Course: MAA01 24/25 After Gaudí: From Computation to Composition Seminar

Learning from the unfinished Colònia Güell chapel (1898-1914), Antoni Gaudí wanted the structure for the Sagrada Família Basilica (1882 – ongoing) to be ‘equilibrated’, and calculated accordingly. By equilibrated we mean that the gravity forces for the whole basilica are directed axially through the columns: each column is therefore aligned to meet these forces as efficiently as possible through their axes. The seminar investigates two challenges: the description and representation of columns, and the creation of a potentially underlying geometrical guide, and to branch columns and join them elegantly to the trunk. Students develop both design computation through parametric design software, and physical outputs materialising the production of branching columns with their hands.