God's Architect: Antoni Gaudi's glorious vision

during his eight years as pope benedict xvi carried out thousands of official duties but only once that he travelled outside rome to bestow the Vatican's highest honor on a church transforming it into a basilica a sacred place forever tonight we're going to take you to that extraordinary church it's called the Sagrada família and if you've ever been to Barcelona Spain you couldn't have missed it it may be one of the most spectacular buildings ever constructed by man the vision of genius Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi known as God's architect who died almost a century ago it's been under construction for a hundred and thirty years and it's still not finished why would a church take so long to build because gaudi's design was as complicated as it was advanced today the Sagrada família has become the longest-running architectural project on earth the story will continue in a moment when Pope Benedict came to the Sagrada família two years ago it was the first time Matt had ever been held here in an ancient tradition as old as the Catholic Church he consecrated the Sagrada família as a basilica not since 1883 when it was envisioned by Antoni gaudí had it been seen in all its glory eight hundred voices filled the air one of the largest choirs in the world and close to 7,000 people gathered celebrating a moment that had taken a hundred and twenty eight years to arrive while the inside is mostly finished outside there's still much to be done you can see the spires and construction cranes for miles watch as this picture moves in from above those tiny figures below are people dwarfed by the massive facade rising from the main entrance of the church Anthony Gaudi was profoundly devout and this was his way to make amends to God for the sins of the modern world I mean he wanted to write the history of the whole of the Catholic faith in one building I mean how crazy and how extraordinary and how ambitious and how in a sense megalomaniac that idea is guys fan hence Bergen immersed himself in Antoni gaudí's life for ten years and wrote what's considered the definitive biography he took us to see the nativity facade the only part built while Gaudi was alive it's the Bible written in stone so every single little thing that you look at there every detail symbolizes something real yeah and that was the idea that we together would spend days here me teaching you if I was the priest what the story was and what the symbolism was and once you get inside is a wonderful kind of spiritual boost the ceiling is a striking display of gaudí's engineering genius he wanted the interior of his church to have the feel of a forest because that's where he believed man could feel closest to God and when you look upwards you can see gaudi's columns branching out like trees trees are actually buildings he said it knows where to throw out a branch and if you look at the Sagrada família today that's exactly what happens where there's bizarre eccentric they look bizarre and eccentric but the engineering beneath it is absolutely exceptionally fun hands Bergin pointed out that as you move towards the altar the columns are made from stronger and stronger stone Gaudi chose red porphyry from Iran for the ones that bear the heaviest load because it's among the strongest in the world if you had to define sort of the one thing that distinguished Gaudi as an architect what would it be the capacity to see space in a totally different way to make space explode to see a building as a sculpture rather than just as a place to live in or a roof over your head I need someone who reinvented the language of architecture which no other architect has ever managed to do how many years ahead of his time was he he was a century ahead here's a century head Gaudi knew the Sagrada família would not be completed in his lifetime so he spent years building these elaborate plaster models this one is of the church's ceiling they would have to act as a guide for future generations of Architects to follow his complicated design and he knew that without them it would never be finished the way he intended I am very old but you're very good fun yes but 87 gaudi's legacy has been in the hands of this man's family for more than 80 years jordi banette came here for the first time in 1932 when it was just seven years old do you remember what this was like when you first came here it was it nothing like this nothing of this only this facade the walls and other facade this was nothing for years the Sagrada família was little more than a ruin a pile of rubble and open sky and it may have stayed that way were it not for this one family this is Jordi Bennett's father who was one of the lead architect here for more than 40 years Jodee followed him as chief architect for almost three decades and his daughter Mariana is an architect here today together they've spent more time working on this church than Gaudi himself it is one way to give something to the world this is one way to give something to the world yes the devotion to Gaudi runs deep here Japanese sculptor xro Soto has spent 35 years in this church and this is where he expects to be for the rest of his life sculpting the figures that adorn gaudi's final masterpiece consumed by the man and his vision goddess insigne I mean out he teaches me and helps me solve problems in my work for me he's not dead why did you convert to Catholicism you became a Catholic hemos casado and both Buddha and I was a Buddhist but after working here I realized I couldn't do my job without knowing Gaudi and to know him you have to be in the place he was and that was a world of faith gaudi's deep faith is the reason he became known as God's architect this is one of the few photographs ever taken of him he was 31 when he started working on the Sagrada família and over the next 43 years it became an obsession he looked like a homeless person his trousers were held up with string his clothes were kind of frayed and because all he was interested in was the Sagrada família I mean that was every waking hour to the point at the end of his life actually where he was silly being on site Gaudi died suddenly at this intersection in 1926 when he was hit by a train the driver pushed him aside mistaking the beloved architect for a the photo shamed his people kind of bereft of their builder the Builder of God after his death the builder of God's plaster models continued to guide construction for the next 10 years until 1936 when the spanish civil war broke out Anika's attacked the sagrada familia this photo captures smoke billowing from its side all those models Gaudi had spent years building were smashed to pieces these are all the original pieces that were picked up from his studio and they've been sort of painstakingly identified these shattered fragments were rescued from the rubble and ashes by Geordie Burnett's father and a team of architects there are thousands of them locked away inside this room in the Sagrada família they are the structural DNA of gaudí's church they are absolutely the link not a vague link not a a source of evidence is the source of evidence New Zealander Mark burry was studying architecture at Cambridge University in England when he first came to the Sagrada família on a backpacking trip in 1977 he had come at just the right moment the architects were stuck the second facade had just been completed and they were ready to take on the main body of the church but no one could figure out how to build it as Gaudi intended data showed me boxes and boxes and boxes of broken models and explained that these models had the secrets what were you going to do that they couldn't do my task was tracked the reverse engineer the models if you like it reverse-engineer them so he could understand how gaudy --zz models were supposed to fit together the model-makers workshop almost like the pieces of a complex puzzle he told us gaudi's design was so advanced there was nothing like it in the language of architecture at the time in the end he turned to the most sophisticated aeronautical design software available we had to look to other professions who've actually tackled the complexities of the Sagrada família which are basically complex shapes and surfaces so that's the vehicle industry the car designers their ship designers the plane designers they've been grappling for decades with the three same issues that Gaudi was putting up as architectural challenges so you're using the most up-to-date aeronautical engineering software to complete something that he conceived of in the late 1800s absolutely after 34 years McMurray is now one of the lead architect he took us up to their construction site in the sky way above the city from up here you can see all the way to the Mediterranean how did they build these towers 130 years ago and they built them by hand every piece no cranes just hard labor wooden scaffolding and the men would have to sort of climb 2 or 300 feet up it stay to do the work and then they've put all the materials up today massive crane swing heavy equipment and materials across the sky constructing the Sagrada família precisely as Gaudi envisioned Murray says they still rely on gaudi's models to guide them nearly a hundred years later what's extraordinary is because of the the system that Gotti put in places in these particular geometries it all fits within the fractions of an inch the spot where we're standing is where they're building Gaudi central tower at 566 feet it will make this the tallest Church on earth Gaudi designed it to be three feet shorter than the tallest surrounding mountain in deference to God when you finish this tower it's going to be double where we are right now we're going to get this view amplified by two mark brewery says it will take at least another 13 years to finish the Sagrada família which is paid for entirely by donations to the church during the Pope's visit Geordi Burnett was called on to represent the three generations of architects engineers and sculptors who have brought gaudi's vision this phone do you think you will see this complete this is very difficult to answer my age is peak age but it is possible do you have any doubt in your mind that this will be finished one day oh yes I

Channel: CBS News

Views: 954,339

Keywords: God, Architect, Antoni Gaudi, glorious, vision, sagrada, familia, church, construction, time, 130 years, modern, technology

Id: ZnNwpmdWm1w

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2013