Theory and History of Architecture, Restoration and Reconstruction of Historical and Architectural Heritage

Issue № 2 (38), 2018 ISSN 2542-0526 THEORY AND HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE, RESTORATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE UDC 72.01 V. O. Ignatyeva1 VOLUMETRIC AND PLANNING STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SOLUTIONS OF A. GAUDÍ’S PRIVATE HOUSES Ural State University of Architecture and Art Russia, Yekaterinburg, e-mail: [email protected] 1Senior Lecturer of the Dept. of Fundamentals of Architectural Design Statement of the problem. As there has been unflagging interest in the creative heritage of the architect A. Gaudi and a well-established art science approach to investigating it, it is of importance to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of the works by this great Catalan. In historiog- raphy there are no examples of strict comparative analysis of volumetric, planning and constructive characteristics of private houses created by A. Gaudi (Casa Vicens; Güell Palace; the Güell Bodegas; the Bellesguard Villa). Results. The comparative analysis of volumetric, planning and constructive characteristics of four private houses created by A. Gaudi was performed chronologically; traditional and the author's solutions are formulated; the features of construction schemes and tendencies of their application were found. Conclusions. A. Gaudi's innovation in the organization of private residences are as follows: plac- ing of a stable in a cellar; complex organisation of the floor-plan diagram; introduction of interme- diate spaces for communication of various zones, an interior and an exterior; supply of light expo- sure of internal rooms; transformation of spaces; multipurpose flat roofing. Constructive decisions provide rationality of the device and expressiveness of interiors, embody the elementary tectonic schemes and craft traditions of Catalonia, author's unique method and complex structures. Con- structive truthfulness or illusiveness strengthens figurativeness of architecture by A. Gaudi. Keywords: Gaudí ntoni; Spanish architecture; private house; Casa Vicens; Güell Palace; the Güell Bodegas; the Bellesguard Villa. Introduction. The importance of the study is due to how essential it is to investigate artistic methods of Antonio Gaudi as a palette of design tools for improving visual images of modern architecture. There is currently an unflagging interest towards to A.Gaudi’s work that lead to © Ignatyeva V. O., 2018 73 Russian Journal of Building Construction and Architecture a growing number of publications in the field looking into the main aspects of the artistic heritage of the great Catalonian. A common perception of the unique style of the author’s architectural language and method is largely based on an extensive collection of creative biog- raphies, fragmentary research, inconsistent descriptions of individual objects. This article is the first to present a comparative analysis of some of private residential buildings designed by A. Gaudi in the chronological order. The shaping of the author’s individual style of designing private residential houses might shed light on A. Gaudi’s contribution to the Spanish heritage of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The level of information on the topic is indicated by a wide corpus of publications on A. Gaudi’s artistic heritage (creative style, architectural, constructional and symbolic features). The form-shaping tools, construction and engineering methods have been dealt with by scholars in individual studies (J. Bassegoda Nonell, González Moreno-Navarro, D. Gi- ralt-Miracle, H. Ibelings, A. V. Ikonnikov, Ye. V. Kalimov, M. A. Crippa, C. Martinel, Brunet, J. Molema, J. Roe, H. Teh-Chien, A.A. Tits, J. Tomlow, T. Torii, G. Fahr-Becker, K. Frampton, S. A. Khvorostukhin, G. Van Hensbergen, R. Zerbst, etc.) [2, 3, 5, 6, 8—12, 14—24]. Most of them took on an art methodology approach. In the paper by V. Ignatieva there is a study of volumetric and planning solutions and structure of three residential buildings designed by A. Gaudi in Barcelona with the main principles of their construction identified as part of the typology of the objects [4]. Up until recently there has been no consistent study of methods and solutions in A.Gaudi’s form-shaping tools employed in designing each individual residential building. Therefore the evolution of the author’s principles of designing private residential houses is yet to be addressed. The objective of the study is to identify the volumetric and planning and construction principles of designing private residential houses by A.Gaudi: Casa Vicens (1883—1888), Guell Palace, (1886—1888), Guell wine cellars (1895—1901), the Bellesguard villa (1900—1909). 1. Volumetric and planning structure and construction solutions. The volumetric and planning structure of each of the four residential houses is presented in the chronological order. Meticulous description of the planning solutions is challenging owing to a number of factors. Firstly, the structures are partially or completely closed to visitors; secondly, avail- able sketches are very basic and thus provide no insight into the organization of the object 74 Issue № 2 (38), 2018 ISSN 2542-0526 (plans of individual floors might be missing); thirdly, the façade structure is not representa- tive of the interior; fourthly, individual premises were replanned; fifthly, there is no data on the function of individual buildings or floors. However, the analysis of the descriptions of the objects and comparison of sketches from different sources enabled us to synthesize our idea of the volumetric and planning structure of each building. 1.1. Casa Vicens (1883—1888). Following . Gaudi the mansion was reconstructed by an- other architect (as well as expanded due to an extra flight between the bearing walls). An original volumetric and planning scheme was presented in the plans of the house following the reconstruction (Fig. 1). The main entrance with a high porch was originally designed from the side of the façade facing the street in its left part. The laundry has a separate entrance (here as well) as well as a smoking room (from the opposite side). In the ground floor there were daytime premises (a dining room, verandah, smoking room), entrance hall, a backyard with stairs as well as household facilities, i.e. a kitchen and a laundry. The dining room was the center of the original planning structure that the remaining spaces are around it. The glassed verandah next to the dining room faces the garden, which connects the inside and outside spaces of the house. The premises can be accessed in various ways: the hall and dining room can be used to move between the entrance hall and the smoking room. In the first floor there were bedrooms, in the second floor there were most likely to be staff rooms. A cellar was used for housekeeping pur- poses. The multilevel roofing was fitted with a passageway where the movement trajectory is arranged with dome pavilions. Casa Vicens is structurally authentic, which means that the construction solution is expressed in the interior (Table 1). According to the simplest scheme, wood beams of the enclosures between the floors rely on the bearing stone walls. The enclosure of the cellar was made of cross-dome and cylindrical vaults, which is in keeping with the rural Catalan tradition [20, p. 235]. The description and size of a cut in the premises enclosed with such a vault is in agreement with a scheme of a cooper or billowed vault used in the Tsar Russia and the USSR [7, p. 236; 13, p. 21]. The roof of the house is a multi-level system of brick planes positioned along slant- ing wood beams. A non-standard solution allowed a passageway to be arranged along the roof at different heights (Fig. 1e). 75 Russian Journal of Building Construction and Architecture a b c d e Fig. 1. Casa Viceas (architect A. Gaudi). Functional zoning: ) plan of the cellar [24, p. 45]; b) plan of the ground floor [14, p. 39]; c) plan of the first floor [14, p. 39]; d) plan of the second floor [24, p. 45]; e) plan of the roof [24, p. 45]; 1 are daytime premises; 2 are bedrooms; 3 are housekeeping and cleaning premises; 4 are passageways; 5 is a a light well, a multi-light space; 6 is a movement trajectory 76 Issue № 2 (38), 2018 ISSN 2542-0526 Table 1 Schemes of the construction of private residential houses by architect . Gaudi Objects Guell wine the Bellesguard Sche- Casa Vicens Guell Palace mes of the cellars villa construction Scheme of the roof Scheme of the enclosure between the floors Scheme of the support of con- sole ledges Scheme of the enclosure between the cellar and the ground floor 1.2. Guell Palace (1886—1888). The entrance hall of the ground floor is unique as it is part of the inside and outside space: the entrance portals only have a tracery filling of a forged grid. Car- riages and vehicles proceeded through the entrance hall and then onto the carriage premises and visitors followed to the front staircase along the pavement (they drove in both directions from the stairs for the convenience of two carriages coming and going) (Fig. 2b). The front staircase connects a two-light space with the mezzanine floor where the stairs lead into the first floor. The planning structure of the palace, which is complex for perception, is different from floor to floor, which creates an illusion of moving along a labyrinth and a vision of larger sizes of the structure (18×22 m). The significance of the planning center moves to the front stairs of the entrance hall in the ground floor to the multi-light atrium hall in the upper floors (Fig. 2 d—g). 77 Russian Journal of Building Construction and Architecture Starting from the first floor the mansion assumes the structure of a Renaissance palazzo where premises are centered around a hall or a backyard reaching up the entire building and enclosed with a dome [2, p.

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