http://collections.ecu.edu/files/original/20/573/Gaudi_-_Camille_Kresz_Benjamin_Fraser_[eds].pdf f42a0feece9e0fa8a2427c7eae374185 PDF Text Text Gaudí: Nature, Religion and Politics The documentary Antoni Gaudí by Teshigahara (1984) is a great showcasing of the buildings that were designed by the architect, such as the Casa Milà, Colonia Güell, Park Güell, and the Casa Batlló, but especially the Sagrada Família. The Sagrada Família is of the most famous tourist destinations in Barcelona. This beautiful piece of architecture, like Gaudí’s work in general, veered from the norm of the time. His architectural pieces were like nothing else in the city. While many buildings were very straight edged and industrial, Gaudí worked with a style that was more whimsical and curved, and he even tried to bring in aspects of the natural world. Because it is known as Gaudí’s most famous work, Sagrada Família is the last building shown in Teshigahara’s documentary, and its representation takes up the greatest chunk of time (56:30-1:10:53). His work has allowed for so many advancements to be made in Barcelona, and as a consequence, Gaudí will never be forgotten—his work will live on forever. Today, no one dares to challenge or correct his work or question his stylistic choices; however, this was not always the case. Prior to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) there were people who opposed Gaudí’s work. Some of the intellectuals of the time mocked Gaudí’s creation, including George Orwell who called it “one of the most hideous buildings in the world” (Sobrer 2002: 210). Orwell quoted in his Homage to Catalonia that “the Anarchists had bad taste in not blowing it [Sagrada Família] up when they had the chance” during the Spanish Civil War (Orwell 1938: 225). Gaudí’s work was also representative of Catalan Modernisme, which was opposed by the Noucentistes (Sobrer 2002: 210). However, the traits that define Noucentistes—“noucentisme, imperialisme, arbitrarisme, classicisme, civiltat”—all align with Gaudí’s work as it improves previous architectural styles and encapsulates essence of Barcelona (Sobrer 2002: 211). Today, the Sagrada Família stands as a monument to a vision born of a period of social and ideological conflict; it is a supreme exemplar of values that Gaudí explored in almost all of his works (Kent 2002: 227). It contributes to the “standard, popular, totalizing �vision of Barcelona, figured as a combination of old and new emblematic elements” (Balibrea 2010: 204). Not merely an architectural genius, Gaudí also a member of the Asspciació Catalana d’Excursions Científiques. This group, full mountain aficionados, was a good fit for Gaudí. All of his life, Gaudí has had a special place in his heart for mountains. This affection and interest only grew when Gaudí began to establish solid philosophies towards nature. He took inspiration from another architect, Paul Abadie, the designer of a Parisian church located on the mountain Montmartre. However, Gaudí took a different approach to Abadie’s idea. He decided to forego using Barcelona’s mountains, Montjuïc and the Collserola range, and instead turn Barcelona into a mountain itself. To accomplish this, Gaudí toyed with the relationship between Barcelona’s neighboring city and the Sagrada Família (Sobrer 2002: 205-06). Rarely is a mention of Barcelona made without a reference to Antonio Gaudí—known for his unique and modern style that has made is works iconic. He drew many of his influences from nature and paid close attention to detail in his structures. His work manages to be “genuinely and forthrightly modern while still incorporating regional differences” (Hughes 2004: 113), an aspect that is important for Catalan architectural nationalism , as outlined by architect Domènech i Montaner. In most if not all of his plans Gaudí let religion, in addition to nature, inspire his design of the buildings. Heaven, or Paradise, was an inspiration for Gaudí. He incorporated his thoughts of what he thought Paradise is like into many of his works, not just Sagrada Família. When he designed and built Park Güell for example, “Gaudí created the garden with a series of references to Paradise” (Kent 2002: 226). Gaudí’s work also incorporated some political influences. When he was getting the original financing for the Sagrada Família done, he was able to reach across class lines to get people to donate to the project. Sobrer points out this fact, writing that “Gaudí himself, in his fund-raising efforts, spoke of sacrifice, of giving ‘til it hurts’ as he gathered contributions from �all runs of society” (Sobrer 2002: 218). This was unusual, as most of the time it was just people from the upper class that would donate to such projects and finance them. People from lower classes helping with funding was something that was not as common. He was also motivated by a populist impulse as he used techniques like trencandís and maqueta funicular, notably for the construction of Parc Güell. Trencadís is using broken tile from various sources to tile and decorate a specific item, there are different pictures and colors included when using this method. Gaudí asked people to bring him broken pieces of tile. There is also a deeper meaning to trencadís, as Josep Sobrer discusses in his article “Against Barcelona”: “in symbolic terms, trencadís exalts the poor, the broken, the outcast” (Sobrer 2002: 212). Gaudí did not just use tile from the rich, and that is one way that Gaudí was able to uplift the poor. Maqueta funicular is a technique using buckshot and string, or chain, to calculate the shape of arches and inclination of columns. Gaudí’s techniques, like his work, are also criticized for their anti-intellectualism and reactionary conservatism (Sobrer 2002: 213). However, the evolutionary nature of Gaudí’s work was not appreciated on a large scale until decades after his death. Indeed, in the middle of construction for Sagrada Família Gaudí unfortunately died when he “was killed by a street car one June day in 1926” (Hughes 2004: 128). According to Sobrer, “[Barcelona]'s reputation in the non-negligible world of tourism is built around Gaudí" (Sobrer 2002: 209). Antonio Gaudí’s unique style of architecture is incredibly specific to Barcelona, it blends a surrealist style and traditional architectural design into a beautiful functional structure. His designs truly are incomparable to those in any other city in the world, and have been highlighted by many photographers and filmmakers alike. Gaudí’s work was very different from that of other architects in his time; it has been closely associated with Catalan spaces. In fact, it can be argued that “to decry Gaudí would be to decry Barcelona, if not Catalonia” (Sobrer 2002: 209). �—Edited by Camille Kresz and Benjamin Fraser with text from Victoria Bishop, Ariel Fricke, Rachel Harris, Grace Langley, Tricia Malcom, Amy Musgrave, Kendall Schunk, Sarah Spangler, Vyas Jayati and Claudia Woznichak � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Digital Barcelona Subject The topic of the resource Sights around Barcelona Description An account of the resource The items (text documents, audio, video) used in the collection were created by the students from Fall 2016 HONS 2011.003: Barcelona: An Urban Cultural history class taught by Dr. Benjamin Fraser. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin Fraser Irina Swain Camille Kresz Language A language of the resource English, Spanish Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Digital Barcelona Date Created Date of creation of the resource. January 2017 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Irina Swain Camille Kresz Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gaudí: Nature, Religion and Politics Subject The topic of the resource Gaudí: Nature, Religion and Politics Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Victoria Bishop, Ariel Fricke, Rachel Harris, Grace Langley, Tricia Malcom, Amy Musgrave, Kendall Schunk, Sarah Spangler, Jayati Vyas, Claudia Woznichak, Benjamin Fraser Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Camille Kresz Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 03/01/2017 Language A language of the resource English, Spanish Type The nature or genre of the resource Document Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 03/01/2017 Amy Musgrave Ariel Fricke Barcelona Claudia Woznichak Grace Langley Jayati Vyas Kendall Schunk Rachel Harris Sarah Spangler Spain Tricia Malcom Victoria Bishop