During the Summer of 2022, after a stressful final year finish and a much happier graduation, I had the pleasure to enjoy a holiday in Catalunya, Spain. The first couple of days I planned out were in Barcelona where I dedicated my time to see Antoni Gaudí’s, the well-known Catalan architect’s mesmerising work. Although I had seen the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló and Park Güell before as a teenager I obviously did not quite understand them the same way as this time around. This time I was able to see it through a now-educated interior designer’s eye who reluctantly even on a holiday analyses shapes, examines the construction and inspects the metaphors within every building.
The visit that raised my attention the most was the almost fantasy-like world of Park Güell. While visiting Park Güell I partook in a guided tour, where interestingly enough the guide pointed at random structures around the park, asking the audience whether they thought this was a shape created by nature, by architecture or a mixture of both. And I have to admit, on several occasions, I assumed it was not simply architecture, and on every occasion, I assumed so, I was very wrong. Only after the tour finished did I manage to go back, analyse the structures and see that every stone was placed with careful precision.
Perhaps the central ornament of this place is what comes to most people’s minds when they hear the park’s name, the lizard. Funnily enough, according to the guide whom I had the pleasure to listen to that day, the exact type of reptile depicted is undecided to this day. It is one of the most decorated elements in the whole park. Trencadís is used here and also on many other elements, a coloured broken ceramic placed as a mosaic (Fenaik, n.d.). Water is also flowing out of the lizard’s mouth adding a gargoyle component to it. Although it is one of the strongest symbols in this place, and a design most likely well-known around the world, it was the least interesting to me that day even though of course I ended up buying a magnet with it.
Walking around, I realised the work I produced for my Final Major Project was trying to achieve something very similar, even the resemblance of various shapes used was almost mirrored to a certain extent. The columns, the metaphors, and the colourfulness of it all were all there in my project too. I have not looked at this building as a case study before but seeing it in person, I realised it would have been perfect for it. Bordi (2020) writes in his article that in Gaudí’s naturalist period during which he created the park, his architecture “translated into nature, which according to him is the highest creation of God”. “He used the forms that nature offered in his favour, from the geometric shapes that the hyperbolic paraboloid or the helicoid provided, to the recreation of organic materials such as plants, bones or animals, such as the dragon or the salamander of the Park Güell” (Bordi, 2020).
Aristotle famously wrote (384 - 322 BC) “Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature’s unrealised ends”, and this philosophical piece seems to be the very essence of this place. Every column is strangely twisted and “in imitation of the surrounding palm trees” (Feniak, n.d.), one building if I remember correctly a carriage stop that resembles an elephant, and some walkways are halfway like a tunnel, as a way to provide shade while mimicking the waves of the sea. There is not one spot that does not connect radically to its environment, inspired by nature and the Catalan culture. The conceptual realisation every designer strives for makes up the fibre of this place and should be taken note of if one is interested in naturalist or organic forms of design.
Another contrast that has captured my attention and reminded me of what I like to achieve in my own work is a complimentary relationship between architectural and natural elements. I have tried previously to achieve organic shapes inspired by stalactites made of concrete while incorporating nature in a biophilic but contemporary design style. Seeing the formation driven by a very similar incentive realised by Gaudí was astounding. Of course, my work is not nearly as fascinating as his but I reluctantly have drawn parallels between the two. The starting concept for both projects was almost the same: nature. I could also see a lot of similarities in quite a few elements in the way how inspiration was conceptualised and then materialised by the designer. However, the final outcomes despite having similarities were still very different. It could be noted here that there more than likely exists a very obvious influence of time and changing aesthetic values. And lastly, there was still this very apparent contrast of how organic elements given to us by Mother Nature coexist with planned, architectural elements. How both sides of the coin work together, and how contrasting materiality can show up in a very complimentary way, very different from today’s often brutalist creations.
After the visit and the analysis of Park Güell some very interesting, slightly confused but intriguing questions came to my mind. How is it possible for two very different designers from two very different time periods to be inspired by the same thing? To even be able to create some similar things? Of course, this could be answered with the theme and the topic of the project being interesting, regardless of time. How can two projects with such great aspirations in their own way end up being failures? My project could be considered one, as even though it is my pride, it will never be built. Gaudí’s project, even though has been built, its intended use for a bourgeois neighbourhood with 60 residents was an overarching failure, with only two spaces being sold (Headout, 2022). So perhaps, the final question should be how can we design something, that comes from the heart but will not go to waste? Maybe this is the question, that will never be answered, and therefore will be replaced with the following ones: Why is life so ironic? And how can we design navigating such ironies?
Reference List
Aristotle, (384-322BC). Corpus Aristotelicum
Bordi, R. (2020). What Was Gaudí Inspired By? – Everything You Need to Know. Lugaris.com. https://www.lugaris.com/en/what-was-gaudi-inspired-by-everything-you-should-know/
Feniak, H. R. (n.d.). Gaudí, Park Güell. Khanacademy.org. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/symbolism-artnouveau/symbolism-art-nouveau-spain/a/gaudi-park-guell
Headout. (2022). Discover the Brilliance of Antoni Gaudi At Park Guell Barcelona. Headout.com. https://www.headout.com/blog/park-guell-barcelona/
Image Reference List
Figure 1. - But, R. (2022). Picture of Park Güell [Photographs].
Figure 2. - But, R. (2022). Picture of Park Güell [Photographs].
Figure 3. - But, R. (2022). Picture of Park Güell [Photographs].
Figure 4. - But, R. (2022). Picture of Park Güell [Photographs].
Figure 5. - But, R. (2022). Picture of Park Güell [Photographs].
Figure 6. - But, R. (2022). Ürban Dose [Rendering].