Jordi Faulí: "The Sagrada Familia we will understand completely when it is finished"

BarcelonaJordi Faulí (Barcelona, 1959) joined the technical office of the Sagrada Família in 1990, when the basilica was not yet covered. Three years later he was appointed assistant director architect. And in 2012, succeeding Jordi Bonet, he became the seventh director architect since Antoni Gaudí. Among the milestones of his direction are the completion of the naves and the culmination of the Tower of the Virgin Mary and the Tower of Jesus.

As an architect, how has your relationship with the basilica evolved during this time?

— With each passing time, I have gained more knowledge of Gaudí's project, of how to follow it and how to build it.

How did the opportunity to go and work there arise?

— The director architect at that time, Jordi Bonet, proposed it to me, but I always explain the same thing because otherwise, we don't get the idea: at that time there were sixteen bricklayers on the construction site and four architects in the office. It was a very different situation from the current one.

Since then, how did these figures evolve?

— There are now about 150 of us, and about 50 of us in the office. We not only have to think about architects and projects, but also about construction, production. And before the pandemic we were more.

Have you been able to fully recover pre-pandemic levels?

— We have quite a similar activity to what we had before the pandemic, but not at the office. We reduced the office and now we also work with external offices.

Would you say it was your turn to take a leap in the construction of the Sagrada Família?

— It hasn't corresponded to me, it has touched me. The dynamic of the Sagrada Família is always a consequence basically of the resources, which come from donations and ticket sales.

Technically, has work changed much in these years?

— It has changed, but the concept has not changed, because the idea we always have is to faithfully follow Gaudí's project and make a quality construction. And this means being open to the technologies that can help us at each moment.

Has there always been this openness to technological advancements?

— The pioneer was Jordi Bonet, who was the one who saw that computing had to help us and at the end of the eighties he opened the office to collaborate with other architects and universities. At that time, Jordi Bonet already produced the stone columns of the nave with numerical control, which was very simple at that time, but it was surely one of the first stone elements anywhere in the world, or the first, executed with computerised mechanisation. And then everything came, until now we build the towers and terminals with this new technique of tensioned stone.

So computing has been mostly an aid.

— Yes, an aid to study Gaudí's project and interpret it. For example, the large windows of the naves in the models that Gaudí left behind, we have built them with greater accuracy than the model itself. The model is handmade and very well done, but there are certain inaccuracies related to its execution. Redrawing Gaudí's models with computer programs means that we have introduced the geometric formulas of the architectural elements and, therefore, their intersections are even more precise than in the model itself. And another example of this is the computer topography of the work, which allows us to build with precision.

They work with parametric design tools.

— It's curious, because it's already Gaudí's idea. He didn't know these programs, but he did have an intuition in the sense of leaving the maximum amount of information for the future. Then he gave freedom, but obviously it's something that he leaves, it has to be followed. And since he didn't know how long he would live, he made important-sized models of various elements that would serve to build those parts and as an example for others. For example, the sacristy dome, which is composed of a set of twelve parabolic grilles that meet at the very top, Gaudí left it as a model. And he also left the central towers drawn. Therefore, we have projected the central towers taking the sacristy model and changing the height of the top vertex. The tower of Jesus has twelve faces like the sacristy, and the vertex is 60 meters higher. The towers of the evangelists have eight faces, as Gaudí indicated in one of his texts. And that of the Virgin Mary, fourteen.

Have technological advances had any impact on the interior of the towers?

— Yes. Thanks to technology, we have been able to make them different from how Gaudí could have made them: they can be visited, they are free spaces inside the tower of Our Lady and that of Jesus. With the technique he had at his disposal, Gaudí had imagined that inside there would be some floors, and current techniques have allowed us to leave the tower of Jesus and the tower of Our Lady without any interior element and with spaces of 60 meters in height. Gaudí did not design these spaces, but they are a consequence of the exterior of the towers.

What has it meant for you to complete the Sagrada Família tower?

— The first thing you think is that, step by step, you are making Gaudí's project a reality. And then about the large number of people who have contributed their work to make it possible.

Within the faithfulness to Gaudí's project, is there any room for interpretation? How do you approach this faithfulness?

— Always to the maximum, because Gaudí was a genius, we all know that, and we cannot waste any of the data from his project. And it is true that there are elements defined in detail because he left a model, others he drew and others he described. Gaudí planned for the future of the Sagrada Família to use a series of three-dimensional geometric shapes, the great part generated by straight lines, as can be seen in the models he left, which were not small, they were on a scale of 1:25 and 1:10, that is, larger. And in those models Gaudí also explained the system of combination between them. Therefore, when there is a very well-defined model by Gaudí, obviously we follow it to the letter, and in the elements that he did not draw, but that he said should be like others for which he had made a model, we follow the same technology.

Gaudí left everything defined, or is there any element that you have been able to create completely new?

— Once again, sir. He also defined the symbolism of the entire temple. There is always a starting point for Gaudí: the same cross of the tower of Jesus; Gaudí made a model of a two-armed cross, and now we have made the central cross following the description he made of the cross and using the geometry he left in the model. And it is the same geometry as the columns of the nave.

The next major milestone will be the facade of the Glory. The three pre-selected artists to decorate it, Miquel Barceló, Cristina Iglesias and Javier Marín, have already presented their proposals.

— Yes.

Could the work be divided among the three of them?

— It has to be seen. 

And could it be that the competition remained vacant?

— Also, it could happen. But it's not exactly a competition, but a presentation of artistic proposals. The three artists have presented them and explained them. They have made a great presentation, very well documented. The artistic and theological commission have made their reports and all this has been presented to the board, which will look at it; there is no deadline for making a decision.

Miquel Barceló said that doing the façade of the Glory is fifteen years of work.

— This needs to be seen. We're talking about ten years, but the artistic part, I don't know.

The staircase of the Glory facade is, probably, the most controversial part, due to the conflict with the residents of the houses on Mallorca street. Could there be traffic underneath?

— Yes, Gaudí raised the temple's plan by one meter so that the staircase has enough height to pass over the street. The staircase passes over with a clearance of five meters, creating a plaza in front of the facade above the street, and on the other side there is the stairs. 

What surface would it occupy?

— I would say this is about 80 x 35 meters.

It has become public that the agreement with the residents of the affected islands is very advanced.

— The project was already defined by the General Metropolitan Plan of 1976, which included a space of 60 meters wide in front of the temple, between Mallorca street and Diagonal avenue as a green area. And the rest of the blocks, also affected, as affected housing.

Will this same project be executed?

— I don't know this [smiles].

What is your goal, then?

— What we are trying to do is make the staircase that Gaudí proposed, which is the one he imagined and that belongs to the dimensions of the building, possible. It is not only about the staircase, but also about two monuments: one is a water fountain that reaches 25 meters in height and the other, some fire teapots. These monuments form a kind of framing.

The continuation of the Sagrada Família has been heavily criticized. It has been said that Gaudí has been betrayed.

— I believe this is an argument that goes against what Gaudí himself wanted, who, when he was 60 years old, that is, when he was in full creative activity, decided to dedicate himself exclusively to the Sagrada Família to build the Nativity facade and to project the maximum information for the future, "so that it would be known what that man wanted to do". It is evident that he wished the work to continue. But, on the other hand, the Sagrada Família is a project of the people, of the community. Therefore, it is the same people who, in very diverse ways, have been pushing the production of the Sagrada Família. And I believe this is a process that must be valued and that is unique in the world, and that is worth vindicating.

Other critics claim that the temple receives so much attention because it is continuously under construction and that they will never finish it so as not to lose it.

— Any cathedral, any great church like the Sagrada Familia, to finish, will never be finished. Apart from restoration, there is always something to do. What Gaudí thinks, and what he explains to his disciples, we will understand perfectly when the Sagrada Familia is finished, also symbolically. The vocation of a building is to finish. And second, it is that we will understand this work of a brilliant architect in a complete way, and those who come to see it will understand it, when it is finished.

I used to say that the Sagrada Família is a project of the people. But at the same time it is a major tourist attraction. How do you combine this tourist character that the basilica has with the spiritual, with the social?

— They have to coexist. The Sagrada Família has been a place of worship since 2010, but the crypt has been since 1885. At the same time, it is a building with architectural quality; therefore, people also come to enjoy and to know these architectural qualities that are also very linked to a symbolic content of the expression of the Christian faith, and of life. The more the construction advances, the more the liturgical aspect will be present, and the architectural less so, this happens all over the world. And, on the other hand, there are the aids to third-sector entities that the Sagrada Família gives through the social action fund.

The next visit of Pope Leo XIV within the Gaudí Year will mark a new milestone in the history of the temple.

— I believe that for Gaudí it would be a cause for great joy that the mass for the centenary of his death is presided over by the Holy Father.