Antoni Gaudí & his works

What can I say? In my opinion, his architecture designs are one of the most unique and imaginative I've seen. I can't claim to know a lot about architecture; I'll leave that to architecture students and arts people. But I have always been interested in architecture/buildings that are different from the usual squarish boring blocks and skyscrapers, such as Frank Gehry's works (of which I have managed to see one: the Dancing House in Prague).

But anyway, back to Antoni Gaudi. You can read his history etc. in Wikipedia so I'll cut most of that out. On our Barcelona trip we managed to see some of his works. On the 2nd day: Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, which are both along Passeig de Gràcia. Nothing much I can say about Casa Batlló except that it kinda has a skeletal and sea theme to it. I liked the balconies. All in all a stark contrast with the buildings next to it:

As I mentioned in a previous post, it was expensive to enter Casa Batlló so we skipped it and entered Casa Milà instead. It was cheaper and there were audio guides (though some weren't functioning well). Casa Milà is also known to the locals as "La Pedrera" ("The Quarry"), and this is because of its mountain/rocky look. We got to view the floor directly below the attic, and there were rooms there furnished based on early 20th century styles. Gaudi designed the rooms to have a lot of natural light (except for the maid's room. Oh well). The curvy designs were a breath of fresh air compared to modern squarish/sharp-edged houses.

At the attic was a permanent display on Gaudi's works. There was one thing that fascinated me a lot. Imagine holding a string by its ends (not too far apart) and letting it hang naturally. This was one of the ways Gaudi designed his arches. In fact, he had whole building designs based on this principle. He would create an upside-down model using chains hung from the roof and place a mirror below to see its reflection:

The reflection of the "chain-model"

The audio guide mentioned that nowadays computers are used to design such arches (with equations and what not. Look up Catenary), but there were of course no computers in his time. He was ahead of his time.

Catenary arches

Apart from buildings, Gaudi actually took a step further and designed door knobs and furniture as well. And they were actually relatively ergonomic:


The highlight (at least for me) was the roof terrace. It was basically a sculpture's playground. The best thing was that it was nearing dusk so the sculptures were basking in an evening glow, and the colour of the sky complemented the sculptures really well (of course, there were also additional floodlights around).

You can get funny faces through the holes!

Me and Seungwon

One of my favorite photos to date. Thanks a million to the wonderful photographer Bernard!

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So the next day, we went to the most famous Gaudi work of all, the yet uncompleted La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family). Since it is a church there are many designs and symbolic references to Christ, Christianity and the Bible. As of now only 8 of the 18 towers are completed. 12 towers represent the Twelve Apostels, 4 towers (taller) represent the Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), 1 tower (yet taller) represents the Virgin Mary, and the tallest tower of all represents Jesus Christ.



There are 3 main façades, of which 2 are more or less completed: The Nativity façade and the Passion façade. The façades are also main entrances into the church and they have a lot of symbolic sculptures, carvings etc., presenting the life of Christ etc.

"Magic Square" (not very magical actually. notice that 14 and 10 are repeated). The numbers add up in many ways to 33, the number of years Christ lived on Earth.

Fruits at the top (yes, they were meant to be fruits based on Gaudi's directive)!

The interior... equally amazing. There were different-coloured columns which were so because they were made from different materials, and were chosen based on how much load the columns had to bear. Couldn't understand parts of the audio guide coz there were a lot of technical terms concerning church architecture. The columns branched out near the top, looking like trees (in fact, they were kinda designed to imitate nature).

The main hall (dunno what's the technical term)

We paid (and queued) to go up one of the towers.

View of 2 of the older towers from one of the newer ones

The way down. Nothing to hold on to at the centre so kinda dangerous I think.

There was also a museum in the basement, which showcased the designs, models and history of La Sagrada Familia.

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Later the same day we went to yet another project of Gaudi's, Park Güell. This was meant to be a residential area for the rich, but it seemed like a really fairyland/children's playground type of place. The 2 buildings at the entrance resemble Gingerbread houses. Walking up from the entrance you'll see the famous multicolored mosaic dragon fountain.

One of the "gingerbread houses"

Tickling its chin (actually also to wash my hand as it was a bit dirty).

Behind the dragon is what was meant to be the marketplace. There are 86 columns, and they support the sandy open area above. Anyway, most of the columns that we saw at the park usually supported something above, such as a pathway, but if you were to walk along the pathway you wouldn't realise there were colums below.

The Marketplace

Extra column of a woman figurine (and Seungwon).

Ah... I felt like Lord Elrond (Lord of the Rings) looking out from the balcony at Rivendell.

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Well, that's all I have. If you wanna read more just click on the links I've provided above.

Will be visiting my German friend René this Friday in Tübingen, and will come back on Sunday from Stuttgart.