GAUDÍ, Antoni

Gaudi designed this bench for the office located on the ground floor of Casa Calvet (Calle Caspe 48, Barcelona). The furniture from the Casa Calvet is tailored to its functions with the minimum expenditure of material. The osseous shapes have the tension of surrounding muscle from an organic creature.

The photo shows the fireplace with seat.

A total of 27 chimneys are arranged in four groups on the roof. They are of helicoidal forms topped by conical caps, lined with transparent glass in the central and ceramics in the upper parts. At the top are transparent glass balls filled with sand of different colours.

Gaud� worked on two major urban residential buildings in parallel with the Parc G�ell: the Casa Batll� (1904-06) and the Casa Milà (1906-10), both in the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona. The Casa Batll� reveals Gaud�’s confidence and skill in remodelling an existing building. He added a floor to the original Neo-classical five-storey townhouse and clothed ground and first floors in stone in fantastic, fluid lines like an eroded outcrop of rock. This curvilinear stonework conceals the original rectangular windows within mask-like openings, which are echoed in the iron balustrades of the balconies above.

The higher levels of the redesigned fa�ade are covered in an abstract tile mosaic, and the whole undulates upwards to a parapet that is like a wave crest and changes colour from end to end. The roof curves in three dimensions and is covered with green ceramic tiles like the scales of a great sea monster. On the fifth floor, there is also a tiny roof-garden from which a circular turret rises to break through the parapet.

Inside the house, the curved forms of the stairway and its path up through the building in its skylit, blue-and-white ceramic-tiled stair-well add to the dynamic analogy.

Gaud� worked on two major urban residential buildings in parallel with the Parc G�ell: the Casa Batll� (1904-06) and the Casa Milà (1906-10), both in the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona. The Casa Batll� reveals Gaud�’s confidence and skill in remodelling an existing building. He added a floor to the original Neo-classical five-storey townhouse and clothed ground and first floors in stone in fantastic, fluid lines like an eroded outcrop of rock. This curvilinear stonework conceals the original rectangular windows within mask-like openings, which are echoed in the iron balustrades of the balconies above.

The higher levels of the redesigned fa�ade are covered in an abstract tile mosaic, and the whole undulates upwards to a parapet that is like a wave crest and changes colour from end to end. The roof curves in three dimensions and is covered with green ceramic tiles like the scales of a great sea monster. On the fifth floor, there is also a tiny roof-garden from which a circular turret rises to break through the parapet.

Inside the house, the curved forms of the stairway and its path up through the building in its skylit, blue-and-white ceramic-tiled stair-well add to the dynamic analogy.

The photo shows the central lightwell in Casa Batll�.

The photo shows the dining room door to the rear courtyard.

The photo shows the rear courtyard.

The photo shows the drawing-room on the main floor in Casa Batll�.

The room has three interconnected spaces and large windows which allow the light to flood in. The room provides panoramic views of Passeig de Gràcia. The undulating ceiling alludes to the power of the sea.

The picture shows the roof facing the street with a cylindrical lateral tower.

The play of colours, integrated into the architectural mass, is continued up to the roof of Casa Batll� - which resembles the arched back of a lizard - and over the irregularly shaped roof structures. The flowing rhythm of the design gives away nothing of loadbearing and supports within. The whole expressiveness of the architecture lies in the three-dimensional relief and iridescence.

A total of 27 chimneys are arranged in four groups on the roof. They are of helicoidal forms topped by conical caps, lined with transparent glass in the central and ceramics in the upper parts. At the top are transparent glass balls filled with sand of different colours.

Drawing inspiration from nature, Gaud� presented a rock-face of fluid, curvilinear forms to the street; openings appear to be carved out of the stonework in rounded forms with deep overhangs, giving rise to the building’s nickname ‘the quarry’.

Casa Milà, popularly known as La Pedrera or “The stone quarry”, referring to its unconventional rough-hewn appearance, is the last private residence designed by Antoni Gaud� in Barcelona.

Gaud� worked on two major urban residential buildings parallel with the Park G�ell: the Casa Batll� (1904-06) and the Casa Milà (1906-10), both in the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona. The Casa Milà is one of Gaud�’s most important achievements. In this ambitious corner project, his approach to creating a new architectural organism was unencumbered by any existing work; the curvilinear planning of the floors around magnificent patio spaces was possible from the outset. Again drawing inspiration from nature, Gaud� presented a rock-face of fluid, curvilinear forms to the street; openings appear to be carved out of the stonework in rounded forms with deep overhangs, giving rise to the building’s nickname ‘the quarry’. The tiled roof follows the rise and fall of the superstructure of the attic storey as it spans spaces of varying widths on the floors below. The result is a heaving roofscape, and on this stands a fantastic family of chimneys and ventilators sculpted in twisted, faceted, sometimes quasi-figural shapes.

The hand-moulded ceilings in the flats, the wrought-iron balustrades and grilles, completed to Gaud�’s designs by Josep M. Jujol (1879-1949), and the walls of the patios, painted by Alexis Clapes (1850-1920), are among the delights of Modernisme and contribute to the completeness of Gaud�’s most mature secular work.

The tiled roof follows the rise and fall of the superstructure of the attic storey as it spans spaces of varying widths on the floors below. The result is a heaving roofscape, and on this stands a fantastic family of chimneys and ventilators sculpted in twisted, faceted, sometimes quasi-figural shapes.

In 1883, Manel Vicens i Montaner, a stock and currency broker, entrusted the young architect with designing his summer garden home in the former village of Gràcia. It is his first masterpiece and one of the first buildings to kick off the Modernisme movement in Catalonia.

Gaud�’s first important buildings reveal an imaginative experimentation with ornament and construction, exploiting local building techniques, materials, and craftsmanship along with Arts and Crafts principles, albeit at first with an Islamic flavour. His use of azulejos (glazed tiles) in particular helped to revitalize the local art of tile-making.

The three-storey Casa Vicens has walls of red earth-coloured rubble with polychromatic counterchange tile banding. Its tall top storey is set back behind a perforated screen supported by highly original Y-headed colonettes; the turreted brick fa�ade of the garden cascade (destroyed) had a distinct Mud�jar character reminiscent of the 13th-century brick churches of Castile.

The shape of the worship area was planned in extensive detail, right down to the pews. All of the furniture in the church was designed by Gaud� himself, and have been preserved. Very few pieces of his furniture have been saved, though some examples are still seen in the Sagrada Familia and private homes.

The Church of Colònia G�ell (Catalan: Cripta de la Colònia G�ell) is an unfinished work by Antoni Gaud�. It was built as a place of worship for the people on a hillside in a manufacturing suburb in Santa Coloma de Cervell�, near Barcelona. Colònia G�ell was the brainchild of Count Eusebi de G�ell; who enlisted the help of architect Antoni Gaud� in 1898. However, work was not started until 1908, 10 years after commission. The plan for the building consisted of constructing two naves, an upper and a lower, two towers, and one forty-meter-high central dome. In 1914, the G�ell family halted construction due to the death of Count G�ell. At the time, the lower nave was almost complete, so between the years of 1915 and 1917, it was completed and readied for use.

The crypt portion of the church, constructed from 1908 to 1914, was the only segment of the church that was fully completed. It was built partially below ground due to being on a hillside, and it was designed so that it would feel like it belonged in the surrounding nature. There are pillars on the exterior of the crypt, made of many bricks, while others were made of a solid block of stone.

The funicular models for the church, with which Gaudi worked out the arch and vaulting loadings, were a challenge both structurally and aesthetically. Gaud� identified the natural disposition of the given structural form by hanging canvas bags filled with pellets on strings, the weight being proportional to those of the loadings he had calculated. Thus weighted, the strings displayed the shape of the skeleton of the future church. The “frame” of the Colònia G�ell contains all the structural forms devised by Gaud�.

Gaud�’s first important buildings reveal an imaginative experimentation with ornament and construction, exploiting local building techniques, materials, and craftsmanship along Arts and Crafts principles, albeit at first with an Islamic flavour. His use of azulejos (glazed tiles) in particular helped to revitalize the local art of tile-making. The three-storey Casa Vicens (1883-85), Barcelona, has walls of red earth-coloured rubble with polychromatic counterchange tile banding. Its tall top storey is set back behind a perforated screen supported by highly original Y-headed colonettes. Two similar buildings followed: El Capricho (1883-85), a summer villa in Comillas, which was a heavier design with a fa�ade of rusticated stone at ground-floor level and striped brickwork above; and the lodge, stables, and entrance gate (1887) to the Finca G�ell, Pedralbes, Barcelona.

This estate was Gaud�’s first work for Count Eusebio G�ell, who became his patron and friend, and it marked the beginning of an intense and productive professional relationship. G�ell owned several estates in Barcelona, in the district known today as Zona Universitaria; he commissioned Gaud� to design the boundary wall and the gates giving access to this property. He also subsequently asked the architect to build the stables and various other small buildings.

The dragon gate of the Finca G�ell must be considered a perfect testimony to the artistic quality of Catalan wrought-iron work. It is hung between brick pillars built on natural stone bases and swings on a single vertical axis. The dragon represents Lad�n, the guardian of the Garden of Hesperides, who at Juno’s behest stood watch over the golden apples of the garden. When Hercules overpowered the “warder”, the fabulous beast turned itself into a constellation. Gaud� placed the gate under an antimony-coloured orange tree that crowns the pillar and counts as a symbol of special wealth.

This estate was Gaud�’s first work for Count Eusebio G�ell, who became his patron and friend, and it marked the beginning of an intense and productive professional relationship. G�ell owned several estates in Barcelona, in the district known today as Zona Universitaria; he commissioned Gaud� to design the boundary wall and the gates giving access to this property. He also subsequently asked the architect to build the stables and various other small buildings.

The dragon gate of the Finca G�ell must be considered a perfect testimony to the artistic quality of Catalan wrought-iron work. It is hung between brick pillars built on natural stone bases and swings on a single vertical axis. The dragon represents Lad�n, the guardian of the Garden of Hesperides, who at Juno’s behest stood watch over the golden apples of the garden. When Hercules overpowered the “warder”, the fabulous beast turned itself into a constellation. Gaud� placed the gate under an antimony-coloured orange tree that crowns the pillar and counts as a symbol of special wealth.

This estate was Gaud�’s first work for Count Eusebio G�ell, who became his patron and friend, and it marked the beginning of an intense and productive professional relationship. G�ell owned several estates in Barcelona, in the district known today as Zona Universitaria; he commissioned Gaud� to design the boundary wall and the gates giving access to this property. He also subsequently asked the architect to build the stables and various other small buildings.

The dragon gate of the Finca G�ell must be considered a perfect testimony to the artistic quality of Catalan wrought-iron work. It is hung between brick pillars built on natural stone bases and swings on a single vertical axis. The dragon represents Lad�n, the guardian of the Garden of Hesperides, who at Juno’s behest stood watch over the golden apples of the garden. When Hercules overpowered the “warder”, the fabulous beast turned itself into a constellation. Gaud� placed the gate under an antimony-coloured orange tree that crowns the pillar and counts as a symbol of special wealth.

This estate was Gaud�’s first work for Count Eusebio G�ell, who became his patron and friend, and it marked the beginning of an intense and productive professional relationship. G�ell owned several estates in Barcelona, in the district known today as Zona Universitaria; he commissioned Gaud� to design the boundary wall and the gates giving access to this property. He also subsequently asked the architect to build the stables and various other small buildings.

The dragon gate of the Finca G�ell must be considered a perfect testimony to the artistic quality of Catalan wrought-iron work. It is hung between brick pillars built on natural stone bases and swings on a single vertical axis. The dragon represents Lad�n, the guardian of the Garden of Hesperides, who at Juno’s behest stood watch over the golden apples of the garden. When Hercules overpowered the “warder”, the fabulous beast turned itself into a constellation. Gaud� placed the gate under an antimony-coloured orange tree that crowns the pillar and counts as a symbol of special wealth.

Very few pieces of Gaud�’s furniture have been saved, though some examples are still seen in the Sagrada Familia and private homes.

In 1893, Gaud� had started work on the fa�ade of the Nativity: this is where his own conception of the structure began to appear, dominated by towers. The triple portals (1903) of the fa�ade, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, rise out of the ground as neo-Gothic elements but are increasingly clothed and then draped in natural forms until the angular Gothic gables are almost concealed by carvings that hang like canopies of stalactites over the porches. This eases the transition through Modernisme to the mature individualism of the four great towers named after the Apostles: from south to north, Barnabas, Simon, Thaddeus, and Matthew. Only Barnabas was completed before Gaud�’s death.

In 1893, Gaud� had started work on the fa�ade of the Nativity: this is where his own conception of the structure began to appear, dominated by towers. The triple portals (1903) of the fa�ade, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, rise out of the ground as neo-Gothic elements but are increasingly clothed and then draped in natural forms until the angular Gothic gables are almost concealed by carvings that hang like canopies of stalactites over the porches. This eases the transition through Modernisme to the mature individualism of the four great towers named after the Apostles: from south to north, Barnabas, Simon, Thaddeus, and Matthew. Only Barnabas was completed before Gaud�’s death.

In 1893, Gaud� had started work on the fa�ade of the Nativity: this is where his own conception of the structure began to appear, dominated by towers. The triple portals (1903) of the fa�ade, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, rise out of the ground as neo-Gothic elements but are increasingly clothed and then draped in natural forms until the angular Gothic gables are almost concealed by carvings that hang like canopies of stalactites over the porches. This eases the transition through Modernisme to the mature individualism of the four great towers named after the Apostles: from south to north, Barnabas, Simon, Thaddeus, and Matthew. Only Barnabas was completed before Gaud�’s death.

The photo shows the view of the Sagrada Fam�lia from the Pla�a de Gaud�.

The Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia is Gaud�’s masterpiece, and, although only partially completed, it is among the most impressive buildings of the 20th century. He took charge of the works at the age of 31 and continued for the rest of his life; it thus summarizes his evolution as an architect as well as the deepening of his spiritual conviction, measured in terms of his increasing dedication to the task.

The project was initiated by the Asociaci�n de Devotos de San Jos�, founded in 1866 to raise funds to build a church dedicated to St Joseph and the Holy Family. This concept was widened to become a cathedral for the new metropolitan areas of Barcelona, and del Villar’s neo-Gothic design had been under construction for more than a year when Gaud� took over in 1883.

Gaud� completed the crypt to del Villar’s design in 1891 but began to work on a more grandiose concept for the whole church, including an encircling ambulatory or cloister. By 1893 he had completed the walls and finials of del Villar’s apse and had started work on the fa�ade of the Nativity: this is where Gaud�’s own conception of the structure began to appear, dominated by towers. The triple portals (1903) of the fa�ade, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, rise out of the ground as neo-Gothic elements but are increasingly clothed and then draped in natural forms until the angular Gothic gables are almost concealed by carvings that hang like canopies of stalactites over the porches. This eases the transition through Modernisme to the mature individualism of the four great towers named after the Apostles: from south to north, Barnabas, Simon, Thaddeus, and Matthew. Only Barnabas was completed before Gaud�’s death.

The towers of the Sagrada Familia, which were to house tubular bells, are square at their bases, but above the portals, they become cylinders pierced by spirals of columns and narrow, round-headed arches. For acoustic reasons, the perforation was continued as the stone columns converged in a series of tall, slender parabolic arches, tied together by thin plates in spirals that produce a ladder-like effect. Above the arches are hexagonal pinnacles; above them are Cubist faceted finials covered with polychromatic Venetian glass mosaics, each surmounted by a three-dimensional haloed cross. The towers and the church show Gaud�’s structural aesthetic at work in the idiom of the Gothic cathedral, eliminating the need for flying buttresses. At the same time, his polychrome decoration that had its roots in Oriental traditions provided both the natural motifs inspired by Ruskin and the religious iconology of the church.

For all the virtuoso qualities of the church, however, the little school (1909) built by Gaud� on the site of the Sagrada Familia perhaps best crystallizes the essence of his genius. It has an undulating roof built of bovedas tabicadas (Sp.: tile vaults), a technique later developed and widely used in the USA by Rafael Guastavino, and walls that are both curved in plan and inclined outwards from the roof to counteract thrust. It is a simple statement of his aesthetic, expressing nature through form, and of his practical genius in adapting traditional materials and methods through the application of contemporary building technology. Gaud� died a few days after being knocked down by a trolley bus on his way to church, leaving behind him unexecuted drawings for the Sagrada Familia, for the remaining main fa�ades, the crossing, and a chapel of the Assumption. He also left behind a body of work that continued to influence an extraordinarily diverse following including Surrealists, Abstract Expressionists, engineers, and environmentalists.

The towers of the Sagrada Familia, which were to house tubular bells, are square at their bases, but above the portals they become cylinders pierced by spirals of columns and narrow, round-headed arches. For acoustic reasons the perforation was continued as the stone columns converged in a series of tall, slender parabolic arches, tied together by thin plates in spirals that produce a ladder-like effect. Above the arches are hexagonal pinnacles; above them are Cubist faceted finials covered with polychromatic Venetian glass mosaics, each surmounted by a three-dimensional haloed cross. The towers and the church show Gaud�’s structural aesthetic at work in the idiom of the Gothic cathedral, eliminating the need for flying buttresses.

Gaud�’s first major building commission for the Palau G�ell came from his sponsor and later close friend, Count Eusebio G�ell, a much-travelled patron of arts. On his business trips to England, G�ell had come into contact with William Morris and had put together an extensive library of contemporary writings on art theory, which Gaudi often consulted.

The Palau G�ell, a grey marble urban building of six storeys, presents a relatively simple fa�ade to the street, but the twin parabolic arches at the entrance and the bay windows, particularly at the rear, have a wealth of wrought-iron ornament. Together with the furniture designed for the G�ells, this is among the earliest manifestations of the incipient Catalan Modernisme, the regional tendency related to Art Nouveau. There is also a series of sculpted roof elements behind the symmetrical parapet gables. The internal areas were unified around a magnificent central space covered with a parabolic vault, naturally lit from above through parabolic arches in the octagonal, pinnacled cupola.

With the Palau G�ell, structure and decoration began to fuse - a feature that later became characteristic of his principal works. Gaud� made use of the varied decorative opportunities of structural iron in all their abundance. In addition, he employed flattened brick vaults of Byzantine derivation that even today are copybook examples of stereotomy.

The Palau G�ell, a grey marble urban building of six storeys, presents a relatively simple fa�ade to the street, but the twin parabolic arches at the entrance and the bay windows, particularly at the rear, have a wealth of wrought-iron ornament.

With the Palau G�ell, structure and decoration began to fuse - a feature that later became characteristic of his principal works. Gaudi made use of the varied decorative opportunities of structural iron in all their abundance. In addition, he employed flattened brick vaults of Byzantine derivation that even today are copybook examples of stereotomy.

Doric columns support the roof of the lower court, which forms the central terrace, with serpentine seating around its edge.

The unique shape of the serpentine bench enables the people sitting on it to converse privately, although the square is large. The bench is tiled, and to dry up quickly after it rains and to stop people from sitting in the wet part of the bench, small bumps were installed by Gaud�.

Besides Christian symbols, Gaud� loved classical and oriental mythology. The salamander in the Parc G�ell, popularly known as “el drac” (the dragon), is thus a representation of Python, the guardian of the subterranean waters on the steps of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, while the frequent motif of a tortoise on the base of columns is a Chinese symbol of order in chaos.

The decisive period for Gaud�’s work came during the first decade of the 20th century when historicism - always tempered by highly individualistic interpretations - was abandoned, and conventional arcuate structures were dissolved into a new curvilinear architecture already foreshadowed in the Palau G�ell. Going far beyond the exuberant use of natural forms in sculpture and wrought ironwork, which were the hallmarks of Modernisme, Gaud� turned to nature to generate structural form. This was first realized in the Park G�ell in Barcelona, part of a garden city commissioned by G�ell in pursuit of the reformist ideas of the Renaixen�a.

The housing was never built, but Gaud� prepared roads and avenues, projecting viaducts from the hillside on an amazing array of rubble columns like tree trunks, angled to carry the structural thrusts directly to the ground. He also built polychromatic entrance lodges of fantastic form and a vast staircase, with fountains, leading to a hypostyle market hall constructed out of the sloping site and supported on 100 massive, quasi-archaic Doric columns. The roof of this structure, a flat, open space used as a playground, is surrounded by a serpentine bench-balustrade, covered, like the fountains and other elements, with brightly coloured mosaic decoration in abstract designs by Gaud� and Josep Maria Jujol. The result is a playful, exciting and surrealistic environment.

Besides Christian symbols, Gaud� loved classical and oriental mythology. The salamander in the Parc G�ell, popularly known as “el drac” (the dragon), is thus a representation of Python, the guardian of the subterranean waters on the steps of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi.

The photo shows the fountain with the dragon at the entrance to the park.

Besides Christian symbols, Gaud� loved classical and oriental mythology. The salamander in the Parc G�ell, popularly known as “el drac” (the dragon), is thus a representation of Python, the guardian of the subterranean waters on the steps of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, while the frequent motif of a tortoise on the base of columns is a Chinese symbol of order in chaos.

The land tortoise was very common at that time throughout Catalonia.

The photo shows one of the three viaducts located within the park. Created by Gaud� to allow carriages to transport the visitors from the entrance to the “Tur� de Tres Creus”, which can be found on the top of the mountain, these viaducts continue to allow guests to travel throughout the park.

Antoni Gaud�, one of the world’s most famous architects at the end of the nineteenth century, was also a daring designer of furniture, railings and other items of decoration for his houses. For the chairs for Casa Batll�, on Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia, the architect designed a type of seat unknown before then, which aimed at rounded forms to fit the human form, foregoing upholstery and the superfluous ornamentation of the time and stripping the item bare. Gaud� was a forerunner of ergonomic design, breaking with academic repertories and foreshadowing industrial design, the same as contemporary architects such as Victor Horta, Mackintosh and Saarinen.