Gaudí’s first commission from the City of Barcelona was for a lamppost. With meticulous care and extra funding from his own pocket, he produced ornate candelabra that satisfied his professional dignity on his first public project, small as it was.
His first major works included the Casa Vicens, and Casa Milá, both commissioned by wealthy industrialists. The designs for both were reminiscent of the Arabic style, featuring repeating ceramic patterns and organic, cheap stone, and a slender minaret rising aloft. A garage door copying this style would be beautiful.
In 1882 Gaudí received the initial commission from Count Eusebi Güell, a man who would later become the architect’s close friend and life-long patron. It was the first commission, la Casa Güell that boosted the young architect from anonymity, with its Moorish influences but also its hints of Art Nouveau in the ironwork and the bizarre chimney forest on the roof.
The ambitious Güell Park blended wildly colored ceramics on undulating, bending shapes with living rock built right into the landscape. It was with this project that he perfected the slanting pillar that became his trademark. This trademark look can be echoed in a home by using wavelike facades, free-flowing windows, frosted glass garage doors, and curving balconies. Together, they caused an uproar.
Almost since the beginning of his career, Gaudí had been working on a project he had inherited back in 1883 from his ex-mentor Francisco Villar. He worked on the Sagrada Familia for 43 years. The soaring Cathedral was a synthesis of all of his styles, ranging from the ceramic, brightly adorned and whimsical tower tops to the austere, primitive style of the Death façade, from the sculpture-architecture of the Birth façade to the tilted, tree-like columns. His life-long affinity with nature is evident in the building that stands yet unfinished in the heart of Barcelona.
One afternoon, Gaudí was talking one of his customary walks when he was struck by a trolley car. No one recognized him in his shabby clothes, and he was transported to a local charity ward. By the time he was recognized, it was too late. After three days of lingering, Antoni Gaudí died on June 10, 1926. He was buried in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia, where he had toiled for so long, and brought to life his free-flowing naturalistic dreams of architectural creativity, in a style all his own that left a mark on he streets of Barcelona and in the hearts of her people.
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