Spain 2021

A hanging-chain model is suspended in the attic of La Pedrera in Barcelona.

Gaudí used chains like these to find the shape of a building before it was built. A chain hung from two points sags into a catenary. Turned upside down, that curve is an arch: the form that hangs in tension is the strongest form in compression, and it carries its weight without buttresses. He hung many chains together, with small weights for the loads each part of the building would bear, and read the model upright in a mirror on the floor. He worked the method out for the church at Colònia Güell, and based the arches and branching columns of the Sagrada Família on the same inverted curve.

August 18, 2021 4:05 PM
XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR at 18 mm
1/26 s
f/3.5