Architecture: Antonio Gaudi, Spain

I've been slacking on the art posting, fashion as well, in favor of putting up music, news, and rambles disguised as "fiction". Architecture's been on my mind. I took Professor Syri's European Architecture class my senior year. I knew it was difficult but it was one of those courses you feel like you have to take before you leave Bard. A course that, a year or two after you take it and you feel like a dum dum, you feel like revisiting your notes and readings from. I was late pretty often. I'd wear a tie under my sweater the days I was late just to feel a bit more productive while running (read: walking sluggishly) from Warren Street, across Foss Hill, to the CFA. The one architect I always recalled while looking back at that semester was Spanish Nouveau architect Antonio Gaudi - that is, Antoni Placid Guillem Gaudi i Cornet.


Gaudi studied architecture at the Escola Tecnica Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona in the 1870s. Supposedly he wasn't particularly good but his sketches were excellent. As they named him an architect word is someone said "I don't know if we've just signed on a nut or a genious". He's probably most known for his work on the Sagrada Familia, or rather the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, a massive Roman Catholic church in Barcelona (above). Gaudi worked on the project for over 40 years, spending the last 15 years of his life solely on it. (Though Gaudi passed in 1926, the Sagrada Familia is scheduled to be completed in 2026). 18 towers stand tall - 12 apostles, 4 evenagelists, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ. The interior church plan is that of a Latin Cross with five aisles. There are three facades. Other Gaudi:

Casa Mila:
Casa Vicens:
Palau Guell:
Casa Calvet:
Casa Batllo:
Church of Colonia Guell:

Park Guell:

In 1926 Gaudi was run over by a tram. Cab drivers refused to pick him up for fear of him being unable to pay a fare. He probably wasn't looking too good. He got ran over by a fucking tram! He was taken to a homeless hospital in Barcelona. No one recognized him. When his friends finally did, they asked him to move to a nicer hospital. Gaudi refused. His intention was to die amongst his own, the poor. 3 days later he passed and half of Barcelona mourned his death.