An illuminating biography of one of the most famous--and most famously unfinished--buildings in the world, the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona. The scaffolding-cloaked spires of Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, dominate the Barcelona skyline and draw in millions of visitors every year. More than a century after the first stone was laid in 1882, the Sagrada Familia remains unfinished, a testament to Gaudí's quixotic ambition, his religious devotion, and the sensuous eccentricity of his design. It has defied the critics, the penny-pinching accountants, the conservative town-planners, and the devotees of sterile modernism. It has enchanted and frustrated the citizens of Barcelona. And it has passed through the landmark changes of twentieth-century Spain, surviving two World Wars, the ravages of the Spanish Civil War, and the "Hunger Years" of Franco's rule. Gijs van Hensbergen's The Sagrada Familia explores the evolution of this remarkable building, working through the decades right up to the present day before looking beyond to the final stretch of its construction. Rich in detail and vast in scope, this is a revelatory chronicle of an iconic structure, its place in history, and the wild genius that created it.

A study of the Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It charts the styles the architect Gaudi evolved during his career. At crypt level a Gothic design is used, but as the building climbs the structure passes through the Art Noveau stage before becoming surreal.

This catalogue focusses on the dynamic and ongoing construction of Gaudi's The Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (La Sagrada Familia). It documents the cathedral's evolution using handmade drawings, plaster models, digital imaging and 3D modeling and examines the geometries and formal languages that have informed generations of architects and builders

For the lay person, Antoni Gaudi is known as the creator of fairy-tale architecture, which not only fascinates in its completed form, but also as a fragment, like his best known work, the church of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which attracts countless visitors every year.

Antoni Gaudí, an architect with a very strong personality and with an incomparable imagination for forms, was also a first class constructor, capable of introducing innovations into traditional styles and finding other solutions that met the needs of his time and, indeed, those of the future. This book takes a tour of the Temple of the Sagrada Família--his most emblematic and popular work, to which he devoted more than 42 years of his life--, in order to discover the innumerable details that characterise it, just as Gaudí left it at the time of his death, as well as its continuation, undertaken using current techniques, something that demonstrates the feasibility of his fantastic project.

Gaudi's bizarre and romantic buildings, interiors and exteriors, mosiacs and public spaces, have imbued Barcelona with unique character and ensured his place in the pantheon of great architects.

At the time of his death in 1926, Antoni Gaudí was arguably the most famous architect in the world. He had created some of the greatest and most controversial masterpieces of modern architecture, which were as exotic as they were outrageous. But little is known about the shadowy figure behind the swirling, vivid buildings that inspired the Surrealists. This masterful biography brings both man and architect powerfully to life against the changing backdrop of Barcelona and Catalonia. Gijs van Hensbergen leads us through the design and construction of Gaudí’s most significant buildings -- revealing their innovation and complexity, and demonstrating the growing relevance of Gaudí’s architecture today.