The geniuses Gaudi and Pere's adventures with early 20th century windows
Interviewer: Shunsuke Kurakata (architectural historian)
"I want you to see Antoni Gaudi's windows. They were a pioneer of modern architecture, just before Wright and Mies. Your eyes will be drawn to the sculptural buildings, but if you focus on the windows, you will see that they are actually modern engineering structures."
Kurakata is referring to Casa Batlló, which was renovated by Gaudi.
Renovation: 1906. An apartment building in Barcelona, Spain, originally built in 1877, was renovated by Antoni Gaudi. The large glass windows that open onto the street are a distinctive feature of modern architecture. Some of the windows have louvered windows at the bottom for ventilation. There are ventilation windows in various places, such as at the boundaries between rooms, allowing air to circulate deep into the building. Photo: Takahashi Akiko / AFLO
"The size of the windows was out of the ordinary for the time. By separating the windows from the structural pillars, large glass surfaces were created, and in some cases the upper part was divided into a light window and the lower part a ventilation window. The way the windows are designed controls the way light and air circulate."
Just as blood circulates through the human body, architecture becomes organic when invisible elements circulate well. This is what Gaudi believed. The shape of the windows and the complex structure of the buildings were all created with the circulation of air, heat, and sound in mind.
"Why is Gaudi's architecture so full of life and so moving? The answer is revealed in his windows."
The architect Auguste Perret, who was also Le Corbusier's mentor, created the windows as huge surfaces of light using exposed concrete and colored glass.
"Notre-Dame de Le Raincy is a building that receives light from all sides. Perret, who pursued concrete architecture, also created bold windows of light by freestanding the structural columns, just like Gaudi."
What is astonishing is that these beautiful windows are made by assembling countless factory-made concrete parts. "These challenges of their generation led to the ever-expanding adventure of the modernist window."
Church of Notre Dame de Le Lancy
Completed in 1923. Built by French architect Auguste Perret in Le Raincy, a suburb of Paris, it is the world's first church made of reinforced concrete. By combining concrete frames (several types, including squares and diamonds) filled with colorful glass, huge windows - a surface of light - were created. The exterior design, which appears to be filled with lattices, reflects this structure. Photo / akg-images / AFLO
photo／HEMIS／AFLO
