Gaudí was on June 25 in1852 probably

born in the Catalan town of Reus, in a

house on the Carrer de Sant Joan 4.
Other people say he was born in the
neighbourhood pf Riudoms. His father,
Francesc Gaudí i Serra, was a
coppersmith. Since his childhood Gaudí
was suffering from rheumatism.
At his seventeenth he left to Barcelona to
study architecture there at the Escola
Superior d'Arquitectura. For his
livelihood, he had other jobs at various
architects in the city. Gaudí was not a
very good student, but was decided by
his obstinacy. So he signed with his
thesis "for the environment" completely
irrelevant a hearse on a drawing of a
gatehouse of a cemetery.
Between the twenty and thirty years
Gaudí was a long time member of
Freemasonry, but after rediscovering of his Catholic faith, he could no longer be
member, because of both the Church's ban on Masonic membership and because of
the strong "anti-Christian character" of Freemasonry. The international Freemasonry
used Gaudí wrongly as a role-model of being Catholic and Masonic.
Still, he completed his studies. Upon his
graduation in 1878, said the director Elie
Rogent: "He aprobado un loco a un genio
Yahoo", meaning: I have a fool or a genius to
succeed. Interestingly, Gaudí, which dressed
later shabbily, so gave extraordinary attention to
his appearance. He actually only lived for his
work. He never married, although the rumor has
go around that in1884 he once was engaged.

Gaudí's early years were the main issues

around the city: Barcelona. The rich people surrounded themselves with artists like
Gaudi and went in the intellectual circles. He developed an anti-religious stance and
was concerned with the workers.
One of the architectural styles were back in the spotlight, which was the Gothic.
Gaudí attended example by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who recreated Carcassonne and
the cathedral in Tarragona. The interest in the Gothic also had a political background.
Catalonia flourished economically, but was politically dominated by Castile (Madrid).
For example, education in Catalan was forbidden. Gaudí, the Catalan, was a
member of the Centre Excursionista, a group of young people from the past who
visited places of Catalonia. Gaudi spoke as much Catalan as a foreign language that
had to be translated first for the workers.
Gaudí was not there to take the architecture of the past over, he served mainly as
inspiration. The result was that Gaudí in his life only once got a prize for the relatively
conventional Casa Calvet. He seems to have suffered by this failure.
Strange is that Gaudi had made buildings even before his name was big. In 1881
bought a club in Barcelona, a piece of land, where they wanted a church and
associated complex built in honor of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family: Joseph, Mary
and Jesus). The mission went first to Francisco de Paula del Villar, Where Gaudí had
worked with in his student days. But he retired soon after the start of the work. Joan
Martorell, also famous in Gaudí terms Neogothic styled, the most important Catalan
architect would charge, but refused. Why the unknown Gaudí was commissioned in
1883, is not entirely clear.

In the same year began the construction of Casa Vicens. It is a combination of brick
and stone, but the tiles are particularly striking
that the exterior of the house largely cover. The
geometric patterns they form, reminiscent of
Arab Gaudi buildings and this has therefore
inspired by Moorish architecture in Spain. The
house, where he also designed the interior of, is
a combination of many styles. The dining room
is an example of Art Nouveau.

The government could rarely appreciate Gaudí's

work, but there were plenty of others who did,
such as textiles tycoon Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi
and Bishop Joan Bautista Grau i Vallespionós.
Güell was a typical patron, someone artists in
his home received and supported. At the time the businessman met Gaudí, the latter
had little performance. Guell based his valuation on the designs he particularly at the
world of 1888 had seen.
Gaudí realized Güell for several objects, including the Palau Guell. This house is a
combination of many styles. Gaudí used here for the first time, including in the cast
iron gates, the parabola and a catenary shape, something which came back in his
later works. For example the bizarre towers on the roof. The young architect attracted
the attention of the press by this building.
At the beginning of the 20th century he created the Park Güell. Besides the buildings
he designed many of them existed of mosaics. With this he showed himself a
supporter of Ruskin's assertion that an architect had the painting and sculpture
dominate to. The park was originally also intended as a residential area, but on social
intention it was not working out.
On June the 7th, 1926 Gaudi was walking on the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in
Barcelona. He walked across Carrer de Bailen, near the Placa de Tetuan. It was a
route he often took to the church on the Plaça Sant Philip Neri to walk to the Sagrada
Familia, where he worked at that moment. A tram hit him but did not stop and Gaudi
was unconscious.
It was obvious he was seriously wounded and they brought him to an ambulance at
the Ronda de Sant Pere. Taxi drivers refused to drive Gaudi to a clinic because of
his shabby occur. Eventually he landed in the Hospital de Sant Pau, which was at
that time the poor hospital.
Because he had not turned up at his workplace, his staff began a search. Gil and
architect Monsignor Pares i Domènec
Sugrañes Grass found him in the hospital.
He refused his transfer to a clinic with the
words: "My place is here among the poor.
He died in hospital on June the 10th, at five
o'clock in the afternoon.
His funeral on the 12th was an important
event: the funeral procession was a
kilometer long. He is buried in the crypt of
the Sagrada Familia.

Method:
Compared with the architects of his time he was strikingly practical approach.
Instead of spending time at the drawing, he was often busy with models, for example,
the strength of a structure to test. His approach here was to carry out inverted
models as constructions of hanging ropes. The idea was that the strings take the
chain line, and free from lateral forces. If the building is turned and don’t fall, this
construction will be free of splash forces and it can be realized with minimal use of
materials. An ingenious approach was widely used by Gaudi, including the columns,
the towers and the vault of the Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila on the roof pavilion.
His drawings were often sketches, so imprecise. Only during construction, he
developed many of his ideas, often after consultation with the workers. Because he
has his theories and principles virtually nothing on paper, after his death, relatively
few follow.
It was not easy to continue Gaudi's work.
Gaudi worked mostly empirically constructions
without safety margin, even too small.
Gaudi's buildings create an extravagant idea,
but he used especially relatively inexpensive
and locally available materials such as brick.
For his mosaics were often used pieces of
waste from firms in ceramics.

Works:
Sagrada Família (1883-present)
Gaudí's most important work is the Sagrada
Familia, a basilica built by a devout Roman
Catholic brotherhood in honor of St. Joseph. In 1914 Gaudí decided that later on he
only would work on the Sagrada Familia. Sometimes he went door to door to collect
money for its construction and in his last years he lived even to the construction site.
The church is being build till today on. The church is still under construction, some
parts of the main structure has yet to begin. Not yet built a crossing tower of 170
meters high, surrounded by four smaller towers, Christ among the evangelists have
to make it. The church is just a few meters below Montjuic, the highest hill in town.
Gaudi has made this his own words out of respect for the Creator: he wants with his
property that it does not exceed in height. A good example of the influence of the
time-of-art technology in the original design of the church is the light from the cross
on the highest tower of Barcelona will have to shine like a lighthouse. When
construction is finished, it’s the largest basilica in the world, while the towers
originally planned three times higher than they are today.
The church will have three facades, each a stage in the life of Jesus depict (the
facade of birth and the facade of the passion are already completed and on the front,
the facade of the glory), each with four bell towers. These twelve towers symbolize
the twelve apostles. The four towers surrounding the crossing tower represent the
four evangelists surrounding Jesus Christ. Top of the towers 120 meters high above
the entrance are words like "Hosanna," "Excelsis" and "Sanctus".

Form Contrasts: has high towers and the rest are ridges or blocks.
Colours: Grey.
Material: stone, glazed, flat stone and forged iron.

Pargue Güell (1900-1914).

Just outside the center of Barcelona there is a hill on the
Pargue Guell. Industrial Guell wanted to make of a
residential area of 60 residents. But there are only two of
them which are inhabited by a family of Triassic and the
other of Gaudi himself. Now it is a park of the city became
in Barcelona. And it’s also one of Gaudi's unfinished
projects.

Form Contrasts: organic forms.

Color: colorful mosaic
Material: Column

Casa Batllo (1906-1908).

This house is all right and not wavy. This house is also on the Passeig de Gracia at
number 43. This house is decorated with chimneys and air ducts on the roof. Same
as Casa Mila was the Casa Batllo. Gaudi used the same inspiration from the natural
morphology. The building has many open constructions.

Shape Contrast: only organic forms.

Colour has a colorful mosaic.
Material: Stone