A masterpiece is often defined as the most remarkable work in an artist's career, one which highlights the height of their techniques and ideals. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo's Pietá; the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. There are many examples, which are not always unanimously agreed upon. But what if what many consider to be the masterpiece was started by someone else, the credited creator didn't live to see its completion, and almost all of its documentation was destroyed? Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and his world-famous Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família are examples of these complications. From a highly crafted stone construction to the most modern 3D printing techniques and high strength concrete, numerous technologies were and continue to be incorporated in the project's construction.
In 1882, architect Francisco de Paula del Villar began the project for the Church following the guidelines of the time, and thus employed standard neo-Gothic elements: five longitudinal naves, ogival windows, buttresses, and a pointed bell tower. Due to differences with the Catholic Church, however, Villar resigned from the work and Antoni Gaudí, a 31-year-old architect, was appointed responsible in 1883, as shown in the work's chronology. While the cruciform plan of the original project was maintained, Gaudi brought numerous significant changes to the building such as angular columns and hyperboloid vaults, eliminating the need for buttresses. By removing these important structural pieces that could withstand the horizontal thrusts of the heavy roof, the architect proposed the building's iconic branched and angled columns instead.
Since then, the project has consistently been under construction, and is expected to be completed in 2026, the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death. But one can imagine that a work in progress for over 130 years, with some stoppages, experienced several changes in construction methods and materials. “The first period of construction, the one that had Gaudí as the architect responsible for the work, goes from 1883 to 1936. At that time, traditional materials of the time were used, especially stone masonry with lime mortar as a binder.” [1] Between 1914 and 1926 Gaudí lived on the church's construction site, dedicating himself exclusively to the work and building numerous plaster models of the pillars, naves, facades, and other construction elements, with the aim of conveying his ideas to employees.
Shortly before that, in 1901, the first cement plant in Catalonia was founded by Eusebi Güell, Gaudí's friend, supporter and patron. Researchers [3] point out that one of the reasons why reinforced concrete took a long time to reach Catalonia was because of the region's optimized traditional Catalan techniques, such as masonry arches (Catalan vaults) supported by metal beams, which had a good cost-benefit ratio for construction and reduced the need for other solutions.
From there, Gaudí began experimenting with the material, which was used in the construction of Parc Güell, Casa Milà and the Colônia Güell church. In the construction of the Sagrada Familia, reinforced concrete was used for the first time on the spiers of the façade of the Natividade, built between 1915 and 1934.
Ten years after Gaudí's death, who was run over by a tram near the construction site, a fire destroyed most of the plans and drawings in the office. Luckily, some models were saved, which allowed for the redoing of much of the project's documentation according to the architect's ideas.
Some periods of stoppage due to World War II and the Spanish Civil War delayed the work. Many of the finishing decisions, some structural solutions, and some detailing and connections between different materials had to be defined by subsequent generations of architects and engineers working on the building, who sought as much fidelity as possible to Gaudí's original ideas.
“From 1944 onwards, the buildings for which concrete was already one of the most important materials resumed construction. During these years, they used, above all, cyclopean concrete in the filling of the walls and reinforced concrete in the structural elements [2].“ From the 60's onwards, reinforced concrete began to be widely used in construction, but in the 90's, a new stage begins at the most famous construction site in the world. It is at this time that public interest in the Sagrada Familia greatly increases, causing visits and revenue to accelerate. As a result, the work began to incorporate many new advances in the construction process, including several cranes and the beginning of experiments in computer modeling of complex geometries. “Two events symbolize the changes that have taken place since then: the increase in revenue that has allowed us to accelerate the pace of construction, and the introduction of new technologies in terms of materials, design, and construction processes. The main objective in recent years has been the construction of the naves. This resulted in the lifting of the perimeter walls (completed in 1999), the columns and interior vaults, and the curves of the main body, which are now finished; they are currently operating on the transept and apse [2]”.
Almost all the building elements are currently built in concrete in the Sagrada Familia Church, often covered in natural stone. Concrete appears in various forms: precast elements, reinforced concrete, solid concrete, and parts with special concrete of very high structural strength, such as in the apse and transept columns, where microsilica was introduced in the concrete mixture, reaching a resistance of 80 MPa. In other portions of the structure, because of Gaudí's complicated geometry, the fittings, and the impossibility of increasing cross sections, concrete features had to be developed with high fluidity and strength.
In addition, in recent decades, the Sagrada Familia has embraced contemporary digital design and construction technologies. Architects and artisans use programs like Rhinoceros, Cadds5, Catia, and CAM to understand complex geometries and visualize the building as a whole. The process uses stereolithographic 3D printers that build the prototypes layer by layer, resulting in a plaster-like material, a method that allows builders to manually alter the prototypes to meet specific building demands.
The construction of the Sagrada Familia has taken so long that building technologies and materials have changed significantly from beginning to end. Many researchers wonder if it could have actually been built with the materials at the time it was designed while still following every form imagined by the genius of Catalan modernism. Would the project have been adapted by Gaudí if he had lived to resolve all of the design issues? Or is his genius, as some researchers have pointed out, that he has developed a project that allows for the incorporation of new technologies and materials over time?
Notes
- [1] Rosa Grima López. El Hormigón en el Templo de la Sagrada Familia. Available at this link
- [2] R. Espel, J. Gómez, R. Grima, A. Aguado. La evolución de la construcción del Templo de la Sagrada Familia. Informes de la Construcción 61(516). December 2009. Available at this link
- [3] Rosa Grima López, Antonio Aguado de Cea & Josep Gómez Serrano. Gaudí and Reinforced Concrete in Construction. Available at this link
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