Stone has been and continues to be the main construction material for the architecture of the Sagrada Família. This is how Gaudí wanted it, and this is how it has been for more than 130 years. In previous blog posts, we’ve looked at the international provenance of the stone at the Basilica, necessitated by the …
The mountain of Montjuïc is an important part of Barcelona’s unique skyline. The Romans called it Montem Iovis (mount Jupiter) but its use as a Jewish cemetery for centuries could also have influenced its name. The stone found there has been used for construction since the time of the Iberians and was very important during …
Continue reading » “Montjuïc stone: from extraction to recycling”
Despite the differences in the diameter, height and number of sides on each of the six central towers on the Sagrada Família, the system of dividing the construction into stone panels is the same. On all of them, the triangular windows overlap the level above and there are always three windows per level. However, there …
Continue reading » “The panels on the central towers: what they’re like and how they were designed”
Tensioning means to make taut, tight, tense. But how can you tighten a stone? Well, what is actually tightened is a bar running through the stone. This bar, which is stretched and becomes some centimetres longer from the tensioning, will tend to return to its normal length, becoming shorter. But if each end of the …
Continue reading » “What do we mean when we talk about tensioned stone?”
A decade ago, the Sagrada Família decided to move construction works from the one-block plot in Barcelona where the temple has been located since the Associació Espiritual de Devots de Sant Josep (Spiritual Association of the Devotees of Saint Joseph) decided to purchase the land to build a place of worship. The goal of having …
Continue reading » “Galera, the making of the Sagrada Família”
In a previous article, we explained how we use stone to build the Basilica, not only as exterior cladding for the reinforced concrete structures, as was done traditionally, but also as part of the structure of the temple, thanks to the innovative technique with post-tensioned stone. In the previous article, we looked at both the …
Continue reading » “Stainless steel at the Sagrada Família: what do we use it for?”
