ARCHITECTURE PHILOSOPHIES OF

ANTONI

GAUDI

Submitted By:

Prachi Verma

12AR10036

Harshit Sharma

12AR10020

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Harshit Sharma and Prachi

Vermahave successfully completed the project for

the first semester of the academic session 2012-

2013.

Signature:

Date

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Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge and extend our

heartfelt gratitude to the following persons

who have made the completion of this project

possible:

Our professor Mr. Jaydip Barman for his

encouragement and support, all department

faculty members and staff members.

Also heartfelt thanks to our friends.

And to God who is always there for us.

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INDEX

Sr No Title Page 1. Introduction .............................................. 3

2. Gaudi‘s Architecture................................ 7

3. Gaudi‘s works...............................................12

a) Casa Vicens...............................................12

b) Palau Guell.................................................13

c) Casa Calvet............................................... 14

d)Sagrada Familia........................................15

e) Parque Guell..............................................18

4. Bibliography…………………………………………………22

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INTRODUCTION

Antoni Gaudi was a Spanish architect born in 1852. Gaudi‘s works are a reflection of his

individual and distinctive style. Most of his works can be found in the city of Barcelona.

His works were inspired by his passions in life: religion, nature and architecture. He

integrated various crafts which he was skilled at: carpentry, stained glass, ceramics

among many others. New techniques of treatment of materials were introduced by him

like ―trencadis‖, made of waste ceramic pieces. Gaudi rarely drew detailed plans of his

works, instead he preferred to create them as three-dimensional scale models,

moulding the details as he was conceiving them. Other famous architects and also the

common people are great admirers of his works. His still uncompleted, Sagrada Familia,

is the most visited monument in Spain. Between 1984 to 2005, he earned the nickname,

―God‘s Architect‖.

Birth ,Childhood and

Studies

Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 in Reus or Riudoms. His exact birthplace is still unknown

as there are no documents supporting it, leading to a controversy whether he was born

in Reus or Riudoms.Gaudí had a deep appreciation for his native land and great pride in

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his Mediterranean heritage. He believed Mediterranean people to be endowed with

creativity, originality and an innate sense for art and design. Gaudí reportedly

described this distinction by stating,

"We own the image. Fantasy comes from the ghosts. Fantasy is what people in

the North own. We are concrete. The image comes from the Mediterranean.

Orestes knows his way, where Hamlet is torn apart by his doubts."

Young Gaudi suffered from poor health, including rheumatism. This was the cause for

his reticent and reserved character. His religious faith and strict vegetarianism led

him to undertake several lengthy and severe fasts. These fasts were often unhealthy

and occasionally, as in 1894, led to life-threatening illness.

Between 1875 and 1878, Gaudi completed his compulsory military service as a military

administrator. But due to his poor health most of the time was spent as sick leaves. He

could not fight ―The Third Carlist War‖ because of his poor health. In 1876, his mother

died and so did his brother who had become a physician. During this time, Gaudi studied

architecture at the Llotja School and Barcelona Higher School of Architecture. To

finance his studies, Gaudi worked as a draughtsman to many architects and

constructors. In addition to architecture classes, he also studied French, economics

and philosophy.

Personal life

Gaudi completely devoted his life to his profession, remaining single throughout his life.

He took refuge in the spiritual peace his Catholic faith offered him. Gaudi is often

mentioned as unsociable and unpleasant. But his close friends and relatives say the

other way round, they describe him as friendly as polite, pleasant to talk and faithful

to friends.

Gaudi hardly left and written documents, apart from technical reports and a few

journal articles. The only written document Gaudí left is known as the Manuscrito de

Reus (Reus Manuscript) (1873–1878), a kind of student diary in which he collected

diverse impressions of architecture and decorating, putting forward his ideas on the

subject.

He was reluctant to be politically active. Politicians, of his time, asked him to run for

deputy but he refused.

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Adulthood and

professional work

As first projects, Gaudi designed lampposts for the Plaça Reial in Barcelona, the

unfinished Girossi newsstands, and the Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense building. The

Casa Vicens provided him with wider recognition for his first important commission,

and subsequently he got various significant proposals.

In 1883, Gaudi was put in charge of the project to build a Barcelona Cathedral called

Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Basilica and Expiatory Church of

the Holy Family, or Sagrada Família). Gaudi completed changed the first design and

implemented his own distinctive style. Till his death, he completely focused on this

project. Given the number of proposals he started receiving, he had to rely on his team

to work on multiple projects simultaneously. His team consisted of professionals from

all fields of construction. Many architects who worked under Gaudi gained fame later in

life.

At the beginning of the century, Gaudi

was working on numerous projects

simultaneously. They reflected his

shift to a more personal style inspired

by nature. In 1900, he received an

award for the best building of the

year from the Barcelona City Council

for his Casa Calvet.During the first

decade of the century Gaudi dedicated

himself to projects like the Casa

Figueras (Figueras house, better

known as Bellesguard), the Park Güell,

an unsuccessful urbanisation project,

and the restoration of the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, for which he visited

Majorca several times. Between 1904 and 1910 he constructed the Casa Batlló (Batlló

house) and the Casa Milà (Milá house), two of his most emblematic works.

In 1910, an exhibition in the ‗Grand Palais of Paris‘ was devoted to his work, during the

annual salon of ‗the Société des Beaux-Arts‘ (Fine Arts Society) of France. Gaudí

Sagrada familia

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participated on the invitation of count Güell, displaying a series of pictures, plans and

plaster scale models of several of his works. Although he participated unrivalled, he

received good reviews from the French press. A large part of this exposition could be

seen the following year at the I ‗Salón Nacional de Arquitectura‘ that took place in the

municipal exhibition hall of ‗Buen Retiro‘ in Madrid.

The decade from 1910 was a hard one for Gaudí. During this decade, the architect

experienced the deaths of his niece Rosa in 1912 and his main collaborator Francesc

Berenguer in 1914; a severe economic crisis which paralysed work on the Sagrada

Família in 1915; the 1916 death of his friend Josep Torras i Bages, bishop of Vic; the

1917 disruption of work at the Colonia Güell; and the 1918 death of his friend and

patron Eusebi Güell.[37] Perhaps because of these tragedies he devoted himself

entirely to the Sagrada Família from 1915, taking refuge in his work. Gaudí confessed

to his collaborators:

“My good friends are dead; I have no family and no clients, no fortune nor

anything. Now I can dedicate myself entirely to the Church.”

Gaudí dedicated the last years of his life entirely to the ―Cathedral of the Poor‖, as it

was commonly known.

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GAUDI’S

ARCHITECTURE

Gaudi never ceased to study the mechanical structures of other buildings. He was

inspired by oriental arts from countries like India, Persia, Japan. The influence of the

Oriental movement can be seen in works like the Capricho, the Güell Palace, the Güell

Pavilions and the Casa Vicens. Later on, he adhered to the neo-Gothic movement that

was in fashion at the time, following the ideas of the French architect Viollet-le-Duc.

This influence is reflected in the Colegi de les Teresianes, the bishop's palace in

Astorga, the Casa Botines and the Bellesguard house as well as in the crypt and the

apse of the Sagrada Família. Eventually, Gaudí embarked on a more personal phase, with

the organic style inspired by nature in which he would build his major works.

Undoubtedly the style that most influenced him was the Gothic Revival, promoted in

the latter half of the 19th century by the theoretical works of Viollet-le-Duc. The

French architect called for studying the styles of the past and adapting them in a

rational manner, taking into account both structure and design. Nonetheless, for Gaudí

the Gothic style was "imperfect", because despite the effectiveness of some of its

structural solutions it was an art that had yet to be "perfected‖. In his own words:

“Gothic art is imperfect, only half resolved; it is a style created by the

compasses, a formulaic industrial repetition. Its stability depends on constant

propping up by the buttresses: it is a defective body held up on crutches. The

proof that Gothic works are of deficient plasticity is that they produce their

greatest emotional effect when they are mutilated, covered in ivy and lit by the

moon.”

After these initial influences, Gaudí moved towards Modernisme. Modernisme in its

earlier stages was inspired by historic architecture. Its practitioners saw its return to

the past as a response to the industrial forms imposed by the Industrial Revolution's

technological advances. The use of these older styles represented a moral regeneration

that allowed the bourgeoisie to identify with values they regarded as their cultural

roots.Some essential features of Modernisme were: an anticlassical language inherited

from Romanticism with a tendency to lyricism and subjectivity; the determined

connection of architecture with the applied arts and artistic work that produced an

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overtly ornamental style; the use of new materials from which emerged a mixed

constructional language, rich in contrasts, that sought a plastic effect for the whole; a

strong sense of optimism and faith in progress that produced an emphatic art that

reflected the atmosphere of prosperity of the time, above all of the aesthetic of the

bourgeoisie.

Gaudi‘s works go beyond any style or classification. They are imaginative works inspired

from the nature. Gaudi studied organic and anarchic geometrical forms thoroughly and

found ways to use them in his works of architecture.

GEOMETRIC FORMS:

This study of nature translated into his use of ruled geometrical forms such as the

hyperbolic paraboloid, the hyperboloid, the helicoid and the cone, which reflect the

forms Gaudí found in nature. Ruled surfaces are forms generated by a straight line

known as the generatrix, as it moves over one or several lines known as directrices.

Gaudí found abundant examples of them in nature, for instance in rushes, reeds and

bones; he used to say that there is no better structure than the trunk of a tree or a

human skeleton. These forms are at the same time functional and aesthetic, and Gaudí

discovered how to adapt the language of nature to the structural forms of

architecture. He used to equate the helicoid form to movement and the hyperboloid to

light. Concerning ruled surfaces, he said:

―Paraboloids, hyperboloids and helicoids, constantly varying the incidence of the light,

are rich in matrices themselves, which make ornamentation and even modelling

unnecessary.‖

Paraboloid Hyperboloid

Helix

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Another element widely

used by Gaudí was the

catenary curve. He had

studied geometry

thoroughly when he was

young, studying

numerous articles about

engineering, a field that

praised the virtues of

the catenary curve as a

mechanical element, one

which at that time, however,was only used in the construction suspension bridges. Gaudí

was the first to use this element in common architecture.

In the middle ages, there had been ―no‖ style of architecture. All the churches, halls

and houses were constructed in the same way. With the renaissance however, a change

began to take place. The interest in cultures of the ancient Greece and Rome led to an

imitation which began to creep into contemporary architecture and to take its place

rather incongruously against the traditional background. Gradually, the traditional

medieval manner became less and less apparent and the Renaissance element stronger.

By the end of seventeenth century, the old manner of building had become superseded.

It did not only disappear, but it was considered to be rustic and unsophisticated. Too, it

had developed a name, it was called the Gothic Architecture.

Gaudi evolved from plane to spatial geometry to ruled geometry. These constructions

were suited for cheap building materials like bricks. This new construction technique

allowed Gaudi to achieve his greatest architectural goal, to perfect and go beyond

gothic style.

Interior view of the cathedral of

Palma de Mallorca.This interior

was transformed by Gaudi, who

tried to re-establish its original

gothic appearance to make it look

as it did during the middle ages. In

this attempt, he was criticized as

having gone ―too far‖, and was

asked to discontinue. But today,

when we consider what he was

attempting to do, we recognise his

real understanding of the qualities

of this magnificent structure.

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Gaudi, the craftsman:

The relationship between culpture and architecture vary in many ways. The absence and

use of sculptural elements in buildings characterise different periods and fluctuate

with the taste of the time, with the latitudes and climates, with the materials in hand.

Gaudi‘s work from his earlier examples shows his appreciation of and interest in

sculpture. This can be seen in his ironwork of The Vicens House, The gates of the

Guell Villa and the Chimneys of the Guell House.

The chimneys on the roof of the Guell House are an example of Gaudi‘s early use of

colours. Gaudi from his early youth was deeply concerned with the use of colours. For

him, colours were a part of his life: it is everywhere in the work of ―the Creator‖, ao it

should be used likewise in every building. Only official action stopped him from

rejuvenating the Palma Cathedral by giving it back the polychrome it had lost with the

ages. And when somebody commented about the beautiful colour of the stone in the

Sagrada Familia he said,‖ it will be painted over.‖

The Garden fence of the Vicens house

makes use of a pattern of cast-iron leaves

bolted to a grid of laminated steel angle

irons. This simple repetitive design looks

great.

In this gate to the Guell villa, Gaudi

employs wire mesh for the dragon‘s

wings. Gaudi took up the tradition

of wrought ironwork and developed

it.

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Gaudi’s works ___________Casa Vicens_______________

Casa Vicens is located in Barcelona. Gaudi built the house against the wall of a convent

beside it producing a large and spacious garden. He constructed a monumental fountain

on the other side of the garden with open brickwork, made up of a parabolic arch

topped by a passage between columns. The garden is surrounded by a stucco wall. At

the entrance stands the beautiful gate decorated with wrought ironwork in the form of

leaves.

Built in : 1883 – 1889

Architectural Style: Moorish

Revival

The house is constructed of

undressed stones, roughed red

bricks and coloured ceramic

tiles.

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____________Palau Guell______________

The Palau Guell in a mansion situated in Barcelona. It is a part of the UNESCO World

Heritage Sites ― Works Of Antoni Gaudi.‖ The home is centered on a main room for

entertaining high society guests. Guests enter the house on horse carriages through

the front iron gates. The front gate features a parabolic arch and intricate patterns of

forged iron work. The main party room has a high ceiling and with small holes where

lanterns used to be hung at night to give a starry look.

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___________Casa Calvet_______________

Casa Calvet is one of the most conventional works of Antoni Gaudi because it had to be

squeezed between two structures and also because it was cited as one of the most

elegant sections of Barcelona. Its symmetry, balance and orderly rhythm is extra-

ordinary as compared to Gaudi‘s other works. Bulging balconies alternate with smaller

and shallower balconies. Columns at the entrance are in the form of stacked bobbins.

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__________Sagrada Familia_____________

Gaudi dedicated more than forty years of his life as an architect to the Neo-Gothic

unfinished cathedral.

He transformed the original design into a fantastical, soaring work that

incorporates Gothic, Moorish, African, and purely imaginative influences into its

structure.

Despite controversy over whether the cathedral should remain in its

uncompleted form as a monument to the architect, construction began again in

1979, closely following Gaudi‘s original plan.

The temple has a basilical floor-plan, with five naves and three transepts. The

interior is 90m long and the transept 60m wide; the central nave measures 15m.

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A New Church

The idea for the construction of a new church was launched by a devout organisation

whose goal was to bring an end to the de-Christianisation of the Barcelonese, which had

started with the industrialization and increasing wealth of the city. The organisation

purchased a plot of land in the new Eixample district in 1877. The architect Francisco

de Paula del Villar designed a neo-Gothic church and led the construction which started

in 1882.

Antoni Gaudí's Design

One year later, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí took over as lead architect at the

age of 31. From that moment on, Gaudí devoted most of his life to the construction of

the church. Instead of sticking to the original plans, Gaudí changed the design

drastically. The neo-Gothic style made way for Gaudí's trademark modernist style,

which was based on forms found in nature. When he died in 1926 only one façade (the

Nativity Façade), one tower, the apse and the crypt were finished. Because Gaudí was

constantly improvising and changing the design while construction was going on, he left

few designs and models. And most of these were destroyed in

1936 during the Civil War.

18 Towers

Still, architects now have a clear idea of what

Gaudí had in mind. The last version of his

design called for a church 95m/312ft long and

60m/197ft wide. The church will be able to

accommodate some 13 000 people. When

finished, the Sagrada Família will have a total of 18 towers.

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Four towers on each of the three façades represent the

twelve apostles. The towers reach a height of 90 to

120m (394ft). Another four towers represent the four

evangelists. They will surround the largest, 170m/558ft

tall tower, dedicated to Jesus Christ. The last tower,

dedicated to Virgin Mary, will be built over the apse.

Construction

After Gaudí's death in 1926 construction slowed dramatically due to a lack of funds

and the outbreak of the Civil War. Construction pace started to pick up again in the mid

1950s and now two façades and eight towers have been completed. The main nave was

roofed in 2000. At that time construction was expected to last for another hundred

years, but modern technology has enabled architects to speed up construction so that

the Sagrada Família is now slated for completion before 2030.

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___________Parque Guell_______________

Park Güell (Catalan: Parc Güell[ˈparɡˈɡweʎ]) is a garden complex with architectural

elements situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Catalonia,

Spain. It was designed by the CatalanarchitectAntoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900

to 1914. It has an extension of 17.18 ha (0.1718 km²), which makes it one of the largest

architectural works in south Europe. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site

"Works of Antoni Gaudí".

ORIGINS AS A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of

Count Eusebi Güell, whom the park was named after. It was inspired by the English

garden city movement; hence the original English name Park (in the Catalan language

spoken in Catalonia where Barcelona is located,

the word for "Park" is "Parc", and the name of

the place is "Parc Güell" in its original language).

The site was a rocky hill with little vegetation and

few trees, called Muntanya Pelada (Bare

Mountain). It already included a large country

house called Larrard House or Muntaner de Dalt

House, and was next to a neighborhood of upper

class houses called La Salut (The Health). The

intention was to exploit the fresh air (well away

from smoky factories) and beautiful views from

the site, with sixty triangular lots being provided

for luxury houses. Count Eusebi Güell added to

the prestige of the development by moving in 1906 to live in Larrard House. Ultimately,

only two houses were built, neither designed by Gaudí. One was intended to be a show

house, but on being completed in 1904 was put up for

sale, and as no buyers came forward, Gaudí, at Güell's

suggestion, bought it with his savings and moved in with

his family and his father in 1906. This house, where

Gaudí lived from 1906 to 1926, was built by Francesc

Berenguer in 1904. It contains original works by Gaudí

andseveral of his collaborators. It is now the Gaudi

House Museum (Casa Museu Gaudí) since 1963. In 1969

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it was declared a historical artistic monument of national interest.

MUNICIPAL GARDEN

It has since been converted into a municipal garden. It can be reached by underground

railway (although the stations are at a distance from the Park and at a much lower level

below the hill), by city buses, or by commercial tourist buses. While entrance to the

Park is free, Gaudí's house, "la Torre Rosa," — containing furniture that he designed —

can be only visited for an entrance fee. There is a reduced rate for those wishing to

see both Park Güell and the Sagrada Família Church.

Park Güell is skillfully designed and composed to bring the peace and calm that one

would expect from a park. The buildings flanking the entrance, though very original and

remarkable with fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles, fit in well with the

use of the park as pleasure gardens and seem

relatively inconspicuous in the landscape when

one considers the flamboyance of other

buildings designed by Gaudí.

The focal point of the park is the main

terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the

form of a sea

serpent. The

curves of the serpent bench form a number of enclaves,

creating a more social atmosphere. Gaudí incorporated

many motifs of Catalan nationalism, and elements from

religious mysticism and ancient poetry, into the Park.

Roadways around the park to service the intended

houses were designed by Gaudí as structures jutting out

from the steep hillside or running on viaducts, with

separate footpaths in arcades formed under these structures. This minimized the

intrusion of the roads, and Gaudí designed them using local stone in a way that

integrates them closely into the landscape. His structures echo natural forms, with

columns like tree trunks supporting branching vaulting under the roadway, and

thecurves of vaulting and alignment of sloping columns designed in a similar way to his

Church of Colònia Güell so that the inverted catenary arch shapes form perfect

compression structures.

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The large cross at the Park's high-point offers the most complete view of Barcelona

and the bay. It is possible to view the main city in panorama, with the Sagrada Família

and the Montjuïc area visible at a distance.

The park supports a wide variety of wildlife, notably several of the non-native species

of parrot found in the Barcelona area. Other birds can be seen from the park, with

records including Short-toed eagle. The park also supports a population of Hummingbird

hawk moths.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.wikipedia.org

www.gaudiclub.com

www.greatbuildings.com

www.gaudiallgaudi.com

Antoni gaudi by j.j sweeney