GAUDÍ, Antoni
(b. 1852, Reus, d. 1926, Barcelona)

Cripta de la Colònia Güell: interior

1898-1914
Photo
Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Barcelona

The funicular models for the church, with which Gaudi worked out the arch and vaulting loadings, were a challenge both structurally and aesthetically. Gaudí identified the natural disposition of the given structural form by hanging canvas bags filled with pellets on strings, the weight being proportional to those of the loadings he had calculated. Thus weighted, the strings displayed the shape of the skeleton of the future church. The "frame" of the Colònia Güell contains all the structural forms devised by Gaudí.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.