antonigaudí
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Grates
The decorative, organic grates on the outside of Gaudí’s amazing apartments.
You are viewing stuff tagged with antonigaudí.
The decorative, organic grates on the outside of Gaudí’s amazing apartments.
These are BRILLIANT. Gaudí was preoccupied with overseeing every element of his buildings — here, we see his door handles. They were cast from molds made by plunging one’s hand into wet clay. See how closely they mimic the form of the human hand?
The real kicker is how they work — their design conveys their function. Clearly, when you grasp the handle on the left, your hand assumes a pulling motion, whereas when you reposition your hand for the handle on the right, your hand assumes a pushing motion. No “pull” or “push” signs necessary. Perfect.
These are a few of the sculptural elements Gaudí came up with to disguise and shelter the rooftop utilities necessary in a building like these apartments. Stunning in their functionality, durability, and uniqueness.
Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera… see more at the great Wikipedia entry.
Here’s the top of the open-air market I wrote about a few pictures ago. Incidentally, a continuous concrete bench lines the perimeter — Gaudí was obsessed with making chairs that conformed to the human physiology… and these things are a testament to his skill at that. They’re incredibly comfortable! If only all benches were this comfortable.
This style of ceramic work was pioneered by Gaudí: ceramic pieces and glass bottles (trash) were gathered from the streets of early 1900’s Barcelona, then broken. The pieces were fit back together and set in to mortar, producing vivid colors and a unique decorative effect.
I jotted down some of my recollections of the art and architecture of Barcelona when I posted more European pictures today. You may find my pictures and captions of some of the incredible innovations of Antoni Gaudí to be interesting.
Great story about this fountain: it isn’t electrically powered. I’ll explain.
Behind the fountain, set into a hill, is a large open-air hypostyle hall. The sheltered area formed by this hall, and the gravel roof atop it were meant to be used as a marketplace for Park Güell. Here’s the innovation: the gravel roof drains through the center of the columns of the hypostyle hall into a subterranean cistern. When this cistern overflows, the extra water gushes out and runs this fountain. Brilliant.
Park Güell is almost surreal in how far ahead of its time it was — it was meant to be a luxury gated community sitting at the top of Barcelona. The plans for it, with its gatehouses, wall, community markets and spaces, and meticulously planned lots look exactly like modern suburbia on paper. Unfortunately, the park was a financial failure and one of the only houses that was actually built there was Gaudí’s own.
A plaster cut-away of part of the interior of the cathedral.
Here’s a quick physics idea: compression forces can be modeled as tension forces. And that’s exactly what Gaudí did in order to get the angles of his fantastic arches correct.
Take a close look at what’s going on here — this is a photograph that has been turned upside down.
Here’s one the most amazing parts of the whole tour: the cathedral is still under construction, so a small cadre of artists and craftsmen continue their work under the eyes of tourists. One critical component of Gaudí’s method was the use of plaster models — this workshop continues to produce those models so construction can continue.
Modeled after the stone masons and their relatives who worked on the cathedral.
This is the older end of the cathedral, completed while Gaudí was still alive. The stonework simultaneously evokes the heavy Gothic style and yet the proportions and naturalistic bent of the decorations also pull in the Catalan Modernisme movement.
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