The emeritus director of the Sagrada Família construction works has died at the age of 97. Joan Trias de Bes, a member of the Temple Construction Board, remembers him as a teacher committed to his time to whom the current generation of architects must pay “heartfelt recognition”.
The first image of Jordi Bonet that comes to mind goes back to November 7, 2010 on the occasion of the consecration of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família by Benedict XVI. At a certain moment, the television broadcast stopped in a close-up of the then director architect of the works of the Temple. Jordi Bonet raised his gaze towards the heights of the great central nave with a contemplative attitude. It was certainly a historical image, and at the same time poetic. The Architect contemplated the work that had kept him busy for more than 25 yearsas if innumerable memories of hours of work, complex decisions and finally, the celebration of the result, passed through his mind.
At that moment, from Gaudí Avenue, together with a crowd that followed the course of the ceremony, I could not imagine that a few years later I would have the honor of being part of the Board of Trustees of the Construction Board of the Sagrada Família. And with it, the opportunity to personally meet Jordi Bonet.
Our first meeting was precisely inside the Basilica. I introduced myself, and his reaction was to offer me a personal interview. a few days He received me with the kindness with which teachers attend their followers. We had a long conversation in which he shared memories of episodes of the construction of the Temple and also expressed his vision of the continuity of the works. Perhaps, seeing me somewhat overwhelmed by the dimension of the Sagrada Família, he told me: “& mldr; Joan, with the temps you will verify that the construction of the Basilica is providential…”. Over time, I have been able to remember and verify on several occasions that serene and hopeful phrase.
In the stage that I have lived within the Board of Trustees of the Construction Board, I have had another privilege; meet Jordi Fauli i Oller -current architect director of the works- who refers to Jordi Bonet as a “Master & rdquor;. In conversations about the construction of the temple there are constant allusions to its predecessor. When visiting the Basilica, many of the decisions made by Jordi Bonet emerge. To point out a very significant one, the determination to build the large hyperboloids of the nave roof that make up the splendid skylights in ceramic tile.
The architect had the privilege of keeping in his memory his father’s conversations with Gaudí himself
Jordi Bonet was an architect with extensive professional activity, committed to his time, whom the current generation of architects and Barcelonans We must pay heartfelt acknowledgment.
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From his youth he was involved in the construction of the Basilica. Some of the memories that he shared of him went back to his student days, when he went to recover fragments of plaster models in the destroyed vestiges of the Sagrada Familia compound. He also had the privilege of keeping in his memory conversations of his father with Gaudí himself. In 1985 he assumes the direction of the works of the Temple, following in the footsteps of Gaudí’s successors: Sugrañes, Quintana, Puig Boada, Bonet Garí i Cardonerin a period of economic difficulty.
Even so, the enthusiasm to carry out the Sagrada Família project made its way at the cost of exploring the complex geometric solutions bequeathed by Antoni Gaudí, in a period in which he clairvoyantly incorporated drawing tools from numerical process programs. Jordi Bonet must have taken countless imaginary walks around the Sagrada Família. Visual walks that could go through his mind – this time made real – that morning of the consecration of the Basilica, on November 7, 2010.