The Quest For Architectural Style

An architectural style is recognized by the features that make a building or structure notable or historically identifiable. Most styles in architecture  are related closely to the wider artistic style. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials etc. Most architecture can be classified within a chronology of styles which changes over time which reflect changing fashions, beliefs and religions, new ideas, technology, or materials which make these new styles possible.

Styles therefore are closely related to the history of a society.  At any time several styles may be active, and when a style changes it usually does so step by step, as architects learn and get used to new ideas. The new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style as well. An example of this is post-modernism.

Now that we have the definition out of the way: what is my "style" ?

First of all, I have always been searching for a new architectural language.

I am usually considered the master of Catalan Modernism, but my works actually are beyond any one style or classification. They are works that find their main inspiration in nature. I studied organic  geometric forms of nature thoroughly, searching for a way to give them a place in architecture. Some of my greatest inspirations came from visits to the mountain of Montserrat, 

the caves of Mallorca,

 the saltpetre caves in Collbató,

 the Pareis mountain in the north of Mallorca 

and Sant Miquel del Fai in Bigues i Riells.

This study of nature transformed into my use of geometrical forms such as the hyperbolic paraboloid, the hyperboloid, the helicoid and the cone, which reflect the forms I found in nature. Examples of them in nature were abundant in plants, bushes and bones; to me there was no better structure than the trunk of a tree or a human skeleton. 

These forms are at the same time functional and aesthetic, and at once I adapted the language of nature to the structural forms of architecture. I equated the helicoid to movement and the hyperboloid to light. Paraboloids, hyperboloids and helicoids, constantly vary the amount of the light, which make ornamentation unnecessary.

Another element I widely used was the catenary arch. I had studied geometry thoroughly when I was young, studying numerous articles about engineering, a field that praised the virtues of the catenary curve, one which at that time was used only in the construction of suspension bridges. I was the first to use this element in common architecture. This shape not only helped give the structures weight support, but also greatness. 

This quest I mentioned for new structural solutions culminated in my masterpiece, the Sagrada Família. I conceived the interior of the church as if it were a forest, with a set of tree-like columns divided into various branches to support the structure. I also gave them a double-turn helicoidal shape (right turn and left turn), as in the branches and trunks of trees. This created a structure that is now known as fractal. 

I thus achieved a rational, structured and perfectly logical solution, creating at the same time a new architectural style that was original, simple, practical and aesthetic.