The Catalonian contingent, consisting of Torroja, Candela, and Calatrava, emerged as a direct outgrowth of Gaudí’s fascination with the Nubian arch. However, another significant figure was the Italian architect Paolo Soleri.
Soleri’s admiration for Gaudí is evident in his design of the Solimene ceramic factory, also known as The Palace of Ceramics. In contrast to the Catalan architects, Soleri embraced ornamentation and monumentality and did not adopt their minimalist approach.
Yet, he revered the apse, placing it in numerous locations and transforming it as his designs developed.
However, both the Catalan architects and Soleri share an appreciation for the elegance of structural reciprocity in their interpretations of Gaudí’s work.
The leaning columns in Parc Güell, as well as in other works by Gaudí, serve as impressionistic representations of the structural forces present in the Nubian arch.
Contemporary interpretations that view the column shapes in the Solimene factory exclusively as dendriform, or tree-like, forms overlook their connections to the kiln, pottery production, and African influences.
But more importantly, it strips the social connection to their ancient African core tenet, as above, so below.
When considered as a whole, the arch's structural reciprocity evokes the concept of a “cosmic egg,” symbolizing the earth as a fertilized zygote. This analogy extends to the African Dogon settlement pattern, in which the village is organized to resemble a person in the shape of an egg—The Village in the Image of the Cosmic Person. This concept aligns Soleri’s 1970s exhibition, City in the Image of Man, with the social ideals embodied by the Nubian arch. Further discussion of this connection will follow.
At the time, none of us in the class fully understood the sophisticated Dogon concepts that Professor Anthony presented in 1974. It would take me another five decades to decipher the symbolism of the cosmic egg.
