ANTONI GAUDI

ABOUT ANTONI GAUDI � Antoni Gaudi was a Spanish architect, most of whose architect projects

were built in Barcelona. He was one of the Art Nouveau designers. Art Nouveau is not a conventional style of interior or architecture design, which emphasis natural style. In line with the Art Nouveau philosophy that art should become part of everyday life.

In the seventies of the19th century, Gaudi moved to Barcelona, where after five years of preparatory courses was adopted in the Provincial School of Architecture, from which he graduated in 1878 (Roe 10). Over years his tasks as an architect were getting more and more complicated and sophisticated and soon he went beyond the dominant historical styles within the eclecticism of 19th century, he forever moved to the world of curved surfaces to form his own unmistakable style. Gaudi entirely devoted himself to architecture and remained alone all his life.

SAGRADA FAMILIA �  Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic

church in Barcelona, which has been built on private donations since 1882, which makes it one of the most famous long-term buildings-under-construction. Gaudi alter the draft of the original project, but left the layout of the church in the form of the Latin cross and completely changed the shape and structure of the building. In accordance wi th the pro ject o f Gaudi , the construction was to be crowned with a variety of aspiring skyward monumental towers, and all the elements of the scenery were to get a deep symbolic meaning associated with the Gospel and church ceremonies (Burry 12).

Sagrada Familia

The floor plan shows the relative position of the main elements of the Sagrada Familia. This five-naval church was planned in the form of a Latin cross, which is formed by the intersection of the main nave with a three-nave transept. The apse that is of unusually large size houses the crypt and consists of seven chapels and cloister of the chorus. Cloister surrounds the building and, once the church is finally built, it will connect all the facades of the church. The building, according to the plan, is topped with eighteen towers. Twelve of them, four on each facade, with a height from 98 to 112 meters, are devoted to the twelve apostles (Burry 14-15).

Floor plan

Façade

The Nativity Facade, much of which was created when Gaudi was still alive, is formed with three portals that praise the Christian virtues – Faith, Hope and Mercy. Portals are decorated with sculptures completed in a real is t ic manner that are dedicated to the earthly life of Christ.

His desire is to avoid straight lines, and using geometric shapes with a r u l e d s u r f a c e , s u c h a s a hyperboloid, hyperbolic paraboloid, conoid and the helix. All of these surfaces may be made with a movement of a straight line, and therefore their intersection is a straight line, which greatly facilitates the articulation of the various construction details (Hughes 58).

Interior of Sagrada Familia

CASA BATLLO �  Casa Batllo is a house built in 1877

for the textile magnate Josep Batllo-and-Kasanovasa, who at first was going to demolish the old building in 1875 and replace it with a new one, but Gaudi decided otherwise. Having kept the original structure of the house adjacent to t h e t w o s i d e w a l l s o f t h e neighboring buildings, Gaudi designed two new facades. The main facade overlooks the avenue Passeig de Gracia, the back façade goes inside of the quarter. In add i t i on , Gaud i comp le te l y rescheduled the ground floor and the first floor, having created for them the original furniture, added basement and attic (Lahuerta 18).

Façade Casa Batllo

Towards the main symbol of façade, the most w ide spread is the interpretation that the bui lding r e p r e s e n t s a g i a n t d r a g o n . Bibliographers of Gaudi confirm that a dragon was Gaudi`s favorite fairy-tale character and appeared elements of Gaudi`s architecture. The sword of the Saint is presented in the form of a tower, the facade of the building is presented through sparkling "scales" of a dragon and is littered with bones and "skulls" of dragon`s victims, which may be distinguished in the shapes of columns and balconies (Lahuerta 20).

Façade of Casa Batllo

On the ground floor of the house, there are striking with their unusual shape semicircular windows and deliquescent, like plasticine from the heat, stones. The facade is decorated with mosaic composition of a broken ceramic tiles, iridescent in a variety of colors from gold and orange to green and blue. The most remarkable feature of the house Batllo is the almost complete absence in its design of straight lines. Wavy outlines appear both at decorative details of the facade carved from stone mined on Barcelona's Montjuic Hill, and in the interior (Giralt-Miracle 31).

Façade of Casa Batllo

The decoration of the light yard is rather interesting from the architectural point of view. The architect created a play of light and shade in this yard: in order to achieve uniform illumination Gaudi gradually changed the color from white to blue intensifying it when moving from the bottom to the top, and completed with the surge of blue smoke in the decoration and ventilation pipes (Giralt-Miracle 28).

Courtyard in the middle of the house

The interior of the house is still wonderful. A visitor can see a chandelier in the shape of sun, as if it is emerging from the depths of the waves of the ceiling, stair railings and furniture from the "soft" wood, ceramic lining of cozy colors of faded blueprints and lots of stained glass inserts, which are completed in luminous colors of gooseberry jam (Giralt-Miracle 30).

Interior

CASA MILA � 

Casa Mila is another house, built by Antonio Gaudi in the years 1906-1910 in Barcelona for the Mila family. Casa Mila was the last work of Gaudi. The building was highly technological for the epoch it was built in. It has a system of natural ventilation, an owner of an apartment in this house can move any interior wall in his flat. The garage also has an underground garage. The building is constructed with reinforced concrete structure with bearing columns but without bearing and supporting walls (Nonell 97-98).

Façade of Casa Mila

The house includes three courtyards, one of which has a round shape and two other are elliptic. These architectural elements fill the inner space of the building with a sufficient amount of light and fresh air. Almost every room has a window that receives the light of day, which was a novelty and luxury at the time the house was built (Nonell 101).

Courtyard of Casa Mila

The floors are organized around a patio for optimal ventilation and maximum access of daylight. Facades overlooking the patio are covered with polychrome painting, mainly with floral motifs. Floral decoration and murals inspired with mythological motifs are also present at the ceilings and walls of two entrance halls and the main staircase (Nonell 103-104).

Interior of Casa Mila

The roof with wavy outlines follows the rhythm of the main facade, with alternation of different elements: stairwells, ventilation and chimneys. Free and open to interpretation and symbolism forms of these elements are not deliberate, despite their quirkiness but meet their utilitarian function. Many of them are covered with mosaics of fragments of bat ceramics, pebbles, marble and glass (Roe 132).

Roof of Casa Mila

Attic is one of the most interesting design solutions in the architecture of Gaudi. This room in Casa Mila once was intended for washing and hanging clothes. Its ceiling rests on 270 arches in the shape of a catenary and is built of flat bricks. Today it houses a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of Gaudi. This room is full of drawings, sketches and drafts, photographs and documentaries belonging to Antonio Gaudi or about him (Nonell 142).

Attic of Casa Mila

SOURCE: � Burry, M. Gaudi Unseen: Completing the Sagrada Familia. University of California, 2007. Print.

Giralt-Miracle, D. Casa Batllo, Gaudi. Casa Batllo, 2012. Print.

Hughes, R. Barcelona. Knopf, 2002. Print.

Lahuerta, J. Casa Batllo: Gaudi. Triangle Postals, 2003. Print.

Nonell, J. Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect. Abbeville Press, 2000. Print.

Roe, J. Antoni Gaudi. Parkstone, 2006. Print.