Antonio Gaudi Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Antonio Gaudi - Research Paper ExampleUsing modern decorative tools of ceramics, glass and color of the Art Nouveau school, he introduced innovative techniques in the processing of materials. By the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, Gaudi had secured his place as an architect beyond orthodox modernism, creating a personal style based on the watching of nature, using its geometric patterns as well as color, texture and structural and decorative allusions to emulate nature in architecture. Now, nearly one hundred and threescore years after his birth, and over seventy since his tragic death in a street accident, Gaudi has finally transcended his local fame as a Spanish word picture and become internationally recognised as the prime architect of the modern city of Barcelona. His famed Sagrada Familia, a cathedral of enormous architectural and landmark proportions, is recognized not only as a design phenomenon of universal importance, but as a study contribu tion to modern ideas regarding religious architectural representation. art object Gaudis work was initially met with incomprehension, mockery and outright hostility from both the professional architectural world and the populace of Barcelona, the passing of term and further exam has been kinder. His work now is considered the prime example of nature combined with architecture in its purest, most original and spectacular forms. Evidence of this is replete in his major works. A Dedication to Natural Form Religiously dedicated to the extreme from childhood, plagued by rheumatic ailments from an early age, Gaudi, unable to play with other children, spent time observing the world around him and drawing what he saw. It was during this time that he developed his keen observation of the elements in nature destined to later beguile his architectural designs. Somewhat of a mathematical genius, throughout his life Gaudi also studied natures angles and curves and incorporated them into his designs and mosaics. Hyperboloids and paraboloids he borrowed from nature were easily reinforced by mark rods, allowing his designs to resemble elements from the environment. In Gaudis view, Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the Creator.1 Given this, and his religious bent on(p) coupled with a childhood spent ill, isolated and contemplative in the country, it is not surprising that Gaudis design sense would reflect his intense interrelation with God and nature. The elements found in Gaudis nature-inspired work--sometimes alluded to as biomimetic, are obvious to the informed structural observer catenary arches, spiral stairways, conoid-shaped roofs, and a new type of tree-inspired mainstay that uses hyperbolic paraboloids as its base. Ornamental aspects have their own identifiers honeycomb gates, vine-inspired frieze, diatom-shaped windows, gargoyles depicting animals displaced by the churchs construction, and pinnacles in the form of grasses and pyrite crystals. Gaudis loyalty to nature is always reflected in his insistence upon color, as nature does not present us with any object that is monochrome or completely undifferentiated in colour.2 Following in that vein, the artist went well beyond color in his quest for the incorporation and refection of natural elements. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Gaudi for his models