We modelled each and every component in 3D  to a construction level of detail (including nuts, bar threads, couplers, fillets and chamfers). Carefully designed connections ensure that when panels are craned into place, they fit together like Lego blocks, without further adjustment. 

Our pre-stressed stone panel method echoes the pure masonry construction used in the earlier construction of Sagrada, while the more modern off-site manufacture approach guarantees consistently high quality. Installing a 5m tall by 4m wide panel now take 30 minutes, saving time and enabling a safer construction process – important as the basilica will remain open during the final years of the build. 

Human, digital, physical 

In all our work on the Sagrada Família we have used a new generation of digital tools to produce workable structural designs. This parametric approach combines deep human knowledge of the structural variables in the Towers’ form and position, with powerful algorithmic tools that could model the hundreds of subtle variations of geometries for the design. This human-plus-digital ethos was the best way to make Gaudí’s design pragmatic to construct in a realistic timeframe, and would have been unrealistically laborious to carry out without cutting-edge technology.

Our experience working alongside 2BMFG Architects and the Sagrada Família Foundation has demonstrated how the near-limitless capacity of digital tools, used creatively by human beings with their experience and insight, can solve almost any engineering challenge – even on projects as singular as Gaudí’s church.