PDF - Gaudi and the Innovation of Sagrada Familia
Gaudí and the Innovation of Sagrada Família
Sagrada Família, located in Barcelona, Spain, started its life as a Neo-Gothic church. The transfer of its design to Antoni Gaudí would mark the beginning of a prolific project that would grow much larger than its creator, span over a century, and inspire generations to innovate in their design, modeling, and construction methods. At a time when Modernism favored right angles and minimalist boxes, Gaudí designed in forms inspired by nature, yet still rationalized by a geometric framework. In his work, he brought forth imaginative and effective responses to the environment, the characteristics of the plot, the surrounding landscape, and the programmatic needs of the client, as well as a curiosity and desire to push the limitations of new materials becoming increasingly available. His imaginative solutions based on practical and repeatable systems were uncommon. He showed an acute understanding of space, sequential relationships, and adapting programmatic needs to functional requirements.
During the mid-nineteenth century, architecture in Europe was firmly rooted in styles of the past. Darwinism and a new understanding of evolution created a reverence for what came before, with an almost scientific organization of what building styles were considered appropriate and spoke to function. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution brought forth a variety of new materials and techniques that were strong and lightweight — characteristics at odds with the heavy, highly ornamented constructions that came before.
Certain architects searched for a path beyond rigid adherence to historical styles into what would become Modernism. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and theorist who first achieved prominence in the Gothic branch of historicism. He later asserted that Gothic principles — forms and building techniques conceived through novelties of geometry with the goal of visible structural lightness — are not an end goal, but a means for creating a new style that spoke to the present. He believed it would be immensely valuable to apply Gothic principles to iron construction, because through a rational system, functional architecture is achieved. This "organic rationalism" was influential to early Modernists because structure was created from a system of parts working together, and forms were dictated by the structural needs of the building.
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was born in 1852 in provincial Catalonia, an era of political upheaval in Spain during which Catalan regionalists demanded political autonomy. From this climate arose a group of intellectuals and artists, imbued with an intense nationalism, who brought forth a revival of Catalan culture.
As a young architect, Gaudí found interest in Mediterranean and Iberian architectural traditions that he would carry throughout his career. Alhambra, a Moorish palace-citadel in southern Spain, presented characteristics of the regional style that Gaudí would incorporate into his designs — most notably, its dense surface ornamentation. Islam specifically prohibits the worship of false idols, including representational images of religious leaders, so the spirit of a higher power is instead portrayed through abstract, highly regulated geometries. Although Gaudí did incorporate representational portrayals of religious figures in his ornamentation, the density with which he covered surfaces reflects a similar impulse. From the beginning, Gaudí practiced an architecture in which the study of forms and the detailed analysis of each project sought solutions where structure and ornamentation went hand in hand. A naturally inspired decoration was combined with a structural design devoid of any superfluous elements. Known as ruled surface geometry, he developed this method from detailed analysis of geometric forms. Biomorphic and geomorphic geometries appeared in his work as a rational means to imitate nature's structural and functional beauty.
This development enabled Gaudí to abandon masonry in favor of molded concrete. By incorporating repetitive geometries into the design, parts of construction could be manufactured, reducing the cost of labor. A combination of three geometries — hyperbolic paraboloid, helicoid, and hyperboloid — allowed the transfer of loads through the column with minimum weight and thickness, allowing more light into the nave. The hyperboloid vaults are cast from the molds of full-scale plaster models, sprayed with layers of concrete and reinforced with bars. Whether these patterns were the inspiration for his forms is hard to say, but it is an example of Gaudí's ability to find inspiration in unlikely places and apply it in unconventional ways.
Gaudí was not the only creator of his time who found inspiration in nature. Art Nouveau, a late Victorian decorative arts movement originating in Paris that emphasized movement and natural shapes, spread through Brussels and Barcelona. Although the movement faded quickly in Paris and Brussels, in Barcelona it paved a pathway for Gaudí's massive, undulating designs. It is said that his forms came from a misinterpretation of Viollet's "organic rationalism," taking the term literally to design shapes resembling bones or parts of a tree. It was the product of a man who lived in isolation from any personal contact with his contemporaries beyond the Pyrenees.
Shortly after finishing architecture school, Gaudí met Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, a Catalonian businessman. Following the loss of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, a class of wealthy investors, including Güell, sought opportunities in new industries. The need for artificial cement grew with the development of reinforced concrete technology, and Güell founded the Asland company in 1901, building the first cement plant in Catalonia. In what would become a thirty-year patronage and friendship, Güell enabled Gaudí to develop his unique style through a series of high-profile buildings throughout Barcelona.
Sagrada Família was commissioned by Josep Maria Bocabella i Verdaguer, founder of the Spiritual Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph. It would be dedicated to Joseph as the head of the Holy Family, seen as a way to reassert family values that the Devotees regarded as having been eroded by the rampant materialism of nineteenth-century industrial expansion. Construction began in 1882, overseen by Gaudí's teacher, Francesc de Paula del Villar, who supervised through the completion of the capitals inside the crypt. After a disagreement with the foreman, de Paula stepped away and Gaudí was hired as replacement. Gaudí started work on Sagrada Família in 1884, at thirty years old.
A devout Catholic himself, Gaudí initially split time between Sagrada Família and other projects, contributing to the international dialog of Modernism by defending all things innovative and insisting that straight lines do not exist in nature. In 1914, without many other commissions, he turned his full focus to the design and construction of the temple. He observed the construction process, sketched building phases on site, and picked up tools himself to complete a job to his satisfaction.
Although Gaudí's designs were densely ornamented, structure and material were always intentional. He designed the columns with a strong inward lean to absorb the thrust that flying buttresses would usually manage, making buttressing unnecessary — whether for practical reasons or shocking visual effect, it was consistent with his aspiration to hide or remove elements considered essential.
The spatial layout of Sagrada Família contains no surprises, a result of its early Neo-Gothic design. In plan, it could be mistaken for a late-Gothic cathedral — a basilical, Latin cross plan building with five longitudinal naves and three more forming the transept, surrounded by a rectangular cloister. The original design incorporated twelve perimeter towers symbolizing the Apostles, standing 95 to 115 meters high, and six large towers inside. The central tower, at 170 meters, represents Jesus Christ and is surrounded by four 125-meter Evangelists towers and the 120-meter tower of the Virgin Mary above the apse.
The Nativity Facade — the northeast portal, including the St. Barnabas tower — is the only piece of Gaudí's grand design that he personally oversaw to completion. It depicts different episodes of Jesus' childhood and resembles the portals of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, if they had been melted down. Sculptures were made from casts of live subjects, depicting the sick, poor, and needy rather than an idealized view of society. His carefully regulated geometries fold into adornments that create a holistic, emotional experience of the Catholic faith. In a manner that has become aesthetically contentious, Gaudí managed to carve away the stone into an abstract and illusory world of grottos, caves, mountains, and heavens, furnished with highly scenographic statuary by some of the most renowned Modernista sculptors of the day.
In his final years, when construction funds became scarce, Gaudí turned his focus to the pinnacles of the towers above the Nativity Facade. He was aware that other parts of the temple, like the roof, would require a material solution to meet the structural requirements of his design. Over the course of his career, concrete technologies had evolved and spread throughout Europe, but his understanding of the material as a structural element had remained limited. The pinnacles, although large, would not require much structural support, and he used their design as an opportunity to test the possibilities of reinforced concrete. Along with ruled surface modeling, these tests enabled Gaudí to create the structure needed to support the temple's interior.
Following Gaudí's death, there was debate over whether construction should continue. Internationally renowned architects like Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto proposed that the church be left as is, a monument to Gaudí's genius. The counter-argument — which ultimately won — was that the church was intended to be something bigger than the sum of its parts. As a result, it is the last cathedral to which the classic concept of an evolutive construction process, spanning over a century, can be applied. The construction of a church on an extended timeline is not unusual, particularly in the Gothic style. The Abbey Church of St.-Denis was originally constructed in the 9th century, underwent reconstruction of its facade around 1130, and remained under construction until the 1230s. Like Sagrada Família, it presents a development and several evolutions of style and method.
Supervision of construction was taken over by Domènec Sugranes, one of Gaudí's disciples. In 1935, construction halted as Sugranes left to fight in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, during this lapse, the temple was vandalized and set on fire, destroying Gaudí's archives. The project was saved by the fact that Gaudí created primarily models rather than drawings in his design process. Built from fire-resistant clay, his models survived well enough to be rebuilt.
To build the models, all the model makers needed to know was the central vertical axis and the profile of each hyperbolic surface — intersecting lines mirrored the center of each form, and if one form was larger than the other, the curve bent toward it. Without ruled surface modeling, there would be no method of interpreting the system used to design this project. Construction is dictated by the reverse-engineering of how Gaudí's models were produced.
Construction resumed in 1952, and has proceeded according to the criteria of whoever is supervising at a given time. Graphic techniques developed by Gaudí's successors have aided in construction, and the application of computer graphics to the ruled surfaces has allowed them to be designed more accurately and made other parts of the vaults viable — defining Gaudí's geometry and modulation, as well as their mechanical and structural conditions. In 1976, the four towers of the southwest transept were unveiled. In 1988, Josep Maria Subirachs was hired to render the Passion Facade. In contrast to the Nativity Facade, Subirachs' sculptures are smooth, stark, and graphic — a dramatic departure from Gaudí's original design that caused controversy and raised questions about how architects and artists should interpret original intent.
As the longest-running construction project in the world, Sagrada Família has become a bucket list destination for travelers from all over the world. Construction is now financed entirely through entrance fees and private donations. Construction of the Glory Facade, which will give direct access to the central nave, began in 2002. Completion is scheduled for 2026, the 100-year anniversary of Gaudí's death.
If justification is needed for proceeding with construction after the loss of its mastermind, it is that Gaudí's architecture developed in response to innovative materials and techniques. By propelling that innovation forward in service of completing his magnum opus, we celebrate his legacy — and the world is gifted with an iconic building that provides a transcendental experience unlike anywhere else. The story of Gaudí and Sagrada Família is a testament to the will of humans and our capabilities.