Book Description
Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) is one of the best-known architects of the 20th century. Even today, some 75 years after Gaudí's death, his playful, exuberant buildings continue to influence architects, sculptors, and designers. Perhaps most identified with the dynamic, sculptural facades found on his structures, Gaudí is respected as much for his technological innovations as for his daring style. In this enlightening, portable volume, a concise, knowledgeable text by the director of the Càtedra Gaudí at the University of Barcelona is brilliantly illustrated with 200 images by a gifted architectural photographer to provide a new perspective on Gaudí's remarkable career. The author traces all the influences that led to the architect's definitive style, from his fascination with the Orient and Neogothicism to his love of naturalism and geometric forms. Here is the full range of his oeuvre from the innovative residences for the Güell family to his unfinished masterpiece, the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which occupied him until his death. This handsome overview of Gaudí's visionary work is ideal for those who delight in his architecture, as well as those who look forward to traveling to Spain to see his monumental legacy.


From the Publisher
Following the success of Tiny Folio: Frank Lloyd Wright, this pocket-sized survey presents the entire career of the internationally admired Spanish architect whose fanciful buildings and sculpture have defined Barcelona's cityscape.


About the Author
Juan Bassegoda Nonell has served as the director of the Càtedra Gaudí at the School of Architecture within Barcelona University since 1968. He is the author of many notable books on Gaudí. Melba Levick is an accomplished architectural and travel photographer whose work has been published internationally in numerous magazines and in over 30 books.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this volume, a text by the director of the Royal Gaudi Chair at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) combines with images by a well known architectural photographer to provide a new perspective on Gaudi's remarkable career. The text covers the full range of his oeuvre describing early assignments in the 1870s as a draftsman for leading architects in Barcelona; the innovative buildings he created for the Guell Palace and Estate; daring, new structural solutions at Bellesguard; architecture inspired by nature at the Casa Calvet and in the Park Guell; and finally, the construction of his unfinished masterpiece, the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which occupied him until his death. The author traces all the influences that led to his definitive style from his fascination with the Orient and Neogothicism to his affinity for naturalism and specific geometric forms.

SYNOPSIS