Today was…amazing, breathtaking, inspiring, beautiful, awesome, cool, nice…today was a BLESSING.
It isn’t often that you feel the presence of God right beside you, standing there walking with you, talking to you, or embracing you. But today was one of those rarities where I got the chance to experience his greatness first hand, and ultimately witness this great opportunity that he has blessed me with…
We visited two places today within Barcelona, both are designed by Antoni Gaudi (hopefully by now I have said that name enough that everyone is starting to remember his pertinence). But just in case you forgot here is a short sentence to sum it up: Antoni Gaudi is considered to be one of the most influential and greatest architects of the 20th century, he is probably the greatest architect to be born out of Spain, and his works mainly reside in the city of Barcelona…in which he is pivotal in the beauty of the city.
The first place we went was a park that he (Gaudi) designed called “Park Guell”, this park was originally meant to be a new and sophisticated housing development…but due to economic strife during the time, it never blossomed into a housing district but became the beautiful park that it is today. Words are going to fail me in describing the luster of this place so I will let some photos do the work for me (which will come in another blog post from the studio space in the morning for me, which will be about 3ish in the morning for y'all back in the states. The internet in my room cannot handle loading the pictures I want to load)*******
Next we visited Gaudi’s personal masterpiece and greatest achievement…Sagrada Familia (Full name of the project is “Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família” or “Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family”). This Gothic style church is actually still not complete. Why? Well that is how amazing this architecture is; at the time of its inception in 1882 the designs of the church were far too advanced for the building construction techniques at that time. There was also a significant lack of funds to build the building to Gaudi’s specific and intrinsic designs. Even now nearly 130 years later the construction of this masterpiece is still not complete (hence all of the cranes and scaffolding in some of the following pictures). The buildings construction is funded by private donors and the tours of the building; this also affects how fast the construction can be completed. Currently the entire church is set to be complete in 2026…on the 200th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. I find it ironic that the word “gaudy” is so close to Gaudi (even in pronunciation) being that the complexity of this building is just that…”gaudy”. But make no mistake it is not tasteless…this work of architecture is by far the GREATEST design I have ever personally been privileged to see in person. All of the “fine” bridges, buildings and houses that I have been to in person fail greatly in comparison to this church…every single square inch of the building is designed…nothing is left to construction or interior design, or programmatic elements, everything…EVERYTHING is meticulously planned out and designed to the highest standards…EVERYTHING has a definite purpose in the design of the building. We spent probably three hours in the church…but it did not feel like that at all. At the time when I was standing beneath the glorious chamber of the sanctuary I was awe-struck and inspired; in hindsight I feel challenged and humbled…nothing that I have ever conceived has been to the level of detail and genius that is the Sagrada Familia, I can only hope and pray that one day I may design something as amazing. Every building and work of architecture will be compared to Sagrada…it has become my new benchmark of excellence. What an experience…
(which will come in another blog post from the studio space in the morning for me, which will be about 3ish in the morning for y'all back in the states. The internet in my room cannot handle loading the pictures I want to load)*****************
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