ANTONI GAUDÍ-

• Antoni Gaudi was born in1852. Gaudi’s works was marked by his big passion in life: architecture. He was very perfectionist because he had to study every detail of his creations. He starts using: ceramics, stained glass, carpentry, and he introduced new techniques such as trencandís, made of waste ceramic pieces.

•  When he was young suffered from poor heath, including rheumatism, this may have contributed to his reticent and reserved characters, so for this reason he adopted the idea to be a vegetarian early in his life. Gaudi attended a nursery school run by Francesc Berenguer, whose son, also called Francesc, and later became one of Gaudi’s main assistants. In 1868 he moved to Barcelona to study teaching. In his adolescent years he became interest in utopian socialism, he and his fellow planned a restorations of the “Poblet monastery” that would have transformed it into a Utopian phalanstère. .

•   During his studies he design some projects, among which the following stand out: a commentary gate, a monumental fountain, the university assembly hall. After his graduation as an architect in 1878, his first work was a set of a lamppost.  Gaudí’s collaboration with Martorell was a determining factor in Gaudí’s recommendation for the Sagrada Familia. One of Gaudí’s largest and most striking works is the Casa Batllo (1904–1906). Another of Gaudí’s major projects and one of his most admired works is the Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (1906–1910).

• Gaudí died on 10 June 1926 at the age of 73 and was buried two days later. Today, his work finds admirers among architects and the general public alike. His masterpiece, the still-uncompleted Sagrada Família, is one of the most visited monuments in Spain. 

 PATRICIA SIMÓN FUENTES