From Gaudi to Gherkin (day thirty-two)

Sagrada Familia

inside sagrada familia

inside

ceiling

bench at Gaudi's Park

building at Gaudi's Park

building

two buildings that look paper thin from this prospective

smoke stack from old mill

Today was a very full day.  Our tour started with Gaudi's unfinished church, Sagrada Familia.  Seeing pictures is nice, you see that it is a cool building, but you don't get the full effect of how amazing this church is.  This building was started by the great architect Antoni Gaudi.  He worked on this project for most of the last days of his life.  He was working so much on the church that he moved to the site so he could work more.  The outside of the structure has a lot of symbolism in it.  There are many bible stories depicted on the outside.  If you think you have seen the best already, think again.  As you walk into the church you are amazed all over again.  The stained glass is gorgeous.  It is unlike most stained glass you will see.  Instead of being a biblical story the stained glass is geometric shapes.  Many different architects have worked on this church, but they are trying to build in Gaudi's style.  Apparently the building is supposed to be done soon.  Gaudi approached this building with a mathematical design.  It was cool to see the model showing how much of the church is already built and how it will look when it is done.

Next we visited another of Gaudi's designs.  It is a park that was originally designed for get a way houses, but no one wanted to build a house like Gaudi proposed and they also desired to have manicured gardens like you would find in England.  This park has indigenous plants and a water system that collects the water into its columns.  At this park Gaudi used the mosaic look. The whole pieces of tile would be broken then arranged in a way that was different then how it started to give variety and unity.

Gaudi’s style is different from other architects I have studied.  His mathematic designs are phenomenal.  Mostly, I enjoy that his style is definitely his own and those who try to copy it usually fail.  At least that is what our tour guide says.  As an aspiring designer I find it important to learn from other designers and architects while building your own style. 

  

For the rest of the day we toured more of the modern section of Barcelona.  We saw some very modern awesome buildings as well as a typical park for Barcelona. I loved getting to see a fish sculpture by yet another great architect, Frank Gehry.  I also got to see the "gherkin" of Barcelona; which is really called, Torre Agbar and is designed by Jean Nouvel.  It is a lot like the Gherkin in London designed by Lord Norman Foster, but colorful. It was a great day to study design