Google Doodle for ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudi’s birthday

Google built its doodle from Antoni Gaudi-inspired pieces, honoring the 161st anniversary of the architect’s birth.

The famed Barcelona builder, known as “God’s architect,” used mathematical precision to incorporate nature’s ripples into his textured structures, including the gray granite Palace Episcopal de Estorga and the curvy Casa Batllo, which still stand in Spain.

Born to a boilermaker in Reus, Spain, Gaudi was a figurehead of Catalan Modernism and a devout Catholic, which is often reflected in the crosses that top his structures.

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The Catalan architect might have also doubled as an early art therapist. A style of broken tiles pioneered by Gaudi were found on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, suggesting that the architect used patients as artisans and the gardens as grounds to test his designs.

In 1926, Gaudi had started his architectural opus, the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona, when he was hit by a tram at the age of 73.

Gaudi was dressed in street clothes, so doctors initially mistook the famed architect for a pauper, denying him much-needed medical care. Gaudi was buried two days later and widely mourned.

The Sagrada Família is set for completion in 2026 — 140 years after construction began and 100 years after Gaudi’s death.

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