Antoni Gaudí Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) was a Catalan architect and the most famous figure of Catalan Modernisme. Drawing on nature, Gothic structure and the crafts of his native Catalonia, he created buildings of unprecedented freedom of form, almost all of them in and around Barcelona, where seven of his works are now UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Early Life and Training

Born in 1852 in Reus, near Tarragona, into a family of coppersmiths, Gaudí moved to Barcelona to study architecture, graduating from the city’s School of Architecture in 1878. Early commissions such as Casa Vicens, with its colorful tiles and Moorish references, already showed his fascination with color, craft and ornament.

Eusebi Güell and Modernisme

His most important patron was the industrialist Eusebi Güell, for whom he designed the Palau Güell, the crypt of the Colònia Güell and Park Güell. In these works Gaudí developed catenary arches, ruled surfaces and trencadís, the broken-tile mosaic that became a signature of Catalan Modernisme.

Casa Batlló and Casa Milà

On Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia he transformed Casa Batlló into a building of undulating facades and bone-like columns, and built Casa Milà, known as La Pedrera, an apartment building whose stone facade carries no structural load, crowned by a sculptural rooftop of chimneys and ventilation towers.

The Sagrada Família

From 1883 Gaudí devoted ever more of his life to the Sagrada Família, the expiatory temple he took over from Francisco de Paula del Villar. In his final years he worked on it exclusively, developing its geometry through plaster models. He died in 1926 after being struck by a tram, and the basilica, consecrated in 2010, is still under construction.