KULTURA / CULTURE
cially makes the Sagrada Familia the world’s tallest church building. Gaudí designed the tower meticulously in or- der for it to be exactly half a metre shorter than the city’s Montjuic Hill, due to his strong belief that the work of man should never exceed the work of the Creator. From wavy asphalt to an anatomical bench Gaudí’s architectural code is woven into the entire geography of Barcelona, testifying to how, with the support of industrialist Eusebi Güell, his main pa- tron, he changed consciousness regard- ing urbanism. In Park Güell, which was originally intended to become a luxury residential area, Gaudí created his fa- mous sinuous bench covered with the trencadís technique, a mosaic of bro- ken pieces of ceramic and glass col- lected from waste. The bench not on- ly mirrors the anatomy of the human body perfectly, but its structure hides a drainage system that collects rainwa- ter through the columns of an under- ground cistern. Two buildings of the elegant Passeig de Gràcia still cause every passerby to stop in their tracks. Casa Batlló is a rad- ical reconstruction with bone-shaped balconies and a roof that imitates the scales of a dragon, where a blue-tiled skylight gradually shifts to a light-
er shade as it descends, providing even light to every corner. Just down the street is Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (The Stone Quarry). This build- ing is revolutionary in terms of con- struction because it has no load-bearing walls, with the entire structure rely- ing on skeletal reinforced concrete col- umns that made it possible to demol- ish the internal partitions, as had been requested by the tenants. Its roof, with chimneys shaped like petrified warriors, becomes the city’s most beautiful jazz stage on summer evenings.
44 | Arhitektura » Architecture
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