Architect of the Sagrada Família, the genius who grew nature into building
A Catalan architect of Spain, one of the most singular, unclassifiable geniuses in history. He detested the rigid straight line, holding that "the straight line belongs to man, the curve to God," and so drew form from nature — trees, bones, honeycombs, shells — to build architecture that seems alive, that seems to grow. His life’s great work is Barcelona’s Sagrada Família: a cathedral growing skyward like a forest of stone, still under construction today. With broken-tile mosaics, twisting columns, and undulating roofs, he studded all Barcelona into his fantastical world. In old age he gave almost his whole life to the Sagrada Família, and died wretchedly — knocked down by a tram in the street and, mistaken for a beggar in his shabby clothes, left too long without care.
In Gaudí’s architecture one can scarcely find a rigid straight line. He believed nature never uses straight lines: trunks bend, rivers wind, bones arch. So he made columns lean and branch like trees, roofs undulate like waves, spires grow skyward like bamboo shoots. "The straight line belongs to man, the curve to God" — he would return architecture to the natural, organic, near-sacred forms.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.