A

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBIA

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE

ENGLISH II

TEACHER: LEONARDO LOAIZA RIVERA

PROYECT: ANTONI GAUDI, ARCHITECT OF DREAMS

PREPARED BY: LUKAS BURGOS BETANCURT

MARIA ANTONIA MONTOYA CONCHA

2016

INDEX

JUSTIFICATION
TOPICS
SUB-TOPICS

JUSTIFICATION

People that fighting for their dreams always going to be people who call the attention of other
and are interesting, for this reason Antoni Gaudi is a great example because even with his
disability is a big architect, which is characterized by their models and projects.

With his ability could make her projects in the mind without drawing arquitectural plans.

We thinks thats very interesant how Gaudi understands the geometry and the volume, a lot of
architects dont understand these concepts without studied. Its very admirable and inspired
his imaginative ability that allowed him to project all in his mind before taking to the planes.
Gaudi also made models to represent the ideas of their projects of way tridimensional. All this
gives us too much to think, speak and learn about him.
The Gaudis style is unique, this needs too much creativity, for this is why his works are
recognized in Spain and the world. The combination of architecture and construction with arts,
colors, figures and the nature.

TOPICS

Modern arquitectura
Trencadis
Urban sketchers
Quest for a new arquitectural language
Personalization of your style

SUB-TOPICS

Modern architecture: Gaud's professional life was distinctive in that he never

ceased to investigate mechanical building structures. Early on, Gaud was
inspired by oriental arts (India, Persia, Japan) through the study of the historicist
architectural theoreticians, such as Walter Pater, John Ruskin and William
Morris. The influence of the Oriental movement can be seen in works like the
Capricho, the Gell Palace, the Gell Pavilions and the Casa Vicens. Later on,
he adhered to the neo-Gothic movement that was in fashion at the time, following
the ideas of the French architect Viollet-le-Duc. This influence is reflected in the
Teresian College, the Episcopal Palace in Astorga, the Casa Botines and the
Bellesguard house as well as in the crypt and the apse of the Sagrada Famlia.
Eventually, Gaud embarked on a more personal phase, with the organic style
inspired by nature in which he would build his major works.
During his time as a student, Gaud was able to study a collection of photographs
of Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Mayan, Chinese and Japanese art owned by the
School of Architecture. The collection also included Moorish monuments in
Spain, which left a deep mark on him and served as an inspiration in many of his
works. He also studied the book Plans, elevations, sections and details of the
Alhambra by Owen Jones, which he borrowed from the School's library.He took
various structural and ornamental solutions from nazar and mudjar art, which
he used with variations and stylistic freedom in his works. Notably, Gaud
observed of Islamic art its spatial uncertainty, its concept of structures with
limitless space; its feeling of sequence, fragmented with holes and partitions,
which create a divide without disrupting the feeling of open space by enclosing it
with barriers.

Undoubtedly the style that most influenced him was the Gothic Revival, promoted
in the latter half of the 19th century by the theoretical works of Viollet-le-Duc. The
French architect called for studying the styles of the past and adapting them in a
rational manner, taking into account both structure and design.Nonetheless, for
Gaud the Gothic style was "imperfect", because despite the effectiveness of
some of its structural solutions it was an art that had yet to be "perfected". In his
own words:

The salamander in Park Gell has become a symbol of Gaud's work.

After these initial influences, Gaud moved towards Modernisme, then in its
heyday. Modernisme in its earlier stages was inspired by historic architecture. Its
practitioners saw its return to the past as a response to the industrial forms
imposed by the Industrial Revolution's technological advances. The use of these
older styles represented a moral regeneration that allowed the bourgeoisie to
identify with values they regarded as their cultural roots. The Renaixena
(rebirth), the revival of Catalan culture that began in the second half of the 19th
century, brought more Gothic forms into the Catalan "national" style that aimed to
combine nationalism and cosmopolitanism while at the same time integrating into
the European modernizing movement.
Some essential features of Modernisme were: an anticlassical language inherited
from Romanticism with a tendency to lyricism and subjectivity; the determined
connection of architecture with the applied arts and artistic work that produced an
overtly ornamental style; the use of new materials from which emerged a mixed
constructional language, rich in contrasts, that sought a plastic effect for the
whole; a strong sense of optimism and faith in progress that produced an
emphatic art that reflected the atmosphere of prosperity of the time, above all of
the esthetic of the bourgeoisie

Trencandis: Considered one of the best architects of the modernism, Gaud

revolutionized all architecture standards known until the moment.
Probably boosted by his strong interest in bio mimetic, through which he studied
Natures structure and functions, he was also a pioneer in environmental safety
issues, always assuring that not only would his architecture be respectful with the
environment but could almost be considered like an extension of its essence.

Like this, so capable of developing his unbeatable own style, Gaud proposed a
new technique for the facing of his works. This technique, named trencads
promoted recycling at the same time, and it consisted of a mosaic of ceramic
shards made by hand. But, what was the process to take forward this new artistic
manifestation? Using rejected pieces that the collaborating ceramic industries
surrendered, Gaud broke up the ceramic tiles into pieces and then put the
fragments up with mortar. As a result, he got compositions of striking visual
impact. While it is true that the most suitable materials to manage were the
ceramic tiles, glass, marble and stones were also used.

Trencads takes a special role in Casa Batll, using different materials

according to the place and purpose. On the faade, so well known for its
polychrome and maritime reminiscences, the leading role is for the glass, the
only material which reflects the light just like water would. With its colour glass
pieces, which were transferred from Talleres Pelegr workshop, it becomes a
pure fantasy world that changes its tonalities with the different lights during the
day. Some glazed ceramic wheels help to emphasize this feast for the eyes. On
the other hand, the chimneys on the roof have another kind of trencads, made
up of small portions of porcelain and a covering of glass which provides the jewel
effect for which the house is also very well known. The trencads on the back of
the dragon is made up with ceramic with no covering instead. So Gaud used the
same technique but employed it in different ways accordin to the desired effect in
each case.

Urban sketchers: What it towards seeing interesting age that in any place,
always it was observing around it, seeking for geometric forms this way to
develop his proyects. With any material it was representing what him permission
to the mind, of this we can call an urban sketch three-dimensional.

Quest for a new arquitectural language: This study of nature translated into
his use of ruled geometrical forms such as the hyperbolic paraboloid, the
hyperboloid, the helicoid and the cone, which reflect the forms Gaud found in
nature. Ruled surfaces are forms generated by a straight line known as the
generatrix, as it moves over one or several lines known as directrices. Gaud
found abundant examples of them in nature, for instance in rushes, reeds and
bones; he used to say that there is no better structure than the trunk of a tree or
a human skeleton. These forms are at the same time functional and aesthetic,
and Gaud discovered how to adapt the language of nature to the structural
forms of architecture. He used to equate the helicoid form to movement and the
hyperboloid to light. Concerning ruled surfaces, he said:
Paraboloids, hyperboloids and helicoids, constantly varying the incidence of the
light, are rich in matrices themselves, which make ornamentation and even
modelling unnecessary.
Another element widely used by Gaud was the catenary curve. He had studied
geometry thoroughly when he was young, studying numerous articles about
engineering, a field that praised the virtues of the catenary curve as a mechanical
element, one which at that time, however, was used only in the construction of
suspension bridges. Gaud was the first to use this element in common
architecture. Catenary arches in works like the Casa Mil, the Teresian College,
the crypt of the Colnia Gell and the Sagrada Famlia allowed Gaud to add an
element of great strength to his structures, given that the catenary distributes the
weight it regularly carries evenly, being affected only by self-canceling tangential
forces.
Gaud evolved from plane to spatial geometry, to ruled geometry. These
constructional forms are highly suited to the use of cheap materials such as
brick. Gaud frequently used brick laid with mortar in successive layers, as in the
traditional Catalan vault, using the brick laid flat instead of on its side.This quest
for new structural solutions culminated between 1910 and 1920, when he
exploited his research and experience in his masterpiece, the Sagrada Famlia.
Gaud conceived the interior of the church as if it were a forest, with a set of treelike columns divided into various branches to support a structure of intertwined
hyperboloid vaults. He inclined the columns so they could better resist the
perpendicular pressure on their section. He also gave them a double-turn
helicoidal shape (right turn and left turn), as in the branches and trunks of trees.
This created a structure that is now known as fractal. Together with a modulation
of the space that divides it into small, independent and self-supporting modules,

it creates a structure that perfectly supports the mechanical traction forces

without need for buttresses, as required by the neo-Gothic style.Gaud thus
achieved a rational, structured and perfectly logical solution, creating at the same
time a new architectural style that was original, simple, practical and aesthetic.

Personalization of your style:

Orientalist period: During these years Gaud completed a series of works with a
distinctly oriental flavour, inspired by the art of the Middle and Far East (India,
Persia, Japan), as well as Islamic-Hispanic art, mainly Mudejar and Nazari.
Gaud used ceramic tile decoration abundantly, as well as Moorish arches,
columns of exposed brick and pinnacles in the shape of pavilions or domes.
Neo-Gothic period: During this period Gaud was inspired above all by mediaeval
Gothic art, but wanted to improve on its structural solutions. Neo-gothic was one
of the most successful historicist styles at that time, above all as a result of the
theoretical studies of Viollet-le-Duc.[102] Gaud studied examples in Catalonia,
the Balearic Islands and Roussillon in depth, as well as Leonese and Castillian
buildings during his stays in Len and Burgos, and became convinced that it was
an imperfect style, leaving major structural issues only partly resolved. In his
works he eliminated the need of buttresses through the use of ruled surfaces,
and abolished crenellations and excessive openwork.
Naturalist period: During this period Gaud perfected his personal style, inspired
by the organic shapes of nature, putting into practise a whole series of new
structural solutions originating from his deep analysis of ruled geometry. To this
he added a great creative freedom and an imaginative ornamental style. His
works acquired a great structural richness, with shapes and volumes devoid of
rational rigidity or any classic premise.
Final period:
During the last years of his career, dedicated almost exclusively to the Sagrada
Famlia, Gaud reached the culmination of this naturalistic style, creating a
synthesis of all of the solutions and styles he had tried until then. Gaud achieved
perfect harmony between structural and ornamental elements, between plastic
and aesthetic, between function and form, between container and content,
achieving the integration of all arts in one structured, logical work.
The first example of his final stage can be seen in a simple but very ingenious
building, the Sagrada Famlia schools, a small school for the workers' children.
Built in 1909, it has a rectangular ground plan of 10 by 20 metres (33 ft 66 ft),

and contained three classrooms, a vestibule and a chapel. It was built of exposed
brick, in three overlapping layers, following the traditional Catalan method. The
walls and roof have an undulating shape, giving the structure a sense of
lightness but also strength. The Sagrada Famlia schools have set an example of
constructive genius and have served as a source of inspiration for many
architects, such is their simplicity, strength, originality, functionality and geometric
excellence.
Casa Vicens(Orientalist period)

Casa Calvet(Naturalist period)

Casa Botines (Neo-Gothic period)

La sagrada familia (Final period)