Title – Mark Burry. Gaudi, Teratology and Kinship.
Keywords – The Freak. Monstrosity. The Sagrada Familia. Metamorphosis. Morphogenesis. Polymorphism. Geometry. Organic architecture
Thoughts – The Freak – yields both pleasure and horror of ourselves as beings through a simultaneous expansion and contraction of our understanding of normality, a ‘narcissistic’ delight at the shape of our own externality. Are you a freak?
Surfaces – real virtuality, where surfaces are being read as the boundaries to form, qualities that hover between the beautiful and deformed. Surfaces provide clues and threats of violation and corruption through the concealment of their potential.
Monstrosity – inhabit the domains of the natural and the supernatural.
The Sagrada Familia – established in the mid 19th century Barcelona to give voice to the Holy Family during times of profound change and increasing social dysfunction. The ‘ Cathedral for the Poor’ is dedicated to Joseph as a paragon of moral virtue and the patriarchal head of the family united. The building is gothic rigorously in both scope and layered meaning. Photos
Geometry - Gaudi employed second order geometry for the composition of portions of the Church. The fundamental characteristics for second order geometry is the way non-coplanar straight lines can variously describe warped surfaces that is masked by the apparent free-form composition. The surfaces can be fragmented into individual components which, when combined, form a seamless whole. The fundamental characteristics for second order geometry is the way non-coplanar straight lines can variously describe warped surfaces masked by the apparently free-form composition. The animation within geometry is suspended as carved material, a static representation of kinship, variety and perfection.
Organic architecture – a problematic misnomer. Buildings in their static condition are anything but organic, free-forms are no longer free but fixed following through its translation to built building. Often organic means that the built free-form may do little more than bear characteristics that can be attributed to natural form. The gene pool. Using organic experimentation in architecture algorithms are used to generate the exact simplest morphogenetic relationship. Here is some of Gaudi's organic arcitecture
Hyperbolic paraboloid, and other brilliant shapes.