Jordi Faulí, the architect following in Gaudí's footsteps

The architect leading the works of the Sagrada Família did not expect this destiny while studying at university. Jordi Faulí (Barcelona, 1959) was "almost an architect" when he joined the team that continues Antoni Gaudí's work, and he did so because he met the then architect director of the works, Jordi Bonet, thanks to scouting. "It's been 32 years since I've been here," he explains in an interview with The New Barcelona Post.

He accompanies all his answers with illustrations, photographs, plans, and books that show the vision Gaudí wanted to capture in this building, under construction for 140 years. He knows them by heart. His vocation did not come from his family, with a journalist father who was the first director of Avui. He was simply attracted to this discipline. For some years now, he has lived in Cervelló, where he moved seeking tranquility. Beyond Gaudí, he is passionate about Tintin.

--- You arrived at the Sagrada Família in the early nineties and have been directing the works for ten years. In what state was the temple when you joined?

--- The architect director, Jordi Bonet, had just received the commission from the Junta Constructora to build the naves, the entire interior, starting with the main nave. When I joined, there were three columns on the west side, only ten meters high. There was the sky, nothing else. Therefore, I have been lucky enough to see the project and intervene in it, and also to participate in the construction of all the naves.

--- Has it changed much in all this time?

--- When I arrived, the architecture team was very different because there were only four of us in the office. Everything was much smaller, including the impact of the Sagrada Família. In these years, there has been continuous growth, of everything, not just visitor entries and economic contributions. Now, there are 11 architects who are dedicated to studying Gaudí's project and preparing it for construction.

--- How did you get to know the work of the quintessential Barcelona architect?

--- One of the shortcomings of our School of Architecture is that we didn't talk about Gaudí. I didn't learn about his figure by studying; I simply visited his buildings. I was born in Barcelona, so I know La Pedrera, Casa Batlló... They caught my attention. Palau Güell, very little. And the Sagrada Família, obviously. But I truly got to know it when I started working here.

--- Without having been able to study Gaudí in depth, what was your feeling when you started thinking about how to finish the Sagrada Família?

--- For me, it was a discovery. It was seeing that it was not only a building that was built thanks to people, but that it also responded to a project that Gaudí left very defined and of an absolutely original interest, different from the rest of architecture.

--- In recent years, important milestones have been achieved. Which one would you highlight?

--- The completion of the basilica's naves has been the most remarkable. The previous episode of finishing the main nave, too. Each part has had its novelty, its challenge, and its difficulties, which have been resolved. At first, it was assembling the first inclined columns of the temple: it seemed a marvel.

--- All these outstanding episodes you mention are done without Gaudí. How can one build the work of an architect who is no longer there and do so respecting the original meaning?

--- Gaudí had great intuition; he was very clever. He knew his time was limited, like everyone else. That's why he tried to define as much as possible those things that, if he didn't leave them, would be difficult to do. At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1906, a plan was published in the press, and that is what we are doing. Very early on, in the late 19th or early 20th century, he had a clear idea of the whole, which did not change, but not the detail of each element. So he knew where to go, and so did his collaborators and successors. When he turned 60, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to the Sagrada Família. He saw that, by working intensely for a few years on the works, he could ensure its future construction and leave enough data on how it could be built following his ideas.

--- Therefore, he already imagined that he would not be able to finish it.

--- Without a doubt. He knew it would take time and different generations. In cathedrals, there was always the will for them to be used for worship as soon as possible. Sometimes, they would start with the apse, and once it was finished, they could already use it. Other times, they would go up the facades, and when they had a certain level, about ten meters, they would provisionally cover them and could celebrate worship inside. But Gaudí proposes building the building in parts, which will be complete facades, and starting with the Nativity facade.

--- Why?

--- He knew that in this way he gave each generation a goal. I remember when I was little, in the 60s and 70s, all the propaganda and collections to finance the construction of the Passion facade. In Gaudí's time, the Nativity facade had to be finished, which he did not see finished, because when there was only one bell tower, he had the accident. But he had left the model.

"Gaudí knew that it would take time and different generations to finish the Sagrada Família"

--- Gaudí dedicated himself exclusively to the Sagrada Família in the last 20 years of his life, defining all parts in much greater detail. For example, he designed the terminals of the Nativity facade in plaster models, some five meters high, only ten times smaller than the original. He also designed the terminals of the Passion facade and the main facade, the Glory facade. He made models and left them for the future. They were also how he explained the project to the young architects who visited him every weekend and who ended up building the Passion facade. But, in addition, he had an intuition. He wanted to leave a project for the future and not just in general plans, but with detailed information. For this reason, he based it on geometry, making everything much more recognizable and interpretable. Everything is geometric shapes. Some new, which had never been used in architecture, but which he used to make all the elements of the project and taught to his collaborators.

--- Many of the models were destroyed during the Civil War.

--- The good word is not that they were destroyed, but that they were shattered. Shattered means that pieces remained and, from the different fragments, the model was reconstructed. But, in addition, Isidre Puig Boada, one of the young architects who visited him, published a book with all the explanations of the project, those that Gaudí had told them, both from the architectural and symbolic aspects. And he included a photograph of a model, where a person is seen passing underneath. Looking at a column in the photograph and knowing Gaudí's way of thinking, we were able to design this column and build it.

--- Did Gaudí see it possible to build the Sagrada Família with the techniques available at the time, or did he already think that architecture would advance to make it easier?

--- He was aware that in the future there would be many more technical possibilities, but he also knew that what he was designing could be built. For example, he built the Nativity facade without a crane, and when the Passion facade was built, they were already being used. On the other hand, Gaudí made the terminals of the Nativity facade with reinforced concrete, making them the tallest elements made with this material in Europe. This was a new technique he used to make his project a reality.

"Gaudí was aware that in the future there would be many more technical possibilities, but he also knew that what he was designing could be built"

--- Exactly. We are building the central towers with post-tensioned stone, which was a technique Gaudí was unaware of, but which allows us to make towers with less thickness.

--- Computer science has had to help make these geometric projections that Gaudí left undefined...

--- Gaudí uses hyperboloids, a geometric shape that, when hollowed out, is perfect for collecting and diffusing light. This, drawn by hand, as it was done when I started, could be done and we did it. But, being able to use computer science, which we introduced a few years later, allowed us to do it with much more precision and speed, and to try many more solutions to get closer to the original. Later, we have also been able to scan the models and enter them directly into the computer to apply the geometry. Technology has helped a lot to interpret, reproduce and build the Sagrada Família.

--- There are many difficulties in your work. You have to build a work that an architect created a long time ago, leaving a lot of material, but you have to continue and reinterpret it according to current canons. How do you manage the pressure?

--- With the team, everyone has their role. Listening to each other is a way to reach a criterion. There is a certain responsibility, obviously. Because it is not our project, it is Gaudí's. This is the first thing you have to be clear about. Second, that the result must be beautiful and faithful to what was proposed. And keep doing it. On the other hand, we also have to know how to take advantage of all the possibilities that current technology offers us to be more faithful and to make an architecture that is of today.

--- You know Gaudí's work very well, in detail. What do you like most about it?

--- It is an architecture that takes everything into account. It has a very clear structure and is functional. Furthermore, it is pleasing to people, who like to see and be in Gaudí's buildings. It is a synthesis in which everything has its role. Form is a result of how the architect wants to communicate the building and how he wants people to experience it. But it also has an ordered structure with constructive value. He mastered historical styles very well, all of them. He had a very great capacity for observation and, therefore, for understanding nature, knowing how to discern its bases and the structure behind the different elements. And this created a synthesis that allowed him to create architecture.

"In Gaudí's architecture, form is a result of how the architect wants to communicate the building and how he wants people to experience it"

--- The Sagrada Família is an expression of Christian faith. The faith he lived, he expressed in his life, but also with what he did. And what did he do? Architecture. And even more so in the Sagrada Família, which is a temple, an expression of the life of Jesus and the spiritual life of a Christian. But Gaudí did it for everyone. His will was to communicate the joy he had and the life he lived, so that it would reach everyone and that each person would live it in their own way. He creates a building that welcomes, does not impose, and explains, welcomes through beauty. The interior space is intended for the Eucharistic celebration, that is, for prayer, but it is also a place for anyone.

--- Now, with all the tourists the Sagrada Família receives, it is having achieved it at a level that perhaps not even Gaudí could have imagined, with the arrival of so many people from so many different places.

--- Gaudí said: People from all over the world will come to see what we do. This means that what we do will interest everyone because it has value and reaches people, their hearts, their feelings. You have to put yourself in his situation, in the 20s, when very little travel was done. I don't know if he could have imagined what is happening today, perhaps not, because the world has changed a lot, but he was clear that he was making a building that would be of interest to everyone, no matter where they were from or what they thought.

--- Do you have to be a believer to build the Sagrada Família?

--- I don't think so, but, without a doubt, it helps because you interpret much more. It helps me.

--- It is clear that you admire Gaudí.

--- Yes, it's obvious.

--- Would your job be easier if you had known him?

--- I suppose so. I understand that Gaudí's direct successors could feel even more responsible, but they knew the person who had created the Sagrada Família. Therefore, surely, it was easier for them to understand what is behind the models. Sometimes, I do think "What would Gaudí do?". But, more than that, which is not very useful, I deeply investigate the project, try to find the essence, and interpret all the information he left to the maximum.

--- What would you say to those who argue that the Sagrada Família should have been left as Gaudí left it?

--- Let them come and I'll explain whatever they want. All criticism is respectable. Sometimes, it's due to lack of knowledge. When there is knowledge, all criticism is valid and everything helps to grow, as long as it is constructive criticism. They can be contrary, but based on arguments.

"Sometimes, I do think "What would Gaudí do?". But, more than that, which is not very useful, I deeply research the project and try to find the essence"

--- Once the sacristy is built, the goal is to build the six central towers. The central tower, that of Jesus Christ, which will be crowned with a four-armed cross, those of the four evangelists and the tower of the Virgin Mary, which is finished. Five remain. They are all started and have to be finished. At the moment, they are around 100 meters.

--- To complete Gaudí's project, a solution must be found for the blocks of flats that were not there when the architect designed the temple and now hinder its construction.

--- This has to be done. Gaudí proposed access stairs because the Sagrada Família is five meters above the street. This is his idea. We are building the building, following his project, and, at this moment, already with a regularized building permit. Of course, in what is not our plot we have to dialogue. We will explain what he wanted, which, furthermore, we consider to be appropriate to give access to the building. But we have to talk to the City Council and a fair solution has to be found for everyone, therefore, also for the neighbors. This takes time.