Methods of load research on the buildings structure in the early twentieth century

I want to write how Antoni Gaudi created models of their buildings. It should be noted that in those days there were no computers, strength calculations were not created accurately. If it was a bridge or supporting columns, the calculated cross section with squaring and multiplying almost at 3-5 times. That is why many ancient or medieval buildings so firmly stand still - the whole thing is that the designers have done a very large margin of safety (which, of course, does not negate their knowledge of architecture, shapes and materials).

In times of Antonio Gaudi architect and builders used a lot of models and shown them to developers. Typically, large-scale, about 1:10 or 1:5. In this case, the builders was comfortable and understand how to build buildings. For example, Gaudi was the first architect in the world who did not use the facade as a supporting structure of the building - one of his houses had facade as "curtains", an architect could use very large windows. It was a breakthrough for its time.

Nevertheless,  Gaudi created the strength model for the construction of churches. He used sandbags small size and hung them on strings from the bottom up. In this case there was natural load distribution - it is close to a parabola shape or Gaussian distribution. Using this technique, Gaudi counted and developed shapes of arches attics in houses and churches. The most glaring example - is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. 

By Andrey Egorov