Antoni Gaudí 's Organic architecture and its influence over 20th Century production

Gaudì’s Invention of Organic Architecture and How He Influenced 20th C Works What is Organic Architecture? It is a difficult question to answer to. We can say that the word organic is referred to any living organism, so it is strictly linked to the idea of nature. Organic architecture is then a new idea , that conveys the feeling that a building has grown naturally from the ground they stand on. What all the buildings in this architectonic movement have in common is the sense of being close to nature, either in terms of location or materials or forms used in their construction. We know that the first to have employed this word has been ‘Franck Lloyd Wright, considering it more as a philosophy : for him, it was a new way of thinking a building as an object that , taking inspiration from natural elements and after a reinterpretation through human mind, becomes something artificial but totally in harmony with the elements and environment in which it is set . But today looking backwards we have also considered another kind of architecture as organic , which is the one that find in Antoni Gaudì its inventor. His buildings are really an imitation of nature as they really do seem to be plants or animals growing naturally out of the ground rather than being projected unnaturally into the sky. Gaudì’s figure is very particular as it is difficult to straddle in history of architecture evolution. He has always been placed among the Catalan Modernismo , which is more or less the Spanish version of Art nouveau even if he doesn’t really belong to them as his ideals are very different from the ones of his contemporaries. Gaudì is considered as the Spanish major exponent of Art Nouveau because of many reasons: First point is that his art would have never got born without the consequences brought by industrial revolution and the rise of a new social class which is the upper-middle one. Second point is that the employment of new materials permitted him to create amazing decorative elements to be incorporated in his architecture, creating nature inspired elements that will become the real protagonists of his living buildings. The fact of placing him in this movement lead people to think that his artworks died with him and with Modernismo, and art historians don’t give him his due credit in architectonic evolution of 20th Century. The fact is that if we analyze his architecture from a different point of view without only placing him in the Modernismo movement , it will be possible to understand how he actually influenced many architects of his century and even of ours. Antonì Gaudì was born in 1852 in the south part of Catalonia region, then when he was seventeen he went studying to Barcelona. At this time and during all the years Gaudi developed his artistic skills , Catalonia , with Barcelona as its center, was marked by a struggle for independence as everyday life was characterized by succession of attempted rebellions and assassinations. By an economic point of view, in Middle Ages Barcelona was a major port but until 18th Century suffered decline, starting then to turn its attention to economic enterprise. The beginning of 19th Century saw the start of a long rise to prosperity leading finally to the Barcelona admission to trade with America. Industrialization made progress more easily than in other parts of Spain. In 1900 Catalonia was dominated by Madrid but became leading industrial region; Barcelona instead was the wealthiest of all the Spanish cities . 1888 the city hosted the international exposition, this helped to raise the status of the city and improved the transport connection throughout Europe. But Barcelona still had social problems and anarchist activities were the mark of a socialist trade union born in 19th . This sense of independence was born by the fact that Catalonia was closer to France ( in culture and language )than to Spain. Antoni Gaudi then arrived in this city at that time, right in the middle of a century characterized by so many evolutions, revolutions and innovations. Gaudi didn’t profit much by the intercultural exchanges but maybe he could have never realized what he did if he wouldn’t have isolated himself in the city. We know that Gaudi was deeply interested in history and , maybe because of all this growing sentiment of nationalism, he is interested in the roots of his country, of Spain. He spent much time studying the gothic architecture and even medieval art in general, as we know that he had been struck by the medieval walls of the French city of Carcassonne when he was young, but Spain is a delicious mix of many cultures, the Latin one, the French one ( especially in the region of Catalonia) and the Arabic one. Gaudi manages to melt together all those inspiration and create something really new and fresh. His art is also influenced then by his contemporaries , we know in fact that he was an admirer of Viollet-le-Duc as he thought that his ideals were completely fresh and new, managing to employ new materials in an astonishing way , creating surrealistic architectures characterized by big iron pillars and neoclassical elements. Last but not least important element that has surely influenced Gaudi’s art is the employ of new materials as metals that could be wrought in order to create very innovative shapes as never it has been possible before. All of these elements are so the basis of his style but the interesting thing is not the ingredients but the new way through which he will manage to mix all of them and create a new art : the reagent is Nature. One of his first works is the Casa Vicens , in here he will largely employ majolica and visible bricks , insisting on prominent elements , but he also uses wrought iron : all of these components point out the revival tendency of Gaudì . A very interesting particular is the palm leaf motif in the iron Gate , it is a clear reference to the vegetal world and it will become one of the most significant marks of Art Nouveau but it is also the starting point for future naturalistic elements marking his art. The predominant influence here is clearly Moroccan , but he will soon evolve his style in more naturalistic way right in successive works, as the Casa Battlò. Built in 1905-07, while he was also working on Park Guell, this house is a real masterpiece, it presents complex themes and an indescribable relation between interior and exterior of the building rendering it one of the most perfect examples of plastic organicism. The Casa Batllò is the project where he most let his imagination and invention run wild. This house had been designed for a wealthy Barcelonan cotton baron, Joseph Battlò I Casanovas, who wanted a new residence in order to astonish all the city. It looks like a monstrous house coming directly from a fairytale. It is in contrast with the uniformity of its surroundings , but at the same time is not completely out of ‘argument’, as in a way it fits with the city. The façade can remind a sort of waterfall or maybe a fall of lava, but at the same time it can also remind a sea bed. Light and colors become protagonists in the chiaro-scuro effect of the dazzling façade, which becomes lighter as the eye runs down till the elephantine columns facing the street, and becomes darker and even more green as it goes up joining the crest of scales of which the roof is made of. Absolutely astonishing is the organic references : the lower part of the building is composed by those emerging 1st floor windows which are characterized by bone-like frames which reminds also the exceptional balconies which are intended to resemble the skulls of small animals, suggestion that is also increased by the color of them which reminds the bones one. In between the animal balconies , the surface of building appears to ripple, like muscle and skin over vestigial bones. By night the house seems even more terrible with the light that renders the windows and the balconies alive and making also glance all the building as if it was a stegosaurus coming from the past , that had finally got awake . The interior is as astonishing as the exterior: effect seems to suggests that entire structure is living and bones are in the interior walls. They are smoothed into skin or dune formations using plaster and paint , here giving the effect of being inside a living organism; it seems that it is architecture of peristalsis , digestion. Many interior features ( doors , frames screens etc.) are a variation on Gaudi’s mutant take on Art Nouveau, although there are hints of vegetable forms appearing here too. The last work we’re going to analyze is the Casa Milà also known as ‘La Pedrera’ ; with this building Gaudì is going towards the maximum application of his ideal of architectural work as a plastic organism. It looks like an enormous block of melting in which all the defaults are swellings all over the façade. It was supposed to be a building to Virgin of Rosario so it should have brought the city eye up to the sky. This enormous organism , with a concave and convex shape line remains an extraordinary work that shows how Gaudi could foresee elements that in future will be easy to build with new constructive technologies. Without the use of reinforced concrete he will be able to build this wavy building only using bricks , and employing the laws of hyperbole and parabolic arch as he did in Parc Guell and in the Sagrada Familia. It is important to remind at this point that Gaudì is not only an architect but also a remarkable engineer and took as starting point to create all of his buildings the notion of the inverted chain arch which it says that a chain sustained in the two extreme points is forming an arch that if turned upside down will create a perfect arch able to stand without any kind of banisters. The most important element of this building is the uninterrupted balconies that run all over the façade , characterized by some phitomorphic iron made banisters. Interesting of course is the interior organization of the space, which is completely free and without any form of angle. But the most suggestive place is the rooftop , populated by some imagery ghosts which are the chimneys , with luxurious colors , planted on a wavy surface , all of this creating a nightmare , foreseeing all the wars that are going to come and also the expressionist movement. It’s here the most important innovative element of this architecture : in here Gaudì finds the way to suggest a scenario of fantastic landscape, a terrible one : without representing any real anthropomorphic or naturalistic forms he manages to suggest a nightmare landscape. By this starting point we can now analyze how he could influence future architects. From early on in his career, Santiago Calatrava has been known for his audaciously sculptural organic forms. But his architecture is so innovative that it would be a shame to resume all of his work on this aspect. Calatrava in fact is overturning the structural problem of architecture : the mass encumbering on the structure is substituting the decomposition of the forces. The form becomes then more essential and the most pure possible, the one in which all he forces are distributed. Calatrava gives then a plastic configuration to these structural elements. This architect is investigating in a very scientific way on animals, human body, muscles, flowers and so on nature in general trying to discern the mystery hidden behind their forms. He manages then to mix biological and architectonic hypothesis giving birth even to Dinosaurs forms, evoking the back of giant reptiles of ancient times with a sculptural-osteological primordial image. In those archetypal shapes and spaces we can find an influence of Gaudì, who must have been present also in the historical component of Calatrava. As for Gaudì Gothic and Moresque style were basis of his work, for this contemporary architect we can see an osteological-gothic influence in the production of innervated spaces and seducing transparency surfaces. As Gaudì, Calatrava uses the chain arch system to build his works One of his most ambitious works is the realization of the TGV train station in Lyon, which responds also to the necessity of serving a neuralgic transportation point . This architecture is interesting in its very functional structure as it is very artistic in the form: it reminds an enormous steel bird that lies on two concrete arches. The shape is so dramatic and this feeling is enhanced by the big dimensions of the building but also by the lights turned on in the night . As Gaudì in his La Perrera , Calatrava manages here to suggest an organic shape without using animalistic elements but just using physics and mathematic shapes. Another important architect that is considered as member of this organic movement is Oscar Niemeyer, he’s a key figure in the development of 20th C architecture and he’s most known for a having explored the different possibilities of application of reinforced concrete. He was famous also for his abstract forms, mostly resembling to curves and hyperboles. He was Brazilian Portuguese and he worked much in Brazil then upgrading some poor zones as the one named Pampulha. One of his main projects here had been the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi ad it is a clear example of organic architecture too. The swoop of the roof is echoing the waves crashing on the nearby Brazilian coast , which shape must have been a challenge to concrete technology of mid-1940s. The use of a complex sequence of parabolic arches is here completely mastered by Niemeyer who manages to create an organic building that uses its roof like a great umbrella to keep the sun at bay. The light penetrates into the building through vertical louvres set above entrance and main altar , this can remind us the Gaudì Sagrada Familia in the way they both pay attention to the interior enlightment , which is very important for a religious building. The rear wall is covered in blue and white tiles by artist Portinari, trying to recall the typical Azulejos , even in that it reminds us Gaudì and his employment of colored glazed terracotta tiles. The result is a sea-shell washed up on a beach and a wave washing over it. Niemeyer quest is different from the one of his European contemporaries : his aim is not to create a rational building but a transposition of poetry and passions into a physical structure. We can say that Rio de Janeiro is for Niemeyer what Barcelona was for Gaudì, two cities deeply marked by the work of both architects. As Gaudì took inspiration from Gothic style and 19th C art , changing it and giving life to a new naturalistic and modern architecture, Niemeyer took rationalism and early 20th C architectonic movement to give life to a new expression of art, full of joy and of life throwing it to a more open horizon. Both based their projects on the elaboration of curved superficies with a predilection for hyperboloids. We can say than that 20th Century architecture may not be directly influenced by Gaudì work , but this Catalonian artist had made the first step towards a new way of making architecture which is the organic one. Many artists like Calatrava, Candela, Niemeyer, Torroja, Hundertwasser but also Nervi, could produce their work thanks to the innovation of Gaudì who introduced all of them to organic-like shapes for buildings and concrete employment to produce them. Bibliography Gillo Dorfles. Architettura moderna, 1954, Garzanti editore. Nikolaus Pevsner. L’architettura moderna e il design. 1969, Giulio Einaudi editore , Torino Philip Jodidio. New Forms , Architettura degli anni 90. 1997 , Taschen editore , Koln. Jonathan Glancey . Modern Architecture . 2009, CARLTON editions Lara Vinca Masini. I Maestri del Novecento, Antonì Gaudì, 1969, Sadea Sansoni, Firenze.