El 15 de marzo: The ides of March!

WE MADE IT TO ROME! HOLY COW!

While Tom and Bob ran back inside to get a sketchbook left in the terminal, the rest of us chilled in our personal van-cab! This led to one of the craziest car rides of my life--and I was already sick this morning! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to Campo de Fiore to catch the tail end of the Rome students' jury. Stanley gave us a brief overview of the project then I peaced out with Vikki for a walk to her apartment, then back to the apartments at Campo to get Adam and some other kiddos for dinner at L'Ensalata Rica.

Afterwards...what else is there to do on the Ides of March in Rome? TOGA PARTY, CLARO!

Tom, wearing his Care-bear-esque Toga!

The Laurens and myself! So classy!

Bri y yo-practically the same as Ancient Romans, no?

HAHA-These are the hardcore, Caesar's assasins type of Romans...Benja y Spiro

...what can I say? typical Duffy, confusing Rome with Sparta, apparently

Mo, Amy, and Adam showing off their ridiculous arm muscles...just in case the BCN kids decided to get rowdy!

Roomies for life-Conster and me!

Aww, chiquitas romanas! Me, Mo, Vik, and Amy!

Benja, enjoying a game of cards with the Italian teacher and co.

Tomas y Conster, all Toga-ed out!

So, we made it through...and we're in ROMA! Hopefully every day will be this fun, even after the Rome students leave Friday morning. I'm insanely jealous that they live in an apartment building full of students--some of the other students came down to the toga party, and seemed like cool kids. Luck of the draw I guess!

Girona a Roma: Girona to Rome

Wasn't feeling well this morning for no apparent reason. Victoria took care of me, though. Two bottles of water, a gatorade, and 3 hours of sleep later I was feeling much better.

I met up with Christi, Mon, and Gisela in the lobby at checkout time and we headed across the river to a jewelry store where they sold all sorts of handmade bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and rings from wood, stones, and shells...pretty nice, and really inexpensive, too!

From there we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our things and went to the bus station where we grabbed taxis to the airport. Had to run through security in order to be in time for our priority boarding...aren't we special?! haha. Oh RyanAir...you are so...Brightly colored and stuff...ROMA here we come!

Viaje con el grupo numero 2: Group Trip #2

Field Trip two began today as we head to Sants Estacio, where we caught a train to Girona, Spain, then walked a few blocks to our hotel in the old city. From there, it was a group conquest of the area, and the weather was FANTASTIC, which only helped the city be more beautiful than it already is.

The river...which the backsides of the buildings face. Some people find this problematic and unsightly, but I find the personal back porches, clotheslines, and open windows a sign of welcome and friendliness. There's just something about the lack of a facade meant to put on a certain air that makes me really enjoy the reality of the people who inhabit the spaces.

Our first sign of issues in Spain...I headed over to this group of shouting people and megaphones to find a protest of someone in political power. All I could catch was something about wanting more money for education and healthcare? Maybe? I didn't have time to stay and figure it out as the group headed off down a sidestreet and I had to catch up!

We were heading toward "the mini Great Wall" that Mike Kocher had told us about. It used to surround the old city, but now it only goes along part of it. The views are amazing because it's surprisingly tall! There were lots of niches to explore and towers to climb, which was quite exciting.

Tom was the first to climb this sweet spiral staircase in one of the towers...by this time it's only been about 45 minutes in the sun and I feel like I might be getting burnt...but it's so nice to be outside after the past few weeks in studio.

We ventured down from the wall into the city, and met this transitional space-the German gardens. Why they are called that, I have no idea, but they were lovely and I'm sure they are even more beautiful further into the spring. I was also intrigued by the ruins and the arch in the background...only 1 brick thick...and still standing!

La Catedral, which has the largest nave span without columns in the world? Maybe? I think that is correct...no pictures allowed inside, but I didn't really find it too necessary anyhow. It was like an arcade-if you wanted to see what was in each apse, you put a coin in the slot and the lights turned on...weird. One of their display rooms had a super-old tapestry of the creation story which was cool. The bench in that room is carved and very intricate. It was nice to see workmanship like that.

Not just any window...this one is painted on the side of the building. I was impressed.

Ummm...how do you keep college kids amused for hours?

LOTS AND LOTS OF BIG FISH and a bag of bread!

The backsides facing the river, as previously mentioned. Have I mentioned a billion times that I love the colors used on buildings in Europe? Because I should have! It gives the streets, or in this case the river, a completely different feel than if they were all dull or similar in color...wow.

We headed to St. Pare de Gallegas where we had a sketching assignment to capture the plainness of the facade. I liked it because it put more emphasis on the beautiful rose window. I also drew a plan of the exterior courtyard in hopes that it might help me design exterior spaces later on, and a section--but it was quick since I spent most of our alotted time outside working on the facade and proportions.

Finally we came to these steps, which are organic in the way that they seem to flow together and complement one another. I also like how they create a small terrace before continuing down further as a single staircase.

This is what we like to call Club Hotel...Felipe and Billy are just super at rearranging their hotel rooms and decorating any which way they can to accomodate all of us for hanging out when we're done exploring! ...and yes, that is some sort of pillow case or armrest cover on the lamp.

For dinner we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant people had seen while heading to lunch this afternoon. While we waited for Mon and Gisela we had a fun time playing at a hardscape park (basically meaning it was all concrete and statues, because most parks here don't have grass because of the lack of water available for it).

Does anyone recognize any of these menu items? haha

As always, I'm still captivated by street art...the bright colors, the different shapes used to create the letters...this just doesn't happen on a normal canvas. I don't think it would mean as much.

Pabellon Mies Van der Rohe: Mies Van der Rohe Pavillion

Tuesday the 13th is equivalent to our Friday the 13th...

Gisela apparently got hit with some of that bad luck, from dropping her change, losing her shoes, and spilling pineapple juice all over the floor at International House during our break...the day got a bit better for her after Catalan class when we headed to Placa Espana to see the Mies Van der Rohe Pavillion.

Gisela and I going to the wrong part of the park...ooops!

Reflecting pool

Our guide, and friend of Professor Vidal's, who was in charge of re-creating and building the Pavillion from drawings and written criticisms, years after it was returned to Germany and destroyed. Really cool.

Trippy shot...reflective glass, transparent glass...

The statue

Stone wall with pieces from the original quarries in Germany.

Along the wall and columns on exterior looking in

the rear gardens

the reflecting pool again...so peaceful

Desenando: Designing

Fun times in the design process...

One of my favorite parts about the Cerda blocks and our apartment in particular is the fact that even without knowing your neighbors, there is a sort of neighborhood connection in the interior of the block, where everyone's personal lives come together; dogs barking, patios, balconies, and hang-drying clothes...these are the most enchanting parts and I wanted to find a way to capture that in some way. The sketches above show a form of bridge to attempt to recreate and put a twist on this "backyard neighborhood" that might be experienced from an underpass below.

These sketches are to explore the question of the treatment of the corner, either in the traditional Cerda, a traditional building corner, or a combination of the two.

This is the way I chose to model my initial proposal. It is an awful lot of mass, but I think it might be important to give the neighborhood a large amount of housing since it continues to be a major issue in Barcelona right now. The slanted roof can allow for the exterior facade and height to match those in surrounding blocks, while bringing the interior facade down to a more human scale. The bridged area serves as an indirect boundary-both separating the two halves of the block and allowing them to be connected through the walking path beneath.

Juanes esta en la cabeza: Juanes is stuck in my head

Spent some time at studio today. Nothing too exciting. We present our initial block proposal this week. Meh.

I'm trying to avoid doing a typical Cerda block, but it's difficult because there aren't any lines to draw from. We shall see. I considered doing an "inside-out-block" where the exterior corners met at 90 degrees and the interiors are champfered...I'm not sure how that would work out.

Took a walk through the Mercat de Sant Antoni. Snapped a shot, but you can't capture the life and color of the place in photos, you just have to be here.

FC Barcelona v. Real Madrid

So after a full day at studio, it seemed only appropriate that we take the rest of the night off to join in with the rest of Barcelona in cheering on our team against our biggest rival, Real Madrid! For this, we headed to Barceloneta, where Felipe knew a good place, but they were closed-BLASPHEMY! So instead we hit up old faithful, Nubaa, a great bar across from the docks.

Bill and Felipe...BCN thugs

Marquez and Victoria cheering on Marquez


Gisela's best friend, Alexander, from Puerto Rico

BARCA COMES BACK WITH A GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!

Me and Tom

Me and Vic at half-time

Alexander, Gisela, and Billy getting ready to go

Ahh yes, the super-attractive Argentinian bartender, Claudio

The chicas after the game...tied-hey whatever: VISCA BARCA!

It wasn't too late, so a few of us headed over to Port Vell and went to Mondo, a bar/restaurant/club. Good story.

Benja, Vic, Bill, Gisela

Me and Gisela

Victoria--BEST PIC EVER! (sorry Vic, I couldn't help myself!)

Benja--yet another classic pic! Striking poses in the middle of the club!

Gisela...looking like she's modelling for ad

POSERS! The kiddos, chillin on the couches.

Gisela and Alexander!

Afterwards we all got split up in the action and I headed home with Gran Via. Tomorrow-studio to get some more stuff done!