Sagrada Família Rosassa: Global Computeraided Dialogue between Designer and Craftsperson (Overcoming Differences in Age, Time and Distance)

Abstract

The rose window (‘rosassa’ in Catalan) recently completed between the two groups of towers that make up the Passion Façade of Gaudí’s Sagrada Família Church in Barcelona measures eight metres wide and thirty-five metres in height [Figure 1]. There were four phases to the design based in three distinct geo- graphical locations. The design was undertaken on site, design description in Australia some eighteen thousand kilometres distant, stone-cutting a thou- sand kilometres distant in Galicia, with the completion of the window in March 2001. The entire undertaking was achieved within a timeframe of fifteen months from the first design sketch. Within this relatively short period, the entire team achieved a new marriage between architecture and construction, a broader relationship between time-honoured craft technique with high technology, and evidence of leading the way in trans-global collaboration via the Internet. Together the various members of the project team combined to demonstrate that the technical office on site at the Sagrada Família Church now has the capacity to use ‘just-in-time’ project management in order to increase effi- ciency. The processes and dialogues developed help transcend the tyranny of distance, the difficult relationship between traditional craft based technique and innovative digitally enhanced production methods, and the three genera- tional age differences between the youngest and more senior team members.