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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Trees of Stone (very mystical)

This is the secret of how Antoni Gaudi figured out how to support his huge basilica, currently the tallest church in the world, and growing taller every day, with 14 more spires to be completed in the next couple of years! The secret of the support system, while keeping a sort of airiness and openness to the space is all in the columns! They are like trees! Branching out from a singe trunk, of which, none are actually perfectly straight, but all are leaning inwards and outwards, supporting the church were needed! From the "mother trunk" comes out shoots of more stone pillars that branch out, and support both the ceiling for the naive and the super massive dome in the center of the church! This church is the second most visited tourist attracting in the world, don't quote me on this, but I vaguely remember that the Alhambra is the first. Anyways, the columns stone varies because of the location of the column in the church and the amount of weight that it needs to support. In the center, we have 4 super massive column "tree trunks" made from basalt, a type of igneous rock. (trying to remember back to 6th grade on this one) What is even more impressive, the dome of the building, which is basically at the height that the whole church is now, without the last 14 spires, is only at half its height, and is still the tallest church in the world! the dome is only half the height of the planned building, and the top 14 spires alone are planned to double the height of the church, taking it up to a breathtaking height! Here is the inside for y'all!

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