportedly said that Gaudí’s facades were “tortures of the imagination, fetuses in stone, bulbous obscenities.” It’s hard to imagine how his designs must have appeared in his era. Even today it is easy to be overwhelmed by the intense detail in his work.

 

In 1900, Eusebi Güell returned from visiting English garden cities. Excited at the prospect of creating one of his own, he commissioned Gaudí to design a prototype garden city for the Catalan bourgeoisie. Set on a parched hill on the outskirts of the city, Gaudí intended for the urban development to be a lavish marriage of architecture and nature. Park Güell was to be surrounded by a wall with access tightly controlled by only a few gates. He segmented the land into 60 triangular lots of which only one third of each could be developed; future structures were to adhere to a strict set of regulations to ensure continuity throughout the development, and the remainder of the land would be dedicated to a large park equipped with public amenities such as a church, a square for athletic competitions and performances, and a market.

 

Taking cues from nature, Gaudí kept much of the natural landscape and designed a series of twisting roads made of local rock to follow the natural contours of the land. One of the most famous features of the park is a sea serpent-shaped bench that runs along the perimeter of the main terrace. The ergonomic shape of 

 

 

 

 

the bench was created from the form of a nude woman sitting in clay, proving that once again Gaudí was ahead of his time.

 

However, Park Güell was an abject failure as only two of the parcels of land were sold - one to Gaudí himself and the other to a lawyer and his family. It wasn’t until 1923 when it was donated to the city of Barcelona and made into a public park that it reached its full potential. Today Park Güell is one of the most celebrated parks in the world: it was declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization world heritage site and is visited by thousands of people every year. Small shops and vendors sell mosaic lizards like the one found at the park’s entrance all over the city. Like Sagrada Família, it has become an international symbol of Barcelona.

 

By 1918, Eusebi Güell had passed away and Gaudí had abandoned all other projects to focus exclusively on the Sagrada Família. Outliving many of his friends and family, Gaudí became increasingly withdrawn from the public and concentrated on his daily routine of praying and working on the Cathedral. He eventually moved to a studio in the shadow of the cathedral for the last 6 months of his life. On June 7, 1926, an unkempt Antoni Guadí was struck and fatally injured by a tram. Having let his appearance slip immensely in the previous months, he was mistaken for a vagrant and denied transport to a hospital by four taxis that feared he wouldn’t be able to pay his fare. After finally arriving at the dispensary, Gaudí was to be sent to the Hospital Clinico for treatment. However, the ambulance drivers were near the end of their shift so they dropped him off at the Hospital de Santa Cruz instead. Still unrecognized, Gaudí was placed in a room with numerous other male patients. Their mistake wasn’t discovered until the next morning when he was found in grave condition. When his friends arranged to have him moved to a nice hospital, Gaudí objected and replied, “I belong here among the poor.” He died three days after being hit by the tram and was buried at the site of the unfinished Sagrada Família.

 

Exiting the world as tumultuously as he entered it, Gaudí left behind an impressive body of work that would influence the world for years to come. Not only has he influenced designers such as Le Corbusier, Santiago Calatrava and Salvador Dali, his work became the voice of a city.

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