This is one of the first inverted 3-D
models ever used in architecture, circa 1889. It was created by Antoni Gaudi to
help design the Sagrada Familia. He could make make sketches and drawings
directly from the string shape. Gaudi made many of these models and each one
could take years to produce. The first picture shows strings suspended from a
scale frame of the footprint of the building. The bags of sand were measured so
that they accurately reflect the weight of the stone column that that
particular string represented. You can see the general shape of the building in
these strings, but upside down.
I flipped the picture so you can see the shape better.
This picture is a replica made for the museum. Gravity pulls in same direction for all the strings. If a string is anchored in one point it will hang strait and mimic a column. It the string is attached at two points it will hang in a curved shape like an arch. The shape of the arch is not quite circular and it will change depending on the weight it needs to hold up. This is how Gaudi came up with parabolic and hyperbolic shapes. He is the first person ever to use these shapes in a large project. By shifting anchor points and weights the results could be seen real-time in the strings. We saw all these items in the downstairs basement museum. There were tools, models, glass samples, explanations and much more. We did not know that two days after the start of the Spanish Civil war, anti catholic anarchists stormed the Sagrada Familia. They smashed the models, burned Gaudi's papers and tried to blow up the nativity facade. The explosion did not go off but by the end of the civil was 40 churches in Barcelona alone had been destroyed, and 12 people directly involved ion the building had been killed. Through all this the work continued and some of the plaster models were put back together with the remaining pieces of plaster
The gift shop!
What the Pinnacle on the Jesus tower will look like
