Research - Antoni Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi

Born : 25 June 1852 (Reus, Catalonia, Spain)

Died: 10 June 1926 

Gaudi was an architect who was the most renowned practitioner of Catalan Modernism. And in some of the buildings he designed, he used mosaics and Trencadís (using the technique called pique assiette) which are just broken tile shards, plates, dinnerware, etc. His Roman Catholic faith fueled his drive to make and manifest in his works, earning the nickname "God's Architect".

Casa Batllo

Casa Batlló is a building in Barcelona and is one of Gaudi's greatest works. Here he has redesigned this building with several mosaic tiles.

Other Tile Works

Here are good examples of Gaudi incorporating the Trencadis using the pique assiette technique. This has got me thinking whether or not I want I want to create a mixed media tile/paver. I do like the flat coloured tiles used on the roof of the Casa Batllo, but since I can't work in such a large scale, my thoughts are that it may be a bit underwhelming to look at, I feel like the power in Gaudi's works come from the sheer size of them, allowing one to just marvel at the range of colours and the time it took to create such a masterpiece. My paver will be a teensie bit smaller so I may have to change it up a bit to make it interesting. I don't know just yet, since we have a client who will be paying for the materials, I might be able to get away with that.

For now I think mosaics are the way to go, it is something I've never done before and it will be a good experience to have under the ole' knowledge belt.