Antoni Gaudí

1852–1926 · Catalan (Spanish) · 11 buildings on the wall

Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was a Catalan architect and designer, the best-known figure of Catalan Modernisme, whose personal style drew on nature, religion and neo-Gothic art. Most of his work is in Barcelona, and between 1984 and 2005 seven of his works were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. He used catenary arches to spread loads evenly, said that no structure was better than a tree trunk or a human skeleton, and covered surfaces in trencadís, a mosaic of broken ceramic.

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Palau Güell (1890) was one of several works for his patron, the industrialist Eusebi Güell. Casa Batlló (1906), among his finest buildings, is nicknamed the "House of the Dragon". Casa Milà (1912), called La Pedrera, "the stone quarry", has an undulating, self-supporting stone façade that leaves the floors behind it free to plan. Catenary arches carry both Casa Milà and the Crypt of Colonia Guell (1914). The Sagrada Familia, begun in 1882 under another architect, was less than a quarter built when Gaudí died; with a tower 172.5 metres high, it is now the world's tallest church. Gaudí's buildings are studied for structure learned from nature.

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