Non Gaudy Gaudi : Simon Perry: Schemes, dreams & trivia

"He'll be haunted by that, not for the rest of his life, but until the day he dies." Alex Salmon, Politic show (source:Colemanballs, Private Eye)

Non Gaudy Gaudi

6th October 2003 by Simon

I’ve often found a lot of Gaudi’s work a bit too Gaudy - it’s the coloured tiles I find too much. Watching a documentry on the TiVo and I was introduced to two new building by him that, for me, take him to another level - Colegio Teresano and Cripta Colonia G�ell.

Located in Coloma de Cervell�, Barcelona, the Cripta Colonia G�ell was the only section that was actually build of a planned great cathederal. I learnt that Gaudi used amazingly advanced techniques in its planning. To work out the buildings shape, Gaudi dropped a string down from each of the intended supporting pillars points, these were then tied together horizontally and the scaled weights, representing the down force, were hung from them. This model was then turned upside down and this was to form the shape of the building, but sadly only the crypt was built as the finance for the project ran out. The interior of the built structure looks engineeringly impossible, as if it would fall at any moment.

It was the fantasic simplicity of the Colegio Teresano that appealed to me so much. Very plain, pure structures that illustrated the power of repeated simlple geometric shapes. It couldn’t be further removed from hugely detailed frontage of Sagrada Familia. If you are interested, it is at 325 calle de Ganduxer, Barcelona.

I’m going to Barcelona next year for the wedding of two good friends, Estefania & Max and plan to visit both of these sites, as well as the compulsary visit to the Mies Barcelona Pavillion. I’ll post photos.

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