The anecdotes of the architect Antoni Gaudí and his working method

On 21 June 2012, the presentation of the Espai Gaudí “The workshop of a genius or a madman” was held at the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona. Miquel Àngel Julià Hierro, director of design and strategy at Grup Idea, made the presentation of the exhibition in the company of the historian and curator of the space Marià Marín y Torné, who years later would be the co-founder of The Gaudí Research Institute (TGRI).

Grup Idea took part in the presentation of the exhibition and held an edition of Idea Pika Pika, a networking event in the same room, after Marín’s talk. In his first intervention, the historian spoke about the figure of Antoni Gaudí, his more business-oriented point of view based on a series of anecdotes from throughout his life. His work method, interdisciplinary, innovative and focused on the search for detail, inspires the work of Grup Idea day after day. In this article we bring together point by point the anecdotes of Gaudí the entrepreneur as presented by Marià Marín in his talk:

1. Inspiration in nature and a great ambition. Nature has created forms that are functional and therefore optimal. Gaudí was inspired by the forms of nature in his architecture, but he is surprised that no one had ever put it into practice before. “My ideas are indisputably logical, the only thing that makes me doubt is that they have not been applied before,” he says. Still, he tells himself that “just because something has never been done before, doesn’t mean we don’t have to try it”.
2. The R&D driver: research and development. In order to put new constructive and architectural forms into practice, Gaudí brought an engineer into his studio and built the famous polyfunicular model, which took him 10 years to complete. To achieve the desired trichromy in the windows, he looked for an optician at the university and a chemist at the industrial school. The industrial school was the first materials testing laboratory in Europe. He works with a hypothesis and puts it into practice.
3. The importance of the interdisciplinary team and active listening. Today’s computer scientists working on the calculations of the structure with supercomputers do not understand how Gaudí made the calculations with the tools he had at the time. How did he do it? Through his team: a 14-15 year old boy, a bricklayer and an engineer. The engineer will be useful to make the calculations, the bricklayer has experience in construction and the young boy will be an effective apprentice but, above all, he will ask the why of everything that the others will not dare to ask.
4. Collaborators, not disciples. For the Parc Güell works, Gaudí surrounded himself with collaborators, among them Josep Maria Jujol. Jujol was responsible for much of the decoration using the trencadís technique, as in the case of the bench in the Plaça de la Natura. Some of the benches in the Colonia Güell are also signed by the craftsmen who made them.
5. Aesthetics and functionality. What idea do I have, what is art, and beauty? The radiance of truth. And truth is God. And how do I reflect this? Very easy: if the architecture I make is not rational and useful, as well as beautiful, I have made a mistake. In Gaudí’s words: “what is the use of all this if I do not put my heart before the technique”.
6. Sustainability, the search for difference. He applies the idea of functionality to the design and construction of his works. He is sustainable and has a strong inclination towards recycling. In his works he relies on his collaborators, makes the most of the light and does not generate reverberation in any space: ‘Originality serves as a return to the origin’, he says.

You can watch the talk by Marià Marin i Torné, historian and curator of “Gaudi’s Study” at the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona in the following video (in Catalan):