Gaudí’s ravishing symbiosis between built environment and natural world
From the toweringSagrada Famíliato the shimmering, textured façade ofCasa Batllóand the enchanting landscape ofPark Güell, it’s easy to see whyAntoni Gaudí (1852–1926)gained the epithet “God’s architect.” With fluid forms and mathematical precision, his work extols the wonder of natural creation: columns soar like tree trunks, window frames curve like flowering branches, and ceramic tiling shimmers like scaly, reptilian skin.
With this outstanding attention to natural detail, his inspirations from both neo-Gothic and Orientalist aesthetics, and a lifelong commitment to Catalan identity, Gaudí created aunique brand of the Modernista movementwhich transformed, and defines, Barcelona’s cityscape.
With seven of Gaudí’s projects listed asUNESCO World Heritage Sites, this book introduces the architect’s extraordinary vision and unique legacy, exploring the influences and the details which allow his buildings to impress, inspire, and amaze, one century after their construction.
The author
Maria Antonietta Crippais currently professor “straordinario” of History of Architecture at the Politecnico University in Milan, at the DiAP (Department of Architecture and Planning of the School of Architecture). Since the early 1980s, she has published widely on architecture and town planning.
The editor
Peter Gösselruns an agency for museum and exhibition design. He has published TASCHEN monographs onJulius Shulman, R. M. Schindler, John Lautner, and RichardNeutra, as well as several titles in the Basic Architecture series.
