Antoni Gaudi, and How Engineering Influences Future Architecture

Table Of Contents Introduction: Gaudi’s Inspirations Gothic and Roman Architecture 6 Intergrated Nature 10 Advancements In Architecture 12

Gaudi’s Work Palau Guell 16 Church Of The Sagrata Familia 18 The Teresianes School 22 Casa Mila 24

Parametric Design What Is Parametric Design 30 Similarities To Gaudi 36

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Chapter 1 Gaudi’s Influences

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Gaudi’s Influences

During Gaudi’s time in The Architecture School of Barcelona, Gaudi was fascinated with gothic architecture. Gaudi thought of middle aged architecture as quality of common sense. Common sense to Gaudi was natural like progressions that modified spaces in middle age architecture. He also became inspired by Greek architecture’s use of geometry and constructed spaces. Soon he figured out how Roman compliments gothic architecture in stone work, and visualised their combination to be like a body and its skeleton. Gaudi did not want to copy their styles, but instead extract the characteristics to create new possibilities in architecture. Gaudi continued to study other architectural styles in this fashion, with him later stating that, “We are Catalans.

We don’t have to be Greeks, Gothics, or Egyptians. We must be everything at once!”

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Church of Saint-Maclou, Rouen, France Middle Age Architecture

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The Parthenon, Athens, Greece Greek Architecture

Church Of The Sagrata Familia “Like a body and its skeleton�

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Intergrated Nature

Nature was Gaudi’s fundamental inspiration to art, and is visibly present in his architecture. Gaudi perceived nature as the teacher of imagination and creator of abstraction, and the eye becomes the tool that visualizes what one can transform with nature.

Gaudi had immense enthusiasm for natural forms, he wanted space to have a spirit with an all embracing living ornamentation.

After his structures were built, Gaudi’s critics exclaimed “the monstrous work of Gaudi is but the product of this peremptory and chaotic anarchy that has always characterized that land!” Gaudi engineered natural shapes through physics and mathematics, thus mimicking the strength and efficiency of nature, this made Gaudi ahead of his time.

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Architectural Advancements Antoni Gaudi’s connection with nature, history, and religion led to his development to new forms of design. The creations by Gaudi allowed others to be inspired, and let the mind generate new ideas. In this sense, Gaudi gave us the rules and a foresight into the future to a new concept in art. This concept would be morphology and pathos. It is still relevant today, as new designs continue to mimic natural shapes, and also be designed with emotion in mind.

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Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Model

Architecture wise, Gaudi invented a new solution to self sustained structures. It is called equilibrated or later known as a “Free Plan,” as these types of buildings can stand on their own without interior or external structural supports. He did this by tilting the columns, thus the loads are then transmitted diagonally, just like a tree. Gaudi used his equilibrated system in the Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, then later on in the Church Of The Sagrada Familia. This is how Gaudi was able to create large archways and vaulted ceilings without any other forms of structural stability.

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Chapter 2 Gaudi’s Work

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Palau Guell The Palau Güell or Güell Palace, built from 1886 to 1890, expresses the main features of modernism in home architecture. Palau Güell was one of Gaudi’s earliest constructed buildings, and was designed during his time in architecture school. The building contains the essence of the later work from Gaudí, and warrants an exploration of his designs, on the exterior and interior. The building stands out for its innovative conception of space and light. Gaudí introduced a variety of solutions at the Palau Güell from very personal approaches and created exceptional expressive forms that came from his imagination, using traditional noble materials (stone, wood, wrought iron, ceramics, glass, etc.). The front entrance features parabolic archs and intricate patterns of forged ironwork resembling seaweed and in some parts a horsewhip. Although parabolic arches were used in many structures before, Gaudi used parabolic arches frequently, but designed them to be strong, stylish, and built in scales never seen before.

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Church Of The Sagrata Familia Natural elements are not only shown on the exterior of the church, but also can be found inside the church. Like many cathedrals in Europe, the ceilings in the interior of the church are very high, the ceilings are supported by many large and high pillars, here, Gaudi engineered columbs and arches to mimick trees, as parts of the columb begins to branch off.

The Passion Façade has six large and inclined columns supported on the outer ground, the columns are designed to resemble the Sequoia trunks. Eighteen white and smaller columns are built in the shape of bones above the large inclined columns. Sagrada Familia is designed with various architectural styles, including Gothic, Catalan Modernism and Art Nouveau. The design of basilica features obvious and strong natural elements, Antoni Gaudí takes inspiration from the forms of a variety of animals and plants to design the basilica, and depicts lots of figures and stories from the Bible across the whole structure, the basilica can be seen as a visualized bible. The basilica is now in its 136th year and is approximately 70 percent complete. The completion date is expected to be in 2026, which coincides with the centenary of Gaudí’s death.

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The Teresianes school

Built in 1888 - 1890 Characteristic parabolic arches are also present in the façade, in particular in the windows and in the entrance porch, The ornamentation here is minimal, austere and functional, appearing with normality on the structural elements and closings.

Here too Gaudí anticipates by a number of years the well-known concept of a master of the Modern movement.

Gaudi is famously known for his highly personal architectural solutions as well as the symbolism of the elements he used. The use of parabolic arches and the religious decorations on the building’s exterior, and the spiral columns, wrought ironwork and four-armed crosses (three dimensional crosses) are also personal designs from Gaudi.

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Casa Milà “La Pedrera”

Constructed from 1906 to 1912, for the Milà family, it was used by the family and as a residential building. Deemed as GaudÍ’s last piece of civil engineering, the construction of the interior was groundbreaking. The interior walls of the Casa Milà can be moved, or knocked down with little effort, without causing instability to the structure. Which was made possible by a concrete-steel pillar construction that is hidden by the facades. This type of construction does not require load-bearing walls, similar to what is common in modern office buildings. Later on, this type of construction was called a “free plan” by Le Corbusier, and the “free plan” allowed GaudÍ to change the layouts and uses of each floor. The Casa Milà even has a natural ventilation system, which makes air conditioning unnecessary. GaudÍ’s plans also included a lift, but it wasn’t built into the house until much later. GaudÍ continues to use parabolic structures for the attic and basement of the Casa Milà.

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Attic of the Casa Mila, also acts as a small gallery

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Section of Casa Mila: Showcases equilibrated structure

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Chapter 3 Parametric Design

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What Is Parametric Design Parametric design is a design process, which utilize the latest parametric modeling techniques to set up the structural geometry of the project, to determine the structural form and structural members, to propose different structural form options, to iterate these structural design options with architect and clients, and to finalize the design options.

The goal of parametric design, therefore, is to add the dimensions and any other specific information needed for functionality and manufacturability. In other words, parametric design supplies all the dimensions, tolerances, and detailed materials information critical to the design consistent with both the marketing concept and the Engineering Design Specification.

Parametric design is not unfamiliar territory for architects.

From ancient pyramids to contemporary institutions, buildings have been designed and constructed in relationship to a variety of changing forces, including climate, technology, use, character, setting, culture, and mood. The computer did not invent parametric design, nor did it redefine architecture or the profession; it did provide a valuable tool that has since enabled architects to design and construct innovative buildings with more exacting qualitative and quantitative conditions.

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Artists and architects, including Antonio Gaudi, Erich Mendelsohn, Frederick J. Kiesler, Frei Otto, Kiesler, and Kiyonori Kikutake had conceived and modeled complex structures and forms with varying degrees of technical proficiency, and Roig in the 1960s recognized that new computer technologies could assist their design and construction.

Parametric Design has been around for some time, but its development has started from early advancements in engineering, such as Gaudi. What one can see in Gaudi’s work, was his fascination to reverse engineer natural structure, and then use those elements to design structures. With the help of engineering, it allowed future architects to create spaces and structures that are more complex than ever before. Today’s architectural problems focus on being more sustainable, maily limiting our environmental footprint. Through research, a recent solution has seen the return of natural designs. With technology, natural designs have become more precise, which has further aided engineers to design structural elements that are efficient and sustainable.

AQSO Arquitectos - Shoreditch Hotel

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Xu Beihong Foundation - Concept Office

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David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates - The Abrahamic Family House

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Designs Similar To Gaudi Designed by CO-LAB Design Office, Luum Temple is part of the amenities of a new residential development called Luum Zama, in Tulum Mexico. The Luum Temple is a show case for sustainable development, it combines innovative design and engineering with artisanal building and organic sustainable materials. The project is a five sided catenary structure made from bamboo.

The arched vaults support each other, co-existing in structural dependency.

Both designs are a dome construction, and have similar features in parametric design, but the temple was design with the help of computers.

Designed by dECOi Architects, the project was for the penthouse offices of an investment group in green building and clean energy technologies. The developed design was characterized parametrically, and early sketched design grasped the potential for plastic control of the spatial and detail definition allowable within a fully CAD-CAM environment. Multiple pillars in the building have the wood boards in this design, which look similar in form to the pillars in the Palau Guell carriage stable.

Although the pillar may not be for structural reasons, because of being a “free plan,� the parametric design gives a natural atmosphere to the space.

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Inspired by the efficiency of nature, the company Strong By Form has developed Woodflow, a technology that generates wood panels of high structural performance, “combining the optimization of their shape, the orientation of their fibers in relation to the direction of stressors, and the variation in their density for better compression or traction,� as explained by its creators.

In addition, all of their products are developed in a controlled process through parametric software, integrated into BIM platforms and CNC manufacturing systems. It is apparent from both Strong

By Form and Antoni Gaudi that natural forms are very structurally sound. With the Sagrada Familia and the render, they visually show the inspiration from trees. By creating new sustainable designs, this is one great example to how engineering could change architecture in the futrue.

Foldfinding - Oragami Pavilion

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Casa Mila Rooftop

Although this building does not look like the Casa Mila on the exterior, a similar feature on the interior ties them together. This is the East Gate Center in Zimbabwe, which has a recent innovation of passive cooling and heating. The building’s passive HVAC system was inspired by termite mounds, as termites regulate their temperature through opening and closing vents throughout the day. This same concept is applied in the Casa Mila. As air at the bottom flows upward, it pushes the hot or cool air out the top.

This is called Biomimetic architecture, where natural features are mimicked within structures to hold the same natural properties.

Patrick Schumacher Studio - Students Project “ORN8” Teresianes School (Right)

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Cited Works

Gaudi of Barcelona Adapted from the Spanish text by Lluis Permanyer Gaudi, the visionary Robert Descharnes ; [photographs by] Clovis Prevost ; preface by Salvador Dali.

Gaudi Ignasi de Sola-Morales ; photographs, F. Catala-Roca Introduction to his architecture Gaudi Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, Pere Vivas, Richard Pla Cruz, G., Kaprinis, S., Popik , N., & Tsironi, M. (n.d.). ORN8. Retrieved from drl.aaschool.ac.uk DiStaslo, C. (2016, February 16). Tal Friedman’s Origami Pavilion is an ultra-modern interpretation of an ancient art form. Retrieved from inhabitat.com Fehrenbacher, J. (2012, November 11). BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE: Green Building in Zimbabwe Modeled After Termite Mounds. Retrieved from inhabitat.com Franco, J. T. (2020, February 13). Structural and Light Pieces of Wood Based on Natural Intelligence of Trees. Retrieved from www.archdaily.com Fu, F. (2018). Design and analysis of tall and complex structures. Kidlington, Oxford, United Kingdom: Butterworth-Heinemann, an imprint of Elsevier.

McFadden, C. (2018, May 2). Antoni Gaudi: “ God’s Architect” who Brought Buildings to Life. Retrieved from interestingengineering.com Ott, C. (2019, June 18). Luum Temple / CO-LAB Design Off ice. Retrieved from www.archdaily.com

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Phillips, S. (2012, June 25). Parametric Design: a Brief History. Retrieved from www.aiacc.org Poli, C., & Woolf, B. (2001). Design for manufacturing: a structured approach.

Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.

Sadic, Y. (n.d.). Projects. Retrieved from parametric-architecture.com work . (n.d.). Retrieved from https://aqso.net/work Valenzuela, K . (2015, December 21). One Main Off ice Renovation / dECOi Architects. Retrieved from www.archdaily.com Images From Adobe Stock