Lecturer Alberto T. Estévez, vice-rector and general manager at UIC Barcelona, and lecturer Diego Navarro delivered a conference entitled "Reconstructing Gaudí's Casa Graner Based on Park Güell and Bellesguard". In the lecture, they presented a new study on Casa Graner, a project that Gaudí designed in 1904 and of which but a few sketches remain (layout and elevation plan).
The aim of this work was to compile a hypothetical digital reconstruction of the project through a method that analyses both sketches and takes into account two contemporary works: Park Güell and Bellesguard. To complete this challenge, they also examined a number of other works and drawings by Gaudí, particularly those dating to around 1904. Three-dimensional modelling software was used to carry out the reconstruction, which was based on the geometric relationships and elements of the architecture projects and paid particular attention to the complex surfaces of Gaudí's work. The study has made it possible to trace a detailed and interesting evolution of the architectural ideas that Gaudí used to design Casa Graner.
Moreover, lecturer Guillem Carabí also gave a talk entitled "Gaudí as Seen through Bellesguard's Vertical Cross-Section". The presentation sought to explore, on the basis of two years of redrawing and measuring the house's south-east façade, the interpretive aspects of the vertical cross-section, a product of the relationship between materials, shape, structure and space. By rebuilding —reintroducing— the section, a comparison is essentially drawn between constructive nature and artistic form; an excision that foretells the definite break in Gaudí's architecture with the synchronicity of representation and perception.
The Gaudí Second World Congress is a biennial event co-organised by the Gaudí Research Institute (TGRI) and the University of Barcelona, from which Antoni Gaudí graduated with a degree in Architecture in 1878.
The congress brought together some of the most lauded scholars of Gaudí's work in a discussion about the latest research concerning the life and work of the famous Catalan architect.
