Antonio Gaudi: Architectures, History & All Facts

During his life, Antonio Gaudi built 17 unique buildings with a unique style. The most famous of them is the Redemptive Church of the Sagrada Familia, aka “Sagrada Familia”, but it is still not finished. Let’s get acquainted with the most important facts about the life and work of the great Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi!

All about Antonio Gaudi :

The great architect was born in Catalonia, an autonomous community within Spain. Therefore, he is de jure considered a Spanish architect, but he always considered himself a Catalan, not a Spaniard.
In the biography of Antonio Gaudi, his obsession with the construction of the Sagrada Familia, which became his life’s work, is often mentioned. In his last years, it came to the point that he moved to the construction site, ceasing to appear at home. He often neglected even eating and washing, devoting all his time to work.
The architect did not leave any descendants. In his youth, he proposed to a woman with whom he was in love but was rejected by her, and since then, apparently, he has not had any love interests.
Since childhood, Gaudi suffered from rheumatism, a disease that is characteristic mainly of the elderly. Because of this, he, not being able to play with other children, fell in love with walking alone, and the habit of them remained with him forever.

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The boy’s father and mother came from blacksmith families. Living in the wine-growing area of Tarragona, men in the Antonio family produced equipment for the manufacturers of this drink. Later, Gaudi repeatedly repeated that the boilers and coils (curved pipes), which he observed as a child, formed his habit of thinking in three dimensions. The influence of spiral and curved forms is also clearly visible in the architecture of Antonio.
As a young man, Antonio Gaudi moved to Barcelona, where he studied for five years to get the opportunity to enter an architectural school. He lived in Barcelona almost all his life, and most of the buildings he built are located there.
Interesting fact: Gaudi was not only an architect but also a master of artistic casting. He designed and manufactured fences, gates, benches, and other objects.
His approach to work was also very non-standard. Instead of making drawings and working on them, Gaudi drew sketches, which he then turned into the likeness of three-dimensional objects with the help of a system of mirrors. Some researchers of his work believe that such an unusual approach was because the architect did not wear glasses, although he suffered from astigmatism – one of his eyes was nearsighted, and the other was farsighted.
The Catalan industrialist and philanthropist Eusebi Guel, the richest man in Catalonia, had a huge influence on Gaudi’s life. He was very impressed with the ideas and projects of the young architect, and he made him several expensive orders, which brought Gaudi fame.

He became the chief architect of the Sagrada Familia only because there was a conflict between the first architect and the customer. After the first architect left the project, Gaudi, who was only 31 years old at the time, was invited to take his place.
He continued to work on this project for 44 years, until his death and donated all his savings to it.
The master borrowed the geometric shapes of the columns and arches of the temple from nature. If you look at the vault that crowns the inner part of the nave of the basilica, it resembles the crowns of trees through which the rays of the sun breakthrough. And on the facade, more than 100 species of plants and the same number of animals are reproduced with detailed accuracy.
Having been appointed in 1883 as the builder of the Sagrada Familia, the architect also worked on other, albeit smaller-scale structures, including the Palace in Astorga with notes of neo-Gothic, the Palace of Guel, the House of Calvet, the crypt of the colony of Guel. And the quaint House of Baglio (“House of Bones”) and the House of Mila (“Quarry”) became the personification of the war that Antonio waged with straight lines.
The Mila House project was innovative for its time. Gaudi dreamed of building ramps in it, along which residents could drive up to their apartments even on the upper floors. However, the fantastic idea was cut down by the customer at the root and the ramps were transformed into the first underground parking lot.

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Conclusion :

Hope you have enjoyed the history of the great legend, We have picked some more interesting articles for you to enjoy.

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