Interactions - Creative Strategies for Business: Creative Strategies for Business

The pleasure of unfinished business.

Walking around Gaudi's masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is an interesting lesson in the pleasure of unfinished business. Started in 1882 it's estimated that the church will be finished some time between 2028 and 2048 - that's if the new TGV, planned for just outside the walls of the church, doesn't topple what's there already.

There were hoards of visitors there on a sunny Saturday morning - all of us marvelling at the architecture, the vision, the timeline! I found myself much more interested in what was going on inside (the really unfinished bit) rather than the outside. It's noisy, cold and dusty in there and I believe on a weekday there are up to 150 people working away.

The structure is evolving and changing all the time and I did wonder if its unfinished state is what people are coming to see. Will the crowds still come in 20 - 40 years time when all is done and dusted and the church is finally revealed in its completed state. Somehow a 'finished' building doesn't seem half as interesting to me as one in progress...the same is true of people - finished ones are simply never as captivating as ones in progress.