Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish architect. He designed a couple of remarkable buildings and other objects in and outside Barcelona, of which Sagrada Família is the most famous.
Antoni Gaudí is considered as one of the founders of the organical architecture. His work belongs to the Art Nouveau / Jugendstil. In Catalonia this style of art is named as Modernisme Catalá.
The youth and study of Gaudí
Gaudí was born in a Catalan place called Reus in 1852. His family was not really wealthy at that time, and Antoni was suffering of the reuma disease from his childhood.
On his seventeenth Antoni Gaudí left to Barcelona to study architecture at the Escola Superior d'Architectura. Gaudí worked with a few architects in that time to make a living. He was a very good, but excentric student.
How Gaudí got his name
Despite the fact that Gaudí was an excentric person, he managed to finish his study. With the handover of Gaudí's diploma the mayor Elie Rogent said: "We have a fool in our middle, or a genius." Remarkable was, that Gaudí was a bit of a dandy at that time, while he basically only lived for his work. He was never married, but rumours tell that he had been engaged once around 1884.
In the time that Gaudí finished his study there was a big variety in the European architecture, which gave him a big chance to develop himself. Gaudí hung around with a lot of intellectual people. He was interested in the Gothic style.
In 1883 Gaudí got the assignment to design Sagrada Família, which was the beginning of his very famous career.
The death of Gaudí
On the 7th of June 1926 Gaudí got ran over by a tram. Altough he was very famous, not many people would have recognized him. That's why taxi drivers refused to take him to the hospital after this terrible accident.
Three days later Gaudí died. His funeral was one te remember, with many people who loved him as a person and for his remarkable work of art. His body lies in the crypt of Sagrada Família.
Gaudi's materials, construction and way of working
Antoni Gaudí was very practical minded. He worked a lot with scale models instead of drawings, to test the strength of a construction for example. His drawings of buildings were not exact most of the time. When his work was being built he discussed a lot with the construction workers.
Because Gaudí didn't put many things on paper, it's hard for current architects to follow his way of working.
Gaudí's buildings made an extravagant impression to people, but he usually used relativily cheap material. For example the mosaïcs he made were made out of leftovers from ceramic companies.
The designs of Gaudí
Below is a list of Gaudí's designs:
- Casa Vicens (1883-1889)
- El Capricho (1883-1885)
- Sagrada Família (1883-present)
- Finca Güell (1884-1887)
- Palau Güell (1886-1889)
- Colegio Teresiano (1888-1889)
- Casa Calvet (1898-1900)
- Cripta Colònia Güell (1898-1917)
- Bellesguard (1900-1909)
- Casa Calvet (1898-1900)
- Parc Güell (1900-1914)
- Casa Batlló (1904-1906)
- Casa Milà / La Pedrera (1906-1910)
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