Antoni Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi was an architect from the late 19^th century carrying into the 20^th century working primarily in Spain.  His architectural style varied from those that came before him mainly in the plasticity of his work.  Gaudi took traditional stone materials and used them in a new plastic way to create forms not used before with those materials.  Movement is created in his buildings by using flowing forms rather than hard, flat surfaces.

In Antoni Gaudi’s design of Park Guell many examples of using stone as a plastic element can be seen.  Benches, bridge supports, building facades, and ornamentation are all decorated stone objects in plastic forms.  Gaudi also was a firm believer in the use of color with these decorative forms.  He used color to make the ornamentation stand out and grab attention.  The use of forms and color make the park a much expressed space.  Every person who enters the park can experience it a different way. 

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/barcelona/parc_guell_gaudi_6.jpg

http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/Park_Guell.html/cid_park_guell_skm_002.html

The buildings Gaudi designed also express the new style of designing. Inspired by the arts and crafts movement, Gaudi’s buildings had an individual hand crafted feel to them.  Forms in his buildings, just as in Park Guell, used stone in a plastic way.  Facades appear to be waves of stone flowing across the building.  This can be seen in his building Casa Mila in Barcelona, Spain. 

http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/Casa_Mila.html/cid_aj1076_b.html

These forms display Gaudi’s interest in keeping the spirit of the building alive.  This can be related back to the arts and crafts movement, specifically to Ruskin from the earlier 19^th century.  Ruskin was a strong believer in the spirit of the building as well.  His mentality kept the craftsmen as the most important aspect of the design.  To Ruskin, the beauty of a design could be found in the details of how the architecture is put together.  This definitely relates to Gaudi’s work as well.  His design process did not typically involve a floor plan until late into the project allowing him the freedom to focus on the details without restrictions.  Both of these designers had the philosophy of creating spaces that create emotion among the occupants. 

It is no surprise these two designers were so similar.  Gaudi followed Ruskin’s philosophy and just, in my opinion, improved upon it.  While Ruskin put more emphasis on ornamentation within the structure, Gaudi focused on using the structure as the ornamentation. The way in which Gaudi formed his columns, walls, and ceilings allowed the details to be expressed within the structure and building without having to  add extra ornamentation.  Ruskin differs in this area as he would add to a space leaving the structure of the building rather simple other than where people could interact with it. 

After studying both Ruskin and Gaudi, I can appreciate the groundwork Ruskin did to allow Gaudi to have the success that he did.  Antoni Gaudi’s designs are very similar to Ruskin’s designs when placed side by side as seen below.

http://bored-bored.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/antoni-gaudi-architecture-building.jpg

http://venice.umwblogs.org/files/2008/12/ruskin-41.jpg

The difference between the two comes when Gaudi takes Ruskin’s ideas to the next level by using the very detailed approach into the structure of the forms.  By using plastic forms in his designs, Gaudi separated himself from Ruskin by adding an extra element to his approach.  I don’t think Gaudi could have done this as successfully if Ruskin had not laid down the groundwork earlier in that century.  Ruskin’s philosophy on architecture must have impacted Gaudi and helped him with his designs.

In today’s world we view Gaudi’s work as iconic.  His designs are some of the most visited in the world.  I think they are so well respected because of the amount of detail involved in the designs.  The more we moved away from this style, the less attention we give to the use of structure as an expression of detail.  We don’t design thinking of what forms stones can take and how that can enhance a space when put together, but rather we design with a mentality that resonates more with Ruskin in that we decide what detail we can add to a simple structural system. 

After studying Gaudi, I think architects can take more away from his approach for the buildings of today.  Just as Gaudi applied curves to stonework, architects today could explore what forms more modern materials can take.  We could replace Gaudi’s stone with steel, concrete, or even wood structures.  Who knows what we could find if we explored the expression of a material the way Gaudi did.  Using materials in new ways is a great opportunity to discover a new style to apply to architecture and I for one plan to attempt this in my studio work.