An End in Sight for a Centuries-Old Building Project?

In recent years, ramped up efforts and state-of-the-art technology have speeded construction at Barcelona's famously unfinished Sagrada Família Church
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From Architectural Record
Josephine Minutillo

The building materials currently used are in keeping with those selected by Gaudí. They include stone columns and windows (made with granite, basalt, porphyry, and stone from the nearby Montjuïc), vaults of exposed reinforced concrete and flat brick (made using a traditional Catalan technique of superimposed layers of mortared tile and brick), stone roofs, and Venetian-glass mosaics. Steel-reinforced, high-resistance concrete allows some of the larger columns to be built according to Gaudí's design while meeting current regulations.

Section with propsed rail line.

Proposals for a highspeed rail line to run directly below the church (above) have sparked heated controversy. Also controversial are the sculptures by Josep Maria Subirachs on the Passion Facade (below), construction of which began in 1954. Their contemporary style is in sharp contrast to the Nativity Facade sculpture, executed mostly during Gaudí's lifetime.

Images: The Sagrada Família

 

The models were traditionally made of gypsum plaster, but more recently have also been mechanically produced using polystyrene or polyurethane. Polyester and fiberglass are also used for making molds. The formwork for the large hyperbolic paraboloids is made of a metal skeleton that is subsequently lined with medium-density-fiberboard paneling. The metal formwork for the smaller paraboloids is covered with a combination of epoxy resins and sand. The skylight hyperboloids are produced with wooden ribs.

Despite 7,000 daily visitors, many of these elements are fabricated on-site and hoisted into position by both traditional methods and specially created machinery. While there are those who are concerned for the safety of visitors, concern for the safety of the building has arisen recently since the Spanish government approved plans to build a high-speed rail line linking Madrid and Barcelona. That line would pass below grade near the church foundations (already flanked by two subway lines). New controversy has since erupted over the already much-debated building. 

According to Bonet and his supporters, boring tunnels for the new train would almost certainly wreak havoc on the building; he calls the plan to have a train run so close to its structure irresponsible and reckless. Just this past March, a similar construction project for a metro line in Cologne, Germany, is said to have caused the devastating collapse of the city's archives building, resulting in the loss of life and irreplaceable historic documents, and generating discussion throughout Europe about such construction projects.

The ceiling is highlighted with green and gold Venetian-glass mosaics.

Photo: Josephine Minutillo

 

Although the Sagrada Família was included on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, the World Heritage Committee, which met this summer in Seville, Spain, went against recommendations from the International Council on Monuments and Sites and decided not to place the building on its endangered list, saying it was not in danger of suffering damage from construction of the rail line. Though boring has not started, preliminary work has begun just a mile away from the church as the debate continues in Spanish courts.

While controversies persist, one lingering question remains: Will the building ever be complete? Gaudí used to say that his client "was in no hurry." In the decades following Gaudí's death, the running joke was that the Sagrada Família would get finished "in 10 years." But now there are real dates. For the past several years, construction has been going on in every part of the building, and has reached a point where there does in fact seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Plans call for all interior spaces to be completed and domes sealed by this time next year. The finished, 48,000-square-foot enclosure would make it possible to open the church for worship. But much work is still left to be done. The biggest project yet to be undertaken is the construction of additional towers-taller than existing ones-including an enormous, 550-foot-tall central one (that would exceed in height most high-rise buildings in the city), and the Glory Facade (the last of the  three facades). Still, if you ask the current team if the Sagrada Família will ever get finished, their answer is a resounding yes. A potential target date may even be set-2026, the centennial of Gaudí's death.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in August 2009

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