Antoni Gaudi died 100 years ago today.
He was 73 and spent over 40 years working on La Sagrada Familia (completing 1/4th of entire basilica).
Gaudi’s method for designing it was genius: he hung movable weights on strings and let gravity do the work of showing the proper angles and force vectors for his nature-inspired look.
He then flipped the model upside down to see how to build the columns and arches.
Also inspired by forests and sea life, the legendary architect once said, “there are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature.”
In the final years of his life, Gaudi’s was solely focussed on the project. His diet was lettuce leafs dipped in milk. Lived inside the Basilica and barely slept on a simple cot.
He died after getting hit by a tram while walking aroudn Barcelona. His clothes was so ratty — underwear held together with safety pins — that passerbys thought he was homeless.
The city held a massive funeral for him with 30,000 people packing the streets.
While 3/4 of La Sagrada Familia was undone, Gaudi left enough plans (models, drawings) for future generations.
La Sagrada Familia was largely dormant for a few decades 1930s-1960s (Spanish Civil War, World War II, early Cold War).
Some of Gaudi’s designs were so ahead his time that it would require the development of aeronautical design software to complete his vision.
Gaudi once remarked that “my client” — referring to God — “is not in a hurry”.
There is still work to be done but a major milestone was completed in February: workers installed a cross on top of La Sagrada Familia, making it the tallest church in the world (172.5 meters or 566 feet).
It’s also the tallest structure in Barcelona. But Gaudi intentionally capped the height because “human creation should not pass God’s work.”
The Montjuïc Hill in the southwestern part of Barcelona is ~570 feet.
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Video link:
youtube.com/watch?v=JlL6ZHCh…