Three by Gaudi

Silly Sand Architecture Meets Jules Verne

Anyone with a pulse who visits Barcelona inevitably becomes aware of the built work of architect Antoni Gaudi. Although he has been dead since 1926 his sinuous architecture has come to symbolize the very city he loved.

Deemed as either "a fool or a genius" by his architectural professors, his genius confirms that University training has always been marginally useful to those who refuse to conform to whatever is the pervasive style of their day.

In Gaudi's era Barcelona was a very progressive city. It was embarking on (in my opinion) the most successful experiment in modern city planning ever realized the L'Eixample district.

It also was fully embracing the Modernista or Modernisme movement. Modernisme was a variation of the Art Nouveau where architects synthesized their building and furniture designs with flowers, plant forms and the natural environment.

Today's we live in a world of digital generated modern architecture that features variations of rigid computer generated curves and razor straight lines.

Art nouveau eschewed straight lines and rigid geometry.

Gaudi designed everything using models. Architecture to him was pure sculpture. He integrated mythology in his designs and generously used fragments of broken tile to enable totally organic looks. He started with Modernisme and rode it many bus stops past where anyone else dared to go.

The result is visceral. People love it or hate it.

Gaudi died after being hit by a tram (I'll wager he was probably looking at the detail on some nearby building.) His funeral procession extended for blocks. He was buried in a crypt in the Segrada Familia.

Bust of Antoni Gaudi

1852-1926

During a visit three years ago I visited Gaudi's final project La Predera (Casa Mila) and his most famous commission, the Segrada Familia Cathedral. The cathedral was a dusty construction site.

Only one facade of the cathedral was complete when Gaudi died. The Spanish Civil War stopped construction for decades. So, after more than 100 years of on and off work, progress on the Segrada Familia is rapidly advancing (now 60% complete) and destined for completion by 2026. It may be the only building to earn designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site while still under construction.

In the intervening years since my last visit it has been consecrated as a basilica (instead of a cathedral.) To see the earlier photos of Segrada Familia and Casa Mila revisit my blog posts in February 2010.

Old and New Architectural Icons in Barcelona

From Parc Guell

The Bullet Shaped Agbar Tower (left) and The Segrada Familia (right)

The interior of the basilica is breathtaking and remains faithful to Gaudi's detailed sketches, while addressing modern building codes. The design team, now aided by computers, is still relying heavily upon Gaudi's preferred design method, the use of detailed models.

A Small Part of The Model Shop

The choir loft alone seats 1000. The stained glass is appearing a section at a time. and the altar and baldochino is in place.

The Main Church

The Incredible Ceiling

The Floating Baldochino

(Regrettably, It Leaves the Impression Jesus is Paragliding)

One of the Side Chapels

A Side Aisle

(Stairs to Choir Loft and Tower Beyond)

I'm planning a return trip back in 2026 to see it completed!

The next building we visited was the Casa Baltlo. Gaudi renovated this building from 1904-1906 for a wealthy Barcelona textile industrialist named Josep Baltlo. The building is sandwiched between two other trendsetting buildings buildings, Casa Amatlier and Casa Lleo Morera. These three wild buildings on the exclusive Passeig de Gracia earned the title "Block of Discord".

I have to say I find the "House of Bones" exterior pretty hideous, but the interiors are amazing. They have a Jules Verne sea monster feel to them with almost no straight lines.

The House of Bones

The Entrance

The Baltlo Apartment's Living Rooms

The Swirling Ceiling of the Living Room

A Tile Roof and Gaudi's Trademark Four Point Cross

The last of the three Gaudi masterworks in this post is the garden complex Parc Guell. It was built from 1900 to 1914 and was originally intended to be a fresh air housing development in the (then) barren hills above the city. The "Parc" was laced with a series of curving roadways designed to provide access to triangular shaped building pads.

While Gaudi's entrance, structures (in place when the parc was being built), aquaduct, plaza and famous lizard fountain still exist as a park, no one ever built a house.

If you visit here, be prepared for a significant hike and stair climb (even with the five outdoor escalators the city has installed to minimize ambulance runs for people like me.)

It was a fabulous place to people watch.

It was also a lot of fun to watch the cat and mouse game where the literally hundreds of illegal street venders (who sell anything and everything) all quickly snatch their wares up and dive into the bushes every time the policia drive by. The policia never made any effort to leave their air-conditioned cruisers, so it was all just fun and games.

Failed As a Housing Development for Humans

Succeeds As a Housing Development for Parrots!

The Entrance to Parc Guell

Everyone Mugging with

Gaudi's Famous Lizard 

I have to take a moment to thank Miss M for indulging Roadboy in his Gaudi fest. 

I'll add more photos at home when I'm not fighting Swisscom's lousy hotel upload limits...... 

Next up will be wrap up posts including lunch at Romero's, the Museum of Catalunya, perceptions of mass transit in Madrid, Lisbon, and Barcelona, and a retrospective of some of Barcelona's amazing street art.

Roadboy's Travels © 2012   

Sunny Days in Barcelona

Nothing Prepares You for Gaudi!

As the sunshine came out to play in Barcelona on Wednesday, we jumped on the open top hop-on, hop-off bus to sightsee from the top deck.

After a day of ducking in and out of the rain, what a revelation.

The View From the Top Deck! 

We found out that by the turn of the century Barcelona was already a pioneer in City planning with its L'Eixample district. This plan created new neighborhoods with beauty, order, and modern access. They also were composed to allow natural light to the street. When compared to the medieval layout and seeming chaos of the Gothic Quarter, the wisdom of the planning of the L'Eixample is stunning. 

The City also has huge parks (the hilltop Montjuc) and plaza's. The very heart of the city is the Plaza Calalunya. it is a lovely open space filled with fountains, families, and lots (and lots) of pigeons.

The Plaza Catalunya

When I was in college one of my best mates was a fellow named Roger. Roger had an architectural hero named Antoni Gaudi. I remember him taking the time to show me some photos of Gaudi Building's and being astonished that anyone ever got hired to design such seemingly bizarre stuff.  

First off Gaudi's work was designed and built mostly in the late 1800's and just at the turn of the 21st century. So (to a college kid who was very much into Mies, Charles Moore, and SOM) Gaudi's era seemed pretty danged old to me. After all, Gaudi was in the thick of the Art Nouveau (or Modernisme) movement (i.e. think dazzling classic Paris "Metro" stops).

But Gaudi's work goes a few train stops past anything anyone else was doing at the time. He designed his buildings in Barcelona with sinuous lines and amazingly complex looking structures. Yet the structures were all based on catenary curves which he determined were extremely stable minimizing structural support. He put lots of mythic imagery into everything he designed. Which included parks, sculpture, gates, and buildings. He had a thing about straight lines, avoiding them whenever possible.

Tuesday on the bus we saw many of Gaudi's buildings and then toured two on Thursday; the stunning Sagrada Familia Cathedral (still actively under construction - strictly using donations over 100 years later), and the last housing project he built before his death - the 1906 Casa Mila apartment block.

The "Silly Sand" Sagrada Familia

The two major facades at each end of the transept of the Sagrada Familia represent the life of Jesus (below - which unfortunately had pretty bad light for photographs) was the only facade completed in Gaudi's lifetime. The other side depicts The Passion (above) and terrors of hell (above) was finalized in a much more stark style.  

The "Gaudi" Side

The interiors of Gaudi's buildings were like nothing I've ever seen. I include two photos, one that shows the structure and one that shows some of the windows.  The scale of the building is huge (the choir loft alone seats 1200 choristers) and the steeples of the cathedral can be seen from almost anywhere in Bareclona. Yet the highest spire is yet to be built!

Gaudi is buried in the Church.

   

The Stained Glass Windows 

     

The Interior of the Nave With its Tree-like Columns

Gaudi Determined the Proportions of His Catenary Curves
By Hanging Chains Upside Down 
Noting the Natural Shape They Produced

The progress on the Cathedral over the past twenty years is remarkable, but it still probably won't be completed in my lifetime. If it is, I'm coming back to see it.  

The cathedral has had its setbacks including being burned, sacked, and terribly damaged in the 1930's by the mobs during the Spanish Civil War.

The Casa Mila is vastly different. But it shows remarkable foresight. It has two light wells that allow almost every room in every apartment to be flooded with natural light (even storage rooms). All units were reached by a lift (again 1906!), and it contained an underground garage! All of the rooms in each apartment flow one into another. Its attic even had a use (for servants to dry clothes without unsightly rooftop clothes lines).  

Needless to say it owners have always been from the very privileged classes.   

Casa Mila

The Roof Top

(All the little windows below the roof allowed for needed  ventilation to dry clothes in the attic)

The Entry and Auto Drive Lane to the Basement Garage

Casa Batllo

(Did not get in to tour, just walked by at night)

What an amazing couple of days. Seeing Gaudi's work had a profound impact on me and will undoubtedly affect the way I view the built world for the rest of my life.

Roger was on to something.

Still to come Friday's shots of the Palace of Catalan Music and random shots from Saturday (including some shots of candy stalls at La Bouqeria La Ramblas). 
 

Roadboy's Travels © 2010