Gaudí Crypt at Colònia Güell
New photographs of the Gaudi Crypt have been shot to portray the UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of Gaudi’s less known works but one that really condenses all the architectural innovations and the genius of the Catalan architect.
Twenty minutes far from Barcelona by train, the Gaudi Crypt is one of the buildings that form the Colonia Güell. It is considered by many as a singular workshop or laboratory where Gaudi practiced the solutions that he later applied to the construction of the Sagrada Familia, a place where –in the words of Japanese architect Arata Isozaki– he “overcame all established limits regarding shapes”.
On assignment from the Colonia Güell, the photographs of the Crypt explore its relationship with his environment and how the different colors of the surrounding vegetation have been used on the construction materials of the building.
The interior photographs try to interpret the beauty of the different shapes that constitute Gaudi’s architectural solutions in leaning pillars, catenary arches and hyperbolic paraboloid walls and, more decisively, the incredibly intricate masonry work of the Crypt’s brick roof.
Photographing Gaudi’s works is always a transforming experience for any architectural photographer, a statement specially true when your camera is framing a purely aesthetic feast for the eyes that can be seen as nothing but a monumental planting seed of the Sagrada Familia.
There are many other Gaudi’s works, large and small, and I do really wish there will be more new exciting opportunities to photograph them.
