Gaudi: Nature Complexity

In the middle of the industrial revolution when the steam engine was the driving force of the moment and the vehicle which made possible the greatest advances known to man, the idea of a computer was nothing of what we know today- perhaps the Chinese Abacus being the closest in definition. When the humanist ideals and the explosion of modernism facilitated by the emergence of standardization, Man made it clear that he had to dominate and be above the landscape. His creation was the greatest achievement and the landscape its canvas. Antoni Gaudi, an architect who might have been ahead of his time, looked at nature find inspiration. He was able to create complex geometry without the technology that we have available today. And he did it just by observing.

Gaudi constantly used nature as his main inspiration; we can see it in the structures, colors and rhythms. The comparisons with animals and vegetables, the constant movement of its shapes, are present in his mature works. He looked how nature defies gravity, study its nature; the shapes of the cove or a mountain, how animals build their shelter and how they structured society. His perceptions about details made him produce unique pieces in the History of Architecture.

In addition, Gaudi designed a method to analyze structures by a hanging model. He designed the Colonia Guell Church with this innovative technique. He integrated the parabolic arch and hyperboloid structures, nature's organic shapes, and the fluidity of water into his architecture. Gaudi designed many of his structures upside down by hanging various weights on interconnected strings or chains, using gravity to calculate catenaries for a natural curved arch or vault. Gaudi spent ten years working on studies for the design, and developing this new method of structural calculation. The outline of the church was traced on a wooden board (1:10 scale), which was then placed on the ceiling of a small house next to the work site.
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