Sagrada Familia's Crypt: Reinforcement for the Existing Foundations

摘要

The construction of large monumental buildings such as basilicas or churches are often influenced by changes in architectural trends, by project modifications or changes in the site management, making the final result, in many cases, differ considerably from the initial project. The history of the Sagrada Familia Basilica is related to the changes during the past two centuries, which witnessed several changes in the architectural trends. One key point to understand the design and subsequent construction of the Sagrada Familia Basilica is that the architect Francesc de Paula del Villar i Lozano was replaced by Antoni Gaudi i Cornet, Villar's assistant. This event brought about a change in the project of the Basilica, as Antoni Gaudi redesigned it in 1906 according to his style. This paper presents in detail the interventions that were made at the beginning of this century to adapt the foundations designed by Francesc de Paula del Villar to withstand the loads resulting from the increased size of Gaudi's design. This project consisted of installing several micropiles to transmit the loads to the subsoil and of building several reinforced concrete pile caps fixed to the existing masonry foundations.