Gaudi, constructor (the materialization of a unique architecture)

Abstract

The contribution of Gaudí to the history of architecture cannot be associated directly with the radical change which the discipline was to undergo in the first decades of our century. Gaudi was not, then, a precursor, despite the fact that his influence in the formal renovation of European architecture is a recognized fact, qualifed only by the opinion one has of his works according to the emotional effect they produce. The objective approximation to his work from sectorial points of view, as in the case of the construction —now facilitated by the restoration underway— can help analyze this always controversial contribution. From the point of view of the author of this article, the real contribution of Gaudí to European architectural culture is his work itself, independently of its later trascendence; the passion to imagine, but also the passion to build, the desire to never disassociate compositive and formal aspects from genuinely constructive ones, is a useful lesson at this confusing moment in architecture we are living today.