What do you think?
Rate this book
Antonio Gaudí: Master Architect
Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) is one of the most admired architects of the twentieth century. Even today, some seventy-five years after Gaudí's death, his fanciful, exuberant buildings define Barcelona's cityscape and continue to influence architect
In this enlightening volume, a concise, knowledgeable text by the director of the Royal Gaudí Chair at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) combines with striking images by a well-known architectural photographer to provide a new perspective on Gaudí'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 Güell Palace and Estate, daring new structural solutions at Bellesguard, architecture inspired by nature at the Casa Calvet and in the Park Güell, and 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.
Brilliantly illustrated, this incisive 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.
In this enlightening volume, a concise, knowledgeable text by the director of the Royal Gaudí Chair at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) combines with striking images by a well-known architectural photographer to provide a new perspective on Gaudí'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 Güell Palace and Estate, daring new structural solutions at Bellesguard, architecture inspired by nature at the Casa Calvet and in the Park Güell, and 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.
Brilliantly illustrated, this incisive 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.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Joan Bassegoda i Nonell
54 books1 followerJoan Bassegoda i Nonell (Barcelona, 9 de febrer de 1930 - Barcelona, 30 de juliol de 2012) fou un arquitecte català, fill del també arquitecte Bonaventura Bassegoda i Musté i net de Bonaventura Bassegoda i Amigó.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 28, 2018
This is a review of the two perfect books to read before you travel to Barcelona to see Gaudi:
Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect, by Juan Bassegoda Nonell and
Gaudi: A Biography, by Gijs van Hensbergen
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I approached both books with two questions in mind. 1) What about Gaudi's work could have drawn the love and admiration of the Japanese in the way it seems to do. At first glance the two traditions seem to have little in common--and yet in Japan there has been a tremendous Gaudi boom (I first learned of his greatness only in Japan, and there is probably a lot more information on him in Japanese than in English). And 2) Which are the absolute must-sees for an upcoming trip.
Both books get a 5/5 for excellent writing (I own all of van Hensbergen's work) and Bassegoda's writing is absolutely inspired. Photography is also stunning.
So, why the Japanese? Asymmetry and a love of curved lines; as well as art inspired by the natural forms found in nature is the easy answer. "God is found in nature" was given in one Japanese text... the sublime is found in nature. I also think the idea of modeling might resonate with Japanese aesthetics. Gaudi did not like to work from drawings and relied much more on modeling than many other traditions. He did draw and was a brilliant draftsman but Bassegoda stresses the three dimensional focus in his prep work. Japanese architecture also tends toward a resistance to straight geometric lines and angles. Nature based and following the laws of gravity; think of all the rope with bags of metal he used to derive his famous arches--this is maybe different from mathematically derived angles and arches we are used to.
Another surprising link is John Ruskin, William Morris and the arts and crafts movement.
This is something I would never have guessed as inspiring Gaudi--but it seems that, other than Catalunya itself this was one of his major influences. And of course, the arts and crafts movement was hugely important in Japan. This means: beauty follows form. A pursuit of abstract beauty was never what Gaudi was trying to do and that is something both Ruskin and Morris especially would have applauded.
I wanted to learn more about Sotoo Etsuro, the Japanese sculptor who moved to Barcelona and became the official sculptor of La Sagrada Familia--but there was not a lot of information about him in this book. Luckily, van Hensbergen described Sotoo workquite a lot in his other book, dedicated to gaudi and the Sagrada. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
You can also learn about Sotoo in the movie, Sagrada: the Mystery of Creation. It is really moving, thanks in great part to the photography. According to Sotoo, it is impossible to understand Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia without understanding his faith. Van Hensbergen is really excellent in describing what a surprisingly pious man Gaudi was. This is something I would not have guessed given the exuberance of the buildings--which to me seem sexy and pagan and incredibly colorful. But I learned that this was a man whose Lenten fast nearly killed him, whose life revolved mainly around church and his work and who cared deeply for the poor. The man I imagined as a Picasso was not so at all... maybe he was a bit like Don Quixote?
2) So what are the must-sees?
In addition to Gaudi tour, we will see La Sagrada, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, and Park Guell & Gaudi House (if we can manage would love to see Crypt and Palau Guell).
Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect, by Juan Bassegoda Nonell and
Gaudi: A Biography, by Gijs van Hensbergen
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I approached both books with two questions in mind. 1) What about Gaudi's work could have drawn the love and admiration of the Japanese in the way it seems to do. At first glance the two traditions seem to have little in common--and yet in Japan there has been a tremendous Gaudi boom (I first learned of his greatness only in Japan, and there is probably a lot more information on him in Japanese than in English). And 2) Which are the absolute must-sees for an upcoming trip.
Both books get a 5/5 for excellent writing (I own all of van Hensbergen's work) and Bassegoda's writing is absolutely inspired. Photography is also stunning.
So, why the Japanese? Asymmetry and a love of curved lines; as well as art inspired by the natural forms found in nature is the easy answer. "God is found in nature" was given in one Japanese text... the sublime is found in nature. I also think the idea of modeling might resonate with Japanese aesthetics. Gaudi did not like to work from drawings and relied much more on modeling than many other traditions. He did draw and was a brilliant draftsman but Bassegoda stresses the three dimensional focus in his prep work. Japanese architecture also tends toward a resistance to straight geometric lines and angles. Nature based and following the laws of gravity; think of all the rope with bags of metal he used to derive his famous arches--this is maybe different from mathematically derived angles and arches we are used to.
Another surprising link is John Ruskin, William Morris and the arts and crafts movement.
This is something I would never have guessed as inspiring Gaudi--but it seems that, other than Catalunya itself this was one of his major influences. And of course, the arts and crafts movement was hugely important in Japan. This means: beauty follows form. A pursuit of abstract beauty was never what Gaudi was trying to do and that is something both Ruskin and Morris especially would have applauded.
I wanted to learn more about Sotoo Etsuro, the Japanese sculptor who moved to Barcelona and became the official sculptor of La Sagrada Familia--but there was not a lot of information about him in this book. Luckily, van Hensbergen described Sotoo workquite a lot in his other book, dedicated to gaudi and the Sagrada. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
You can also learn about Sotoo in the movie, Sagrada: the Mystery of Creation. It is really moving, thanks in great part to the photography. According to Sotoo, it is impossible to understand Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia without understanding his faith. Van Hensbergen is really excellent in describing what a surprisingly pious man Gaudi was. This is something I would not have guessed given the exuberance of the buildings--which to me seem sexy and pagan and incredibly colorful. But I learned that this was a man whose Lenten fast nearly killed him, whose life revolved mainly around church and his work and who cared deeply for the poor. The man I imagined as a Picasso was not so at all... maybe he was a bit like Don Quixote?
2) So what are the must-sees?
In addition to Gaudi tour, we will see La Sagrada, Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, and Park Guell & Gaudi House (if we can manage would love to see Crypt and Palau Guell).
October 27, 2025
"L'home es mou en un món de dues dimensions i els àngels en un altre de tridimensional. De vegades, després de molts sacrificis, de dolor continuat i punyent, l'arquitecte arriba a veure, durant uns segons, la tridimensionalitat angèlica. L'arquitectura que sorgeix d'aquesta inspiració produeix fruits que sadollen generacions."
March 6, 2017
Does any artist or architect preside over a major city with the sheer force of his vision and style as Antonio Gaudi does Barcelona?
We traveled to Barcelona last fall (prior to my wife Debby teaching watercolor aboard a cruise ship) and this coffee table book is part of what I have to show for it.
Gaudi (1852-1926) is sui generis. His genius is so idiosyncratic that it’s difficult to say that he has had any real followers of a Gaudi “tradition.” At the same time, he remains a monumental figure whose neo-gothic buildings, inspired by natural forms, continue to inspire – and challenge – subsequent generations.
Gaudi was reclusive and devout, a lifelong bachelor devoted to his friends and architecture and little else. Although educated as an architect, he was raised in a family of craftspeople and possessed a practical facility with iron work, ceramics, wood, glass, and stone. His dexterity with such materials helped give his structures their wondrous textures. In some cases, decades had to pass for builders could invent the techniques necessary to execute Gaudi’s designs.
Gaudi’s rejected the basic geometric shapes of square, rectangle, and pyramid for the fluid sinuous shapes of nature. It’s hard to find a straight line in any of his buildings. Gaudi was the anti-Bauhaus, the antithesis of the blunt functional style of Le Corbusier and the international style ascendant in the decades after Gaudi’s death. (The rediscovery of Gaudi’s genius occurred with a major retrospective exhibition in 1952.)
To me, Gaudi’s monumental, still-unfinished La Sacrada Familia looks as if it was freshly hoisted from the bottom of the sea, still heavily encrusted with years of marine growth. Casa Batlló, with its blue tile and glass exteriors feels as if you are visiting a submerged castle. In all his buildings, the detailed work of ceramic mosaics, curving balustrades, broken glass, inverted neo-gothic spaces wrought-iron railings is both exquisite and overwhelming.
Gaudi rarely wrote, although his followers transcribed his talks, usually delivered on long walks. After an early period, he didn’t even bother to draw much, preferring instead to build scale models, many of which can be seen inside the buildings themselves. Yet his architecture – driven by his Catholic faith and worship of nature – embodied a philosophy as complex and carefully worked out as that of any other great builder of our time.
We traveled to Barcelona last fall (prior to my wife Debby teaching watercolor aboard a cruise ship) and this coffee table book is part of what I have to show for it.
Gaudi (1852-1926) is sui generis. His genius is so idiosyncratic that it’s difficult to say that he has had any real followers of a Gaudi “tradition.” At the same time, he remains a monumental figure whose neo-gothic buildings, inspired by natural forms, continue to inspire – and challenge – subsequent generations.
Gaudi was reclusive and devout, a lifelong bachelor devoted to his friends and architecture and little else. Although educated as an architect, he was raised in a family of craftspeople and possessed a practical facility with iron work, ceramics, wood, glass, and stone. His dexterity with such materials helped give his structures their wondrous textures. In some cases, decades had to pass for builders could invent the techniques necessary to execute Gaudi’s designs.
Gaudi’s rejected the basic geometric shapes of square, rectangle, and pyramid for the fluid sinuous shapes of nature. It’s hard to find a straight line in any of his buildings. Gaudi was the anti-Bauhaus, the antithesis of the blunt functional style of Le Corbusier and the international style ascendant in the decades after Gaudi’s death. (The rediscovery of Gaudi’s genius occurred with a major retrospective exhibition in 1952.)
To me, Gaudi’s monumental, still-unfinished La Sacrada Familia looks as if it was freshly hoisted from the bottom of the sea, still heavily encrusted with years of marine growth. Casa Batlló, with its blue tile and glass exteriors feels as if you are visiting a submerged castle. In all his buildings, the detailed work of ceramic mosaics, curving balustrades, broken glass, inverted neo-gothic spaces wrought-iron railings is both exquisite and overwhelming.
Gaudi rarely wrote, although his followers transcribed his talks, usually delivered on long walks. After an early period, he didn’t even bother to draw much, preferring instead to build scale models, many of which can be seen inside the buildings themselves. Yet his architecture – driven by his Catholic faith and worship of nature – embodied a philosophy as complex and carefully worked out as that of any other great builder of our time.
Read
April 5, 2009When i ordered this book, i was irritated to find that it was only 4 by 4. The small size does not affect the quality of this book! it was exceptionally helpful because it had lots of material on The influences of gaudi. DO NOT LET ITS SMALL SIZE FOOL YOU. also, this book had quite a few beutiful photographs that matched the context of the discussion wonderfully. Recommended to all who want to view or brush up on knowledge of Gaudi and his works.
October 9, 2024
A pocket-sized encapsulation of massive structures and ideas, this book can transform your understanding of one of history's great architects. While the gorgeous photos can't be done full justice by their small size, they will nonetheless prime you for experiencing these buildings in person with a deeper appreciation for how they embody Gaudí's ideas about beauty and God emerging from nature. I suspect many people will have this text on hand when visiting Sagrada Família after it is completed in 2026; I know I hope to be one of them.
July 23, 2016
Great pictures of his work.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews