Who is Antoni Gaudi?

Antoni Guadi was Barcelona based spanish architect whose designs were often greatly inspired by nature in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
Born in Catalonia 1852, he showed an early love and enthusiasm for architecture. He studied in Barcelona and graduated from the Provincial School of Architecture in 1978 after completing military service.

During the same year, he displayed a showcase he’d produced at the Paris Worlds Fair. , It impressed everyone attending - including a patron that lead to Gaudi working on the Guel Estate and Guell Palace. 5 years later, he was given the opportunity to design and construct Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia (the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family). Previous drawings and construction had already started to begin, but Guadi changed the design so much it was almost unrecognisable from the original drawings.

In the 1890s he experimented with designing gothic and baroque architecture, including some designs that will be shown later in the video.

In the 1900s his designs were so different that classification of his work became impossible. His own style of architecture, equilibrated architecture, means that a structure can stand on its own without internal bracing, or external buttressing. His equilibrated systems was used when constructing two now famous Barcelona apartment - Casa Batllo and Casa Mila.

In 1910 everything changed as he dropped all his work to focus on designing La Sagrada Familia, which he had initially started in 1883. He literally lived onsite in his workshop. The church again used his equilibrated methods, but also took some styles from cathedral gothic and Art Nouveau styles. Mixing all these styles meant that he again presented something unrecognisable.

He died suddenly in 1926 after being hit by a trolley car. His Sagrada Familia masterpiece is due to be completely built in 2026, to mark the 100 year anniversary of his death.

The following are some of his best designs throughout his career.

5) Church of Colonia Guell
Although unfinished by Guadi, it is still incredible to think what it would have looked like if the Spanish architect has completed it. He was initially given unlimited funds - an architect's dream - but the Guell family cut funding after deciding it would be too big for a small town.
4) Casa Botines
With the Casa Botines, Gaudí wanted to pay tribute to León's emblematic buildings - meaning he designed with a medieval touch and multiple neo-gothic characteristics. The foundations of the Casa de los Botines were largly debated during the building's construction. Gaudí had envisioned a continuous base, the same type as the city's cathedral. However, local technicians insisted on constructing on pilotis to make the floor, which was located at a great depth, more resistant. Despite rumors that the building would collapse during construction, the house has never had structural problems
3) El Capricho de Guadi
The importance of the Capricho is that they are the first buildings of Gaudí and, therefore, very important works for the evolution of his career as an architect. The buildings success was essential for the trajectory of the whole of his works and defining his style
2) Casa Mila
The name, ‘Casa Milà’ comes from the fact that it was the new home of the Milà family. The couple occupied the main floor and rented out the other apartments. Also Known as La Pedrera (stone quarry) because it resembles an open quarry in appearance, the building features forms drawn from nature.
It was Gaudi’s last work of civic architecture and represented a break with the conventions of his day
1) La Sagrada Familia
What else could number 1 have been? From the start, Gaudi scrapped the original neo-Gothic design plans and exchanged them for a grander vision, unlike any the world had seen. Gaudi, once knowing that he could never fully complete the church said “There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to and with whom it lives and is incarnated”. Until his death in 1926, it’s estimated that only 15-25 had been fully constructed.