4 de la manana: 4 in the morning

Got up around 11 yesterday and hit up studio for graphic design. I'm really excited about the book we are going to be making of our experience here in Barcelona, but it's going to be a lot of work!

We have design class from 2-4 on Thursdays, now...right before studio--which is tough. I wish I had more classes in the am so I'd be forced to get up early and use the daytime hours after class to explore the city. I "wish" a lot of things; that we only spoke in Spanish, that I could find some time to go to Font Magica, that I'd motivate myself to go running...there's always something.

Studio was dedicated to discussing analysis and then attempting to DO analysis. Ben and I offered to do the group work again. He gave me a revised map of the site with buildings. It took me until about 4 am to finish a little more than 1/2 of the base map. Luckily Tom decided to jump in and help so most of his half is already done. We're going to finish the rest when we wake up before I come back to studio to meet with my group (Felipe and Victoria).

En la ciudad con Alfredo: In the city with Alfredo

We were supposed to go see Babel tonight, but instead we ended up just walking around the Gracia area. It's crazy how far down the streets you can see because of the champfered corners of the Cerda city blocks. I caught a glimpse of Sagrada Familia from about 8 blocks away. When I told Alfredo I hadn't seen it, he was like, well clearly you are an architecture major and now you need to go down there. haha...so we did. This is the only picture my camera took before dieing once again--there is something seriously wrong with it...not cool.

This building sparked a really interesting discussion about whether the building is art or architecture or sculpture or what? I think my opinion may have changed a bit as a cause of this. While I'm a Gaudi fan, I can't say that was is currently built should be considered architecture: It doesn't seem to be carrying out its intended purpose/function, which is the point of good architecture. It should also be for the use of people, and presently it is not being used except as a tour site in order to raise money to continue construction. Which really just brings me back in a circle, because it can't be finished to meet the intended use without being an object until money can be found to complete it...*sigh.*

Caminando por L'Eixample: Walking through the Eixample

Today we did a bunch of walking for sketching class as we began to discover l'Eixample. Below are a collection of shots along the way, until about 3/4 through Eugenia's tour (and literally as we got to the buildings I was assigned to photograph) when my camera battery decided to die on me...awesome.

Here's a glimpse of L'Eixample on our tour, though, from La Universitat, to the bike path which always reminds me of Gram and Gramp McGuire, to crazy art, to modern architecture, to churches that were moved from completely different parts of the city piece by piece...pretty cool.

Nueva clase en mi horario: New class on my schedule

Today was our first day of Catalan class! Our teachers name is Xavi (pronounced "Chobby"). We learned how to introduce ourselves, the alphabet, numbers...it's difficult because it is similar to spanish in a lot of ways, and completely different in others! Hearing words and trying to spell them out was a funny excercise...because not only is the pronounciation of the individual letters different, but they each represent multiple sounds, the way our "c" can be like a "k" or like an "s."

After Catalan, Gisela and I met up with Ben, Mon, and Felipe to grab some food, then headed over to the university where we had an interesting lecture on L'Eixample (the city plan done by Cerda in Barcelona), and how it addresses hygenic issues, etc.

Dinner was tuna bocadillos, Aldana style.

Studio was mostly spent researching flights to Germany for Spring break...5 or 6 hours of starting at a computer trying to figure that out by yourself will drive you nuts! Don't try it.

El primero projecto: The first project

So it's jury day and the fact that all 12 of us got a full night's sleep is a rarity before a normal architecture jury. So glad our projects were due before the Field Trip!

Gisela and Mon-snacking on Tortilla bocadillos from La Parra before jury time!

Billy...being weird :)

Our first project was much more artsy than our usual projects. We split up into pairs and chose 3 of the plazas that we had all visited. From there we had to do an experiential study of those spaces--which was really hard, at least for me, as we are always taught to look at space architecturally, and now we had to be "normal people" again and just think about approach, sights, sounds, etc. With the information we gathered, we had to make deductions about the space in order to form an experiential analysis.

Sean and Victoria were first. They did three boards which read very distinctly from one another but which all had the same theme. My favorite was their board for Rambla del Raval, which had a super-highway mirrored with the plan of raval, surrounded by desert, because of the one-direction motion of the space, and the compartitive lack of people. I thought it was pretty ingenious. They also did Placa St Jaume and Placa Reial.

Ben and Rob were up next, with their awesome boards, which they put together to create one fluid board. I really appreciated their static vs movement concept and thought it was well portrayed through the colors and the graphics...not mention its just plain aesthetically pleasing!Placa Catalunya, Placa de la Universitat, Placa de la Catedral.

Brian and I were third having studied the definition of Path versus Destination so that we could better understand the attraction of a given space, in order to apply it to our overall ARCH302 project in which we want to distinguish Placa de les Glories as a destination placa.

Rambla de Raval is a path:

it's shape: long and narrow

it's placement, setup, organization: benches oriented logitudonally, trees, lights, and tables lining the side much like a normal vehicular traffic street, location parallel between two streets

lack of main attraction: mostly residential, some commercial and civic

Placa de le Universitat is in between and shares characteristics of both passage and destination

Placa Reial is a destination:

surroundings: need to leave main thoroughfare

focal point: fountain-centered, a point to achieve visible from main axis/entry point

"building" aspects: main entry, uniformity of windows, color, balconies, secondary entries, and pattern

points of interest: Gaudi lamps, old 2-story atrium

We explained these plazas in terms of leaving a main axis in order to achieve a final destination point. The heavy line represents the human path, the dotted is vehicular. The foreground of each is the plan of the plaza, and behind is the perspective view from the 1/2-way point. The red people represent individuals who have searched out the space as a destination (not just passing through) and the gray/black are using the plaza as a passageway. The images in the background of the plaza were the original emotions of the space, mirrored by the part of the plaza that it coincided with: For Raval, we thought of the walkway to a house; it is man-made for the purpose of getting from one point to another in an easy manner. For Universitat, we thought of Central Park because there were so many uses of the space (from a transport hub, to a rest area, to a skateboarder's paradise, to a meeting place...). For Reial, we thought of a waterfall: Brian was convinced each time he got near the fountain that we was going to get soaked!

We proposed that the destination plaza was the best overall because it created a sense of comfort, shelter, and interest due to the enclosure, separation from the main drag, and the focal points.

Bob and Mon went next. They has a unique idea because theirs was more research-based and their boards each had a comparison between their 3 plazas instead of separating each plaza into one board. They studied Forum, Raval, and ...?


Billy and Gisela's project focused on how walls defined their spaces. I liked the graphics of their project and how they read as a whole. They also seemed really attached to their plazas after having visited multiple times and enjoying the sights and sounds.

This is Tom and Felipe...presenting...haha

You can check out their project on Tom's site, I think he has video links. They did a series of photos to study the movement of people through their plazas. They also played "Stalker" and literally followed people through the plaza drawing lines on the plan of where the people walked. It was cool to watch. The discussion was more about how interesting the footage and the media was than about what we learned, which was different.

We made it through our site model AND the board presentation...bring on Placa de les Glories!

Regresamos a Barcelona!: We return to Barcelona!

Didn't do much this morning in Sevilla...showered and talked about the project boards we will be presenting tomorrow in studio at the cafe nearby, better known as Starbucks...yeah...

No worries, though. We did not give in to the American ways that we know, instead Mon and I went down the street to Cafe India and met Billy and Felipe for brunch. Then it was basically time to go. Once on the plane I passed out and there was no looking back: peace out Southern Spain--thanks for the memories.

Back in Barca and it's a great feeling...like home, really. I started to notice things about the buildings on Ronda St. Pau that I'd never seen before, saw shops that were never open on my walks to or from studio, or at least that I hadn't ever realized were there. No time for that, however, as we had to grab a quick Aldana dinner then head to studio...please recall that before our fantastic field trip, we had the option to take until tomorrow to finish our site model...so it was crack-down time!

Here are a few images of the finished product...blurry, but...yeah.

^ from the sea-side toward the mountain (it isn't set up on a N-S axis, so people explain directions by the 4 main city boundaries; the mountains (N/NW), the Besos River (N/NE), Mediterranean Sea (S/SE), and the Llobregat River (S/SW)).

^from the South along Avinguda Meridiana...

^From the bird's eye...PS--that really well-modeled tall building that doesn't match the surroundings on the site at all? It's that Agbar Tower...Love it or hate it--my opinion changes depending on the conversation. You can praise/blame Jean Nouvel for that one.

Topo=complete

Model=complete

Bedtime=now

El ultimo dia entero: The last full day

El Alcazar...at least it didn't pour ALL day

I loved this room, the first one that I chose to enter when we came through the entry garden before the main court. The colors were really nice. They reminded me of Mom...I think it's because of the blue glass collection she has.

This pattern is actually ornamentation on a curved surface of the ceiling of one of the rooms. I think it was a side room off of the court room? Or maybe it was a chapel room? I'm getting everything I've seen all confuzzled now...it's been a long trip! ANYwho: It was mesmerizing.

This was a lowely court tucked all the way through the maze of the building...I thought the tiles were interesting because in this one court, it became separated into 3 parts by height and tile differences. This is diagrammed in one of my sketches on the left.

We had another sketching assignment, so I was taking forever once again to get to see the entire site.

I really liked this view into the gardens with the long vanishing points, as were mentioned in the lecture the other night. It is sketched above, and, interestingly enough, this one, like my drawing in La Alhambra, is also in the Ambassador's courtyard.

Once again...I cannot say enough about the detail...

After viewing what I think was the entire Alcazar (at least the parts open to the public), I dedicated a bunch of time to these section/perspectives through the main courtyard.

Finally, Victoria and I headed out of the Alcazar to get lunch, running into Christi at the hostel, and ended up taking a nap until dinner at another awesome pizzeria for "the last supper." We ate like royalty and had a blast. Once again: gotta' love the BCN crew! Home tomorrow-HOORAY!