November 04,2022

Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia to Be Completed by 2026

by David Stewart

Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona has entered its final phase of construction and is scheduled for completion in 2026, to coincide with the centennial of the architect’s death. Jordi Faulí, the basilica’s current architect, took over the project in 2013 and said that certain decorative elements might not be finished until 2030 or 2032, Dezeen reports .

Six new towers will be added to the structure, the highest of which will stand at over 564 feet, making the basilica Europe’s tallest religious building. A video on the Sagrada Familia Foundation’s YouTube channel shows an animation of the last stage of construction.

The lighting design for the 48,500-square-foot structure is headed up by Anoche Iluminación Arquitectónica. The process is complicated by the fact that Gaudí’s original plans and models were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, but over the years teams of architects have worked to determine his intentions. “The light in the temple should be harmonious but limited, neither too much nor too little, Gaudí said. And with a clear intent, to create an atmosphere conducive to meditation and the celebration of the Mass,” Faulí told Architectural Record .

La Sagrada Familia’s first stone was laid in 1882, and though the structure is synonymous with Gaudí, who worked on it from 1883 until his death in 1926, he wasn’t the project’s first architect. That was Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano , who resigned amid disagreements with the basilica’s leaders.

  • David Stewart
  • November 04,2022

Leave a Reply