History of interior design_09032016_Art Nouveau_Kim White

• Antoni Gaudi 

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish Catalan architect. His work transcended mainstream Modernisme, culminating in an organic style inspired by natural forms.

First, his revolutionary style was not received favorably, back than residents of Barcelona underestimated him, but as time passed, Gaudi became also popular among professionals and among the general public which appreciated the special work that decorated Barcelona. Currently, there are people who name him "God's architect".

Gaudí was an innovator in the realm of craftsmanship, conceiving new technical and decorative solutions with his materials, for example his way of designing ceramic mosaics made of waste pieces ("trencadís") in original and imaginative combinations.

Even then he thought of conserving energy, saving water and collecting rainwater, recycling, implementing structures in the landscape, using local stone and preservation terrain.

Park Guell is one of the most famous works of Gaudi. He used in this park mosaics fragments which made of colored porcelain for the celling decoration. The benches were decorated out of porcelain and ceramic fragments that were discarded. Gaudi picked them up and created giant mosaics of broken china.

In my opinion, the fact that Gaudi, back at that time was already thinking about recycling is extremely advanced and he was ahead of his time.

 

Another example to Gaudi's advanced way of thinking is the Doric columns in Park Guell. There is an open gutters shaped in the form of animal heads. These gutters are draining the water from the bench to allow his quick drying.

In my opinion, Gaudi's way of thinking was so modern, functional and advanced for his time. Even though it was an uncommon way of thinking back then, Gaudi's works were showing a recycling and ecological way of 

designing, in a time that wasn’t aware to those kind of global problems. 

Unfortunately in his life, Gaudí did not live to discover the global

assessment that is being given to his works nowadays.

Several of Gaudí's works have been granted World Heritage status by UNESCO: in 1984 the Park Güell, the Palau Güell and the Casa Milà, and in 2005 the Nativity facade, the crypt and the apse of the Sagrada Família, the Casa Vicens and the Casa Batlló in Barcelona, together with the crypt of the Colònia Güell in Santa Coloma de Cervelló.