Nowadays, when you talk about sustainable architecture you think about the new frontier, but someone had already imagined something similar many years ago, when ecology was not a hot topic, yet. This is the case of Antoni Gaudí, one of the main exponents of the Spanish Modernism and the interpreter of many examples of sustainable architecture ahead of his time. The mainspring that moved the brilliant Catalan architect was not an imminent environmental disaster, but simply the idea that being architecture an extension of nature, it must be no contrast between one and the other. “I can build a staircase in three weeks, but it takes twenty years to make a pine grow”, he said. This approach is evident especially in his way of ‘thinking’ lighting, planning every building taking care of the exposure to the sun and the objective advantages this means in terms of functionality and comfort. If you use properly natural light, you will turn to technology (the artificial light) only when it really serves the purpose and not as a corrective to a bad project. “Virtue is in the middle”, Gaudí wrote.“Mediterranean means ‘in the middle of heart’. On its shores the median light is inclined 45 degrees, the best light to define the objects and reveal the shapes; Mediterranean is the place where the main artistic cultures have arisen just for this balance of light, neither too much nor too little, because they are both blinding and the blind men don’t see”.
In Gaudì’s works light is the well-mannered and never intrusive ‘lady of the house’. This effect is reached using macroscopic features like the buildings’ orientation, but also little tricks or innovative solutions for some details of the building. For example in the villa El Capricho in Comillas, Northern Spain, the exterior walls are interrupted by high and large windows that catch as much light as possible, but the architect also provides that they are equipped with double glazing and interior shutters suited to the windy and rainy climate of the region – note that nowadays when you speak about energy saving double glazing are the first advice to be given, because the windows are the main source of heat dispersion. Besides, with great intelligence in orientating the house Antoni Gaudí doesn’t draw it near to the sloping ground, but leaves on the south side space enough to light the front side rooms.
The genius for lighting of Gaudí reaches the top in the sacred buildings, where he manages to reconcile with an extraordinary creativity the needs of efficiency, art and functionality. “In the temples light must be only that necessary and nothing more than this, because what you look for in a church is spiritual concentration; the light sources who are too much powerful distract and upset people. Light must be well measured, you must have light enough to read the missal and to actively participate in the sacrifice of the Mass”. There are many examples of this approach to lighting: in the Colegio de las Teresianas in Barcelona, through the bearing structure of the central section Gaudí succeeds to guarantee a diffused light from top to bottom that, through a series of patios and apertures reaches even the most hidden place as the central gallery of the ground floor. In the famous Sagrada Familia, on the contrary, the final effect of light is studied to strengthen the concept of ‘stone forest’ that the architect wanted to give to the building. For this reason the church is full of surfaces diffusing light, in the form of paraboloids that make up the vault of the naves. The result of this solution and the shape and disposition of the windows is a series of luminous shades that give the faithful the real impression of being in a forest. This effect is underlined by the arrangement of the lamps and candles that therefore help and do not replace artificial light.
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