WEBVTT - What's the Oldest Active Building Project in the World?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum Here. La Basilica de la Sagrada Familia,

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<v Speaker 1>or the Basilica of the Holy Family in Barcelona, Spain,

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<v Speaker 1>is unlike any building in the world. The church's famous

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<v Speaker 1>Nativity facade looks from a distance like a supersized drip

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<v Speaker 1>sand castle, but closer inspection reveals ornately sculpted towers that

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<v Speaker 1>have been described as the Bible written in stone. The

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<v Speaker 1>architect of the Sagrada Familia was the eccentric and deeply

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<v Speaker 1>religious cutal on artist Antony Gordy, who was struck and

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<v Speaker 1>killed by a street car in ninety six when only

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<v Speaker 1>the Nativity facade of his master work had been completed.

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<v Speaker 1>At that point, the rest of the ambitious structure existed

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<v Speaker 1>only in Godi's complex architectural drawings and scale plaster models. Tragically,

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<v Speaker 1>Goodie's priceless models and most of his drawings were destroyed

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<v Speaker 1>by anarchist revolutionaries just ten years after his death, and

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<v Speaker 1>ever since, generations of architects and engineers have labored to

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<v Speaker 1>piece together Godi's singular vision and finish his magnum opus.

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<v Speaker 1>As of this writing, the Sagrada Familia is one hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and thirty seven years old. The first stone was late

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen eighty two, making it the longest running active

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<v Speaker 1>building project on Earth. Not the longest running ever, though,

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<v Speaker 1>to name just one. Cologne Cathedral in Germany was started

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<v Speaker 1>in twelve forty eight and completed in eighteen eighty. It

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't until twenty nineteen that the City of Barcelona officially

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<v Speaker 1>granted Sagrada Familia a construction permit, even though Godi applied

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<v Speaker 1>for one in eighteen eighty five. The permit itself was

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<v Speaker 1>the most expensive on record, a whopping four point six

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<v Speaker 1>million euros that's around five point two million dollars American

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<v Speaker 1>to complete the monumental project by six, which will be

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<v Speaker 1>the one hundredth anniversary of Godi's death. As an architect

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<v Speaker 1>and structural engineer, Godi was at least a century ahead

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<v Speaker 1>of his time. His eleven vision airy works in and

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<v Speaker 1>around Barcelona, seven of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites,

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<v Speaker 1>demonstrate how Godi employed wildly innovative building techniques to mimic

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<v Speaker 1>the beauty of nature. Godi's park Gwill, on a hill

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<v Speaker 1>overlooking Barcelona, features a broad patio contained by wavy, curved

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<v Speaker 1>walls adorned colorful Mediterranean tiled mosaics, and his casa batio

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<v Speaker 1>looks as if an alien apartment complex landed in the

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<v Speaker 1>middle of a nineteenth century city. Its breathtaking facade is

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<v Speaker 1>an architectural quilt of curved stone, iron, glass, and tile,

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<v Speaker 1>all girded by God's uncanny grasp of engineering and material science.

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<v Speaker 1>Godi was a devout and passionate Catholic who believed that

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<v Speaker 1>the deepest way to commune with God was to abide

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<v Speaker 1>in nature his creation. When thirty one year old Godi

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<v Speaker 1>received the commission to build the Sagada Familia church, he

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<v Speaker 1>drew up plans for a towering structure with eighteen spires

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<v Speaker 1>representing the twelve apostles for evangelists, the Virgin Mary and

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<v Speaker 1>Jesus Christ. Pope Francis's rumored to be considering Godi, known

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes as God's Architect, as a candidate for sainthood. In

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<v Speaker 1>contrast with the grand exterior, the inside of Sagrada Familia

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<v Speaker 1>is meant to evoke a naturalistic forest of stone. Massive

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<v Speaker 1>pillars stretched from floor to ceiling, where their twisting branches

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<v Speaker 1>intertwined to form an ornate canopy. Work was slow due

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<v Speaker 1>to the technical complexities of the cathedral and the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that it relied solely on private donations. Godi worked on

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<v Speaker 1>the Sagrada Familia for forty years, fully devoting the last

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<v Speaker 1>years of his life to the project. His biographer once

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<v Speaker 1>told the TV show Sixty Minutes he wanted to write

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<v Speaker 1>the history of the Catholic faith in one building and

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<v Speaker 1>added the Godi slept the construction site and took little

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<v Speaker 1>care for appearance, wearing frayed pants held up by a

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<v Speaker 1>rope belt. Godi knew that he wouldn't live to complete

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<v Speaker 1>his master work, so he drew up detailed architectural plans and,

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<v Speaker 1>most importantly, scale plaster models of each of the cathedral's

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<v Speaker 1>sculpted facades and tow wring spires. When Godi was killed

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<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen six tram accident, his associates were able

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<v Speaker 1>to keep building based on the architect's drawings and models.

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<v Speaker 1>But then the Spanish Civil War erupted in nineteen thirty

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<v Speaker 1>six and gangs of anarchists targeted churches as symbols of

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<v Speaker 1>institutional oppression. The Sagrada Familia was attacked and although the

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<v Speaker 1>structure was saved, the anarchists broke into the architect's workshop

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<v Speaker 1>and smashed Goodie's plaster models. Without those models, progress on

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<v Speaker 1>Sagrada Familia slowed to a crawl, further delayed by the

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<v Speaker 1>decades long fascist rule of Francisco Franco. Later, when New

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<v Speaker 1>Zealand born architecture student Mark Bury backpacked through Spain in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen seventies, he was recruited to the cause of

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<v Speaker 1>finishing Sagrada Familia while remaining true to Godi's original vision.

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<v Speaker 1>When Bury asked how these Stonemasons and other craftsmen were

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<v Speaker 1>receiving their instructions, he was shown boxes and boxes containing

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<v Speaker 1>the fragmented remains of Godie's plaster models. Bury told sixty minutes,

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<v Speaker 1>my job is to reverse engineer the models. It was

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<v Speaker 1>considered the only way to faithfully reconstruct the vision locked

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<v Speaker 1>inside Godie's singular mind. Barie worked on Sagarda Familia for

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<v Speaker 1>thirty years and is responsible for bringing the project into

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<v Speaker 1>the twenty first century. He consulted with industrial designers working

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<v Speaker 1>on vehicles, ships, and other complex engineering problems. All of

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<v Speaker 1>them were using three D aeronautical drafting software. The could

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<v Speaker 1>prototype designs and materials digitally before constructing them in the

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<v Speaker 1>real world. So Bury decided to employ the same drafting

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<v Speaker 1>technology to solve Sagrada Familia's thorniest engineering challenges on computers

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<v Speaker 1>before casting them in concrete, iron, and stone. For a

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<v Speaker 1>one and thirty seven year old construction project, Today's Sagrada

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<v Speaker 1>Familia is remarkably high tech. In addition to using the

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<v Speaker 1>latest virtual modeling software, components are prototyped using three D printers,

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<v Speaker 1>and architects can explore and interact with digital models using

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<v Speaker 1>virtual reality. Because of these technological and engineering advances, the

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<v Speaker 1>car chief architect of the Sagada Familia, Jordie Foley's confident

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<v Speaker 1>that Gordie's grandiose structure, including the tallest church spire in

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<v Speaker 1>the world set at five hundred and sixty six feet

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<v Speaker 1>that's a hundred and seventy three, will finally be completed

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<v Speaker 1>in At least that's the hope. As fully mused to

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<v Speaker 1>Architect Magazine, are the great cathedrals and basilicas of the

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<v Speaker 1>world ever truly finished. Today's episode was written by Dave

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<v Speaker 1>Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. Grain Stuff is a

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<v Speaker 1>production of I Heart Radio's house to Works. For more

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<v Speaker 1>in this lots of other topics that we're always working on,

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