Antoni Gaudi Final Project Pelay, Alejandra Vásquez, Carla

Antoni Gaudi ( ) was a Spanish Catalan architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism. His works reflect his highly individual and distinctive style and are largely concentrated in the Catalan capital of Barcelona. Much of Gaudi’s work was marked by his four life passions: architecture, nature, religion and love for Catalonia.

Gaudi went through a naturalistic stage during which the architect perfected his personal style through inspiration from organic forms of nature and so reflected his colors. An example of this would be the famous Park Guell in Barcelona, but there are also many other occasions where the architect’s management of color was fundamental.

For the restoration of Mallorca Cathedral he invented a new technique to produce stained glass, which consisted of juxtaposing three glass panes of primary colors, and sometimes a neutral one, varying the thickness of the glass in order to graduate the light's intensity.

Gaudi always made sure his constructions had good lighting and ventilation. For this purpose, he studied each project's orientation with respect to the cardinal points, as well as the local climate and its place in its surroundings. At that time, there was an increasing demand for more domestic comfort, with piped water and gas and the use of electric light, all of which Gaudi expertly incorporated. For the Sagrada Familia, for example, he carried out thorough studies on acoustics and illumination, in order to optimize them. With regard to light, he stated: Light achieves maximum harmony at an inclination of 45°, since it resides on objects in a way that is neither horizontal nor vertical. This can be considered medium light, and it offers the most perfect vision of objects and their most exquisite nuances. It is the Mediterranean light.

Lighting also served Gaudi for the organization of space, which required a careful study of the gradient of light intensity to adequately adapt to each specific environment. He achieved this with different elements such as skylights, windows, shutters and blinds. He also tended to build south-facing houses to maximize sunlight.

In his works is also very relevant the fact that Gaudi was really innovator when it comes to craftsmanship. He conceived new technical and decorative solutions with his materials, like his way of designing ceramic mosaics made of waste pieces in original and imaginative combinations, which leads us to talk about his projection of textures. An obvious example would be The Sagrada Familia, a work with a very interesting design that still isn’t finish. Only two facades are complete and each one can be differentiated by their construction time and the way they had been built.

One of the facades is the facade of birth. This one is a striking facade with different forms with many details leading to a visual texture that reflects life, growth and joy. The second front is the facade of passion. In this one we can appreciate smooth, flat shapes without many details.

Rhythm in Gaudi’s work is very particular because it is an organic rhythm. Gaudi studied organic and anarchic geometric forms of nature thoroughly, searching for a way to give expression to these forms in architecture. Some of his greatest inspirations came from visits to certain places like the mountain of Montserrat and the caves of Mallorca. After a few years under the influence of neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudi became part of the Catalan Modernism, culminating in an organic style inspired by nature. Gaudi rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three- dimensional scale models and molding the details as he was conceiving them.

Gaudi took a broad view of architecture as a multifunctional design, in which every single detail in an arrangement has to be harmoniously made and well-proportioned and so reflected circulation in his work.

Equally, Gaudi stood out as interior decorator, decorating most of his buildings personally, from the furnishings to the smallest details. From the design of a desk for his office at the beginning of his career to the furnishings designed for the Sobrellano Palace of Comillas, he designed all furnishing of the Vicens, Calvet, Batlló and Mila houses, of the Güell Palace and the Bellesguard Tower, and the liturgical furnishing of the Sagrada Familia. It is noteworthy that Gaudi studied some ergonomy in order to adapt his furnishings to human anatomy and scale. Many of his furnishings are exhibited at Gaudi Museum.

Another aspect is his intelligent distribution of space, always with the aim of creating a comfortable, intimate, interior atmosphere. For this purpose, Gaudi would divide the space into sections, adapted to their specific use, by means of low walls, dropped ceilings, sliding doors and wall closets. All of this apart from taking care of every detail of all structural and ornamental elements.

He had many different ways of working but in the case of Sagrada Família’s sculptures and some others renown works; he would thoroughly study the anatomy of the figure, concentrating on gestures. For this purpose, he studied the human skeleton. In a second step, he photographed his models, using a mirror system that provided multiple perspectives. He then made plaster casts of the figures, he modified the proportions of these casts to obtain the figure's desired appearance, and eventually, he sculpted the figures in stone.