The mathematical secrets of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia

I visited this and several other Gaudi buildings about 15 years ago in Barcelona, and many of them are truly breathtaking, or at least dramatically original and unique. I went to the Gaudi museum as well and found it fascinating that the architect himself was not a professional mathematician - he did not use hyperbolic cosine to calculate the dimensions of the catenary curves, he traced the outline of hanging chains. Really interesting to hear about how he also heavily used ratios and symmetry. I love how artistic taste can be partially derived from math (but the math itself isn't sufficient to develop artistic taste)

Be sure to visit the basement museum to see the upside-down string + tiny sandbag weights model that was used to simulate the structure. Pure genius.

"Gothic cathedrals and Doric temples are mathematics in stone. Doubtless Pythagoras was the first in the Classical Culture to conceive number scientifically as the principle of a world-order of comprehensible things—as standard and as magnitude—but even before him it had found expression, as a noble arraying of sensuous-material units, in the strict canon of the statue and the Doric order of columns. The great arts are, one and all, modes of interpretation by means of limits based on number (consider, for example, the problem of space-representation in oil painting). A high mathematical endowment may, without any mathematical science whatsoever, come to fruition and full self-knowledge in technical spheres." ~ Spengler, Decline of the West

Gaudi stuff is cool. I used to live in Barcelona, I know all about it. But numerology is not the same as mathematics- nothing in the article comes close to sniffing at the math of classical architecture. And while many have said I have a well-developed architectural taste, and I certainly understand the artistic fascination and amusement with Gaudi’s works, I never understood the magnitude of architectural devotion that they have attracted.

Call me grumpy, but numerology does not make architecture more beautiful.

Vaguely related, there is also the unfinished Cathedral of Justo [1] near Madrid built by a solo developer since 1961 and essentially by hand and more or less from scrap and whatever people donated. Justo Gallego Martínez died in 2021 at age 96 and donated the building to some foundation for completion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Justo

Such a spectacular building. I could spend all day watching those color gradients move across the walls and floor.

"The temple’s dimensions are based on the number 12 and a module of 7.5m."

12 / 7.5 = 1.6 ~= Golden ratio

I went went once it's very beautiful inside! And the view from the top is also wow! Thanks for sharing this

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