Today again was spent searching out buildings that display the works of Gaudí. He graduated in architecture from Barcelona university 1878. At his graduation, the Dean said, "I don't know what we are graduating here today... is it a genius of a lunatic?" Looking at the domestic houses that Gaudí designed... I'm still not sure that question can be answered with certainty.
Gaudí became obsessed with chains and gravity. If you hang a chain from two points, the chain takes the shape of a hyperbola... but not a parabola. As you know, all the churches built up to the 1900's had vaulted ceilings in the arc of a parabola. Quite rightly, Gaudí thought such confusion acted against nature's law handed down by God. He designed only in hyperbola... hanging his chains upside down, building clay models around the chains and presenting the models to the builders... never any drawn plans. The mathematics of hyperbolas are much more complicated than parabolas... finding the points of weakness... using materials with the required strength at the important intersections... all without computers. Historians have been perplexed... how did Gaudí get his arithmetic so right... until some genius discovered why Gaudí had all these boards and chains stacked in his cupboard.
The strange shape of Gaudí's buildings catches the eye... but his fascination with hyperbola also allowed him to work with lighter materials... have more (and bigger) windows and have bigger (higher) arches. His hyperbola could allow more non-weight bearing walls... so, in his apartments, walls could be knocked down and replaced to suit the client.
Based around his understanding of hyperbola, he built an aura of omnipotence... clients would not just ask him to design their building... they would say, "build whatever you like... at whatever cost you like... I just want a Gaudí building". He had license to experiment... fail... and reinvent... rarely given to artists and architects.
Gaudí entered Barcelona at the start of a protracted boom period... when the industrial revolution generated undreamed of wealth. In 1859, the medieval walls of the city were demolished to allow further growth. The city council presented a plan of road grids to be used in future growth. An economic boom gain a full head of steam... industrialists convinced of their own cleverness... seeing a never-ending stream of prosperity being their God given entitlement (a bit like today really). All needed buildings to display their high position in society... and who better to display their status than the genius of Gaudí.
We spent an hour going through the La Pedrera building that Gaudí built at the height of his career. (La Pedrera was the name given to the building by the neighbours because of the external appearance resembling a quarry.) We needed an hour to see all the architectural and artistic features Gaudí designed into the building. Electricity, gas and water were just beginning to be connected to domestic residences... and clear thinking was needed to see how these features should be positioned. Gaudí got it right! He designed the tiles... the furniture... even the handrails in the stairwell... he might have been a control freak as well. We were impressed by the effort he put into designing the chimneys on the roof. He included swirls in the design for artistic effect... for better draft... for better rain protection. Why don't all chimneys have swirls?
He was still working at a prodigious pace when he stepped in front of a tram while walking to a construction site. The industrial revolution that funded his building dreams was (in the end) his undoing.
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