Tangible versus Intangible Materiality: Interpreting Gaudí and the Colliding Forces of Traditional and Innovative Construction

Abstract

For architects, stone is the most enduring of all materials available to construct their dreams. Mark Burry’s chapter draws on critical aspects of Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí's personal development, and life on the construction site for the Sagrada Família Basilica during and after his death. Insights into the paradox of tangible versus intangible materiality are explored: interpreting Gaudí’s position with regard to the colliding forces of traditional and innovative construction in a time of rapidly increasing industrialisation and material invention. It does so by building a matrix to explicate aspects of the continuation ‘framework’ developed by Gaudí, which was posthumously handed down to his successors. Human and nonhuman intelligence are deployed not only to gain insights into how the past building methods of the original creator were conducted, but also to find threads of continuity to creatively complete the emblematic building afresh.