The Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Secondlife
Ainee Kohime is proud to announce the completion of a major design project in Secondlife. It is not for sale, but you are invited to tour it at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hermetic%20Palaces/118/119/26
The cathedral of La Sagrada Família in Barcelona is a work on a grand scale, which was begun on 19 March 1882 from a project by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901). At the end of 1883 Antonio Gaudí was commissioned to carry on the works, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea. Gaudi fused unique structural and decorative concepts to create a miraculous box of coloured glass, supported by a forest of tree-like columns, topped by spires climbing into the clouds.
The building is in the centre of Barcelona, and over the years it has become one of the most universal signs of identity of the city and the country. It is visited by millions of people every year, and many more study its architectural and religious content. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After undertaking the project in 1883, Gaudí built the crypt, which was finished in 1889. As he started work on the apse (and the cloister), everything went at a good pace thanks to donations. When he received a large anonymous one, he thought of doing a new, bigger work: he discarded the old neo-Gothic project and proposed a more monumental and innovatory one in terms of both forms and structures. Gaudí’s project consisted of a large church with a Latin cross ground plan and high towers; it carried a major symbolic load, in both architectural and sculptural form, with the ultimate aim of being a catechistic explanation of the teachings of the Gospels and the Church.
In 1892 he began work on the foundations of the Nativity façade because, as he said himself, “If, instead of making this decorated, ornamented and swollen façade I had begun with the Passion, hard, bare and as if made of bone, people would have stepped back.”
It has always been an Expiatory church, which means that since the outset, 125 years ago, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The Expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century.
Gaudí said: “There is no reason to regret that I cannot finish the church. I will grow old but others will come after me. What must always be conserved is the spirit of the work, but its life has to depend on the generations it is handed down to, and with whom it lives and is incarnated.”
Patron Mintz Tomorrow has commissioned a Secondlife recreation of the Cathedral. Real-life Architect and Novelist Ainee Kohime worked for over six weeks, with a prim limit of 3000, to complete the design. As many sections have not been built in reality, Ainee used tourist’s snapshots of recent additions, as well as her own sense of design to create this version. She has added sculptural copies of the statues on the Porticos, as well as furnishing a splendid Library living room for Gaudi in the crypt. As well as the nave, crypt and apses, there are small seating areas in the pinnacles of three towers, two vestries, and a Ballroom in the attics above the nave.
Ainee says “I have dreamed of this building every night. I have made over 500 new textures for its detailing. Using megaprims has been essential: it simply could not have been made with smaller prims, eg the twisted torii in the Glory façade. After working on low-prim design since I joined Secondlife, it has been a joy to have so many prims to play with: yet it currently stands at 2,500 prims. It will have huge fountain jets playing at the front, as Gaudi wished.
‘I adore the Sagrada Familia: it has been called ‘The most complex and insane building in the World”. When I visited, I stepped back to look at the ceiling, and a workman’s helmet fell 160 metres, and smashed on the floor beside my feet. I must have been pushed aside by an Angel!
‘As I was building it, I felt that I was communing with the Spirit of Gaudi, and several times I designed a new section, only to discover that a new Tourist snapshot showed it EXACTLY as I had designed it!”
Once the Cathedral is complete and packaged, it will be moved to its new home in SecondLife. You can conserve your Carbon Footprint by visiting it here, and saving on airfares to Barcelona! At the moment, you are welcome to visit it at Ainee’s island:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hermetic%20Palaces/118/119/26
Please enjoy a tour of the Island: delightful Gaudi and Baroque Villas, Historic Churches and even a 24 prim house, as well as splendid low-prim antique furniture and framed pictures are all there to discover!
Best wishes from Ainee Kohime