La noche nos llamo: The night called us

Started out the day fantastically...especially compared to the freezing cold and wind yesterday...(we even saw a few snowflakes)! We had breakfast at a place called Nebraska...imagine that! Then we walked over to Palacio Real where we admired the gardens, their symmetry, and the sun...I tried to get a tan to no avail.

From there we walked around to the front of the palace, which stands opposite the Opera House (which seems too plain to be separated into 2 horizontal portions as large as they are). We listened to a man singing and playing guitar...Mon and I wondered why all men don't sit and sing to us like that?! haha.

On the other side we could see the patio/plaza behind the palace, and the cathedral/church built in about 5 different architectural styles due to the expanse of time it took to complete it. I played soccer with a litte kid who had been playing by himself, then we headed on to see the main market still in use today.

The streets of the old city were not nearly as narrow as those in Barca, but it was interesting how the houses hugged the curves. I don't know if it's visible from the photo, but the lower 1/3 of the buildings are angled out, probably to fortify the structure. This picture in particular was taken right at the bottom of the staircase up to Plaza Mayor.

The plaza is huge compared to the enclosed plazas we've seen in Barca. There were lots of people milling about, taking pictures, eating lunch, walking around, looking at shops...it was really pleasant. The buildings themselves were all uniform in their inclusion of balconies, with equal floor heights and the pattern smacks you in the face...no need to go searching for it!

**Check out the video and see for yourself!**

This was the location of our first sketching assignment. I chose to do a facade and section study to capture the proportions through an elevation and the geometry of the section that can't be captured just by the facade because of the slanted roof as well as the arcade that screens a walkway beneath the buildings.

After the Plaza we headed to el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. There we saw multiple mediums of art; video, sculpture, canvas, text, etc. Picasso's Guernica is there too. To be honest, I was not as impressed by it in person as I thought I would be. I was much more affected by the manner in which he refused to keep the painting in Spain until the end of Franco's rule. We also saw a collection of work by Bauhaus member Josef Albert and his wife on patterns and tiling. My favorite of those works was Abstracto.

The addition to the museum, pictured above, was done by Jean Nouvel. While it doesn't fit the building, as Nouvel is known to build object architecture that stands on its own, I did appreciate the way that the new and old building don't actually touch to be sealed together. I also liked how the street sidewalk continued underneath the roof that covered a plaza between the old and new parts shown here. The use of glass also helped to create an interesting feel. One of my pictures of this is shown on the main blog page under "Madrid."

I'm not sure if the furniture inside the addition was designed by Nouvel as well, but I really liked some of it, especially pieces like this that doubled in use: one end is a table and the other is a bench!

After Reina Sofia, we headed to one of the heavenly places in Madrid...also known as a Chocolateria, where they serve coffee mugs full of chocolate with baked churros to dip...yeah--that was good! We did dessert first, then hit up a local restaurant where Felipe used his people skills to get us the Menu deal, and I had the best steak ever! We sat in a room full of soccer fans, so clearly we were half-talking, half-futbol-watching!

Upon returning to the hotel, most people were really tired, but a few of us were wide awake and ready for another night of dancing at an Unce-unce club! Billy, Ben, Felipe, Sean, and I headed out to Joy Esclava, where we ran into..."issues" and ended up heading a few doors down to Palacio Girivina(?) which was basically a beautiful old mansion converted into a 2-story posh club with a bunch of bars, 3 dance floors, and a few lounge rooms full of comfy furniture. I did not take advantage of any of that furniture, however, and instead opted to dance the whole time! The music was the best when one of the employees came out and played a bongo-like drum to the current techno, house, or pop music-SWEET! We preferred him much more than the weird dancers that they had on stage...STrAnGE!!

anywho..."we stayed out until 5:30, came to the hotel, showered, then went out looking for a quick breakfast at 7:15, met everyone in the lobby at 8, and were officially inducted into the Madrid nightlife scene with an all-nighter."

Las Vacaciones de las vacaciones: The vacation from the vacation

MADRID...the capital of Spain.

"Imagine Barcelona...on drugs"

I stayed up talking to Bob and Ben until 3 this morning...had to be up at 4:30 to do the wakeup calls so everyone made it to Placa Catalunya for the Aerobus this am. It was gorgeous, having been just washed by the awesome bcNETA (basically the city janitors--keeping the streets swept and hosed, keeping the many recycling/trash bins in order--basically making Barca a beautiful and clean city), and reflecting the lights around the plaza, without a person in sight...this probably doesn't happen but for about an hour each day between the partiers returning home and the workers waking up!

Christi wasn't feeling well, so the modes of transportation were not exactly the best thing for her, but we made it to the Munich airport without problems. The airport was crazy! The colors, the materials...I felt like I stepped into some crazy Mission to Mars movie where everything was super high-tech. It wasn't, mind you, but the shapes suggested that the entire airport was a giant machine; just ushering people in and out as it pleased...See Ben's site for some pictures of the interior, mine didn't come out well, so I'll leave your curious minds to search some of my colleagues' awesome pages for more visually pleasing info!

We made it to the hotel, after about 3 metro switches, a super-sick Christi, and an attempted pick-pocketing (shakes fist at crazy woman picking me out!), and took a little while to get settled, then hit the town, sans Christi, to get our scheduled events out of the way!

We were hungry, so after walking around in the freezing cold and ridiculous wind-tunnel that was Madrid, we split up and my group found a small cafe. After lunch, we headed to El Prado art museum. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed--I guess that just leaves you a good reason to visit!

I was amazed when I saw Goya's "El 3 de Mayo en Madrid: Los fusilamientos en la montana del Principe Pio." It commemorates the shooting of innocent people on the mountain during the civil war, I believe? I had seen it multiple times in books for Spanish classes, but it was pretty cool to see it in person!

I also really liked some of the paintings by Claudio de Lorena, Peter Paul Rubens, J. Bautista Martinez del Mazo, and one in particular by Francisco de Zurbaran. His was called, "Christo crucificado con donante." While it did not immediately catch my eye upon walking through the room, despite its size (taking up almost 1/3 of the wall), what was most impressive was what happened after having left the room. Upon turning back to the previous, I was baffled at the "sculpture" in the room before...I didn't know how I could have missed it and on returning, I found that what I had thought to be sculpture, was actually the ability of the artist to create a realistic 3 dimensional image using the 2 dimensions offered by paint by using light and shadow

After El Prado, we headed toward el Parque del Buen Retiro to walk around for a while since we had a few hours before dinner. Victoria and I played in the tree,

Tom sketched, we all ambled through the frozen gardens taking photos and imagining the springtime state of this huge park, and then...

we found a playground, of course! This one was yet another incredible adventure accompanied by tons of laughs, and even more dizziness. Keep a look out for the "videos" links on my main page, where you can join in on some of the fun!

On the walk back to the hotel we saw why we, as architecture majors, should be in Madrid...the detail of the buildings, the way entire plaza facades curved to match the circular fountain or gate at the center...we notice those things!

This is an example of one of the interesting architectural finds on our walk...a church tucked in between and underneath what looks like an apartment building...but look closer... the apartments are not just stuck on top, they create an arch above the church to maintain a separation and continue the visual curve from below caused by the cylindrical church facade--cool, huh?!

Well--dinnertime came and Christi still wasn't feeling well, so we kept our reservation and headed over to the restaurant called La Bola, where we ate "Ropa vieja" as our main course...literally translated it means "old clothes!" It was very good, though, and I would probably compare it to pulled pork in texture...but anywho...it was tasty but it got expensive as every small thing had a charge. We had a good time, though, and the night was just beginning.

After dinner we grabbed some breakfast foods, went back to the hotel, then went to a local bar. From there we headed toward a bar Felipe knew of called Joy Esclava. We were intercepted by a guy enticing us with passes to a clbu nearby, so we made a pitstop there, then headed on to Joy, where we realized what a small world it is when we found out one of the guys we met there was friends with Erin Dunn, from CUA...CRAZY!

Dancing until 3 am can really catch up to you, so bed is in order upon arriving in the room. Thank goodness we don't meet until 12 tomorrow!

Semana loca: Crazy Week!

It has been nutty this week. We were up late last night working on the model after the visit to be prepared so that Billy and Felipe can go cut out the topo from wood at the university.

I met Christi at 8:30 am at the metro to get more blood tests done again at L'Hospital Bellvitge. We got to walk around in the "doctor-area" for lack of a better phrase...hospitals are crazy! I am impressed by anyone who designs them...kudos! We grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria. I really enjoy talking to Teresa! She is so loving and friendly and-You just can't help but love her! She is my mom in Spain-telling my how to take care of myself and making sure I'm not sick, setting up my appointments...of course, no one can replace my own "Mumu!" :) Love you!

It was presentation day, as well as apartment-payment day since we won't be back in time to pay at the beginning of the month, so I got home, took a 20 minute nap, then Ben and I went to pay for Aldana at Barcelona-Home. From there, we checked the times for the printer so we could all get our boards printed for Christi (jury was moved to the Monday we get back since Eric Jenkins will be in town). Then, we worked frantically to make sure the boards were what we wanted them to be.

TYPICAL GRAFITTI-the rest of the wall was clearly painted over, but the doors were left with the brilliance of color and self-expression, no matter how delinquent...cool

When Mon got back, we grabbed lunch at La Parra (a diner-like restaurant that has become a favorite recently.

LA PARRA

After meeting for studio to hand in our boards, we split into groups/shifts to work on the model since we only had enough supplies for half of us to be working on it at a time. I was in the 2nd shift, so I went shopping with Victoria, Mon, and Gisela. There are "REBAIXES/REBAJAS" (SALES) signs EVERYWHERE! After the 3-King's Day, the sales in Barca begin, and apparently they last until April or May!! I got a pair of Jeans for 3 Euro! It's pretty ridiculous, I wish Jess were here, she would love it--I need some of her fashion-sense to help me out with the Barca layering skills...haha!

I finished a block when I got back to studio, ate a sandwich then headed back to the apartment where I dawdled for hours...I need to be up in about an hour....apparently the anxiety of packing and travelling and the fun that comes with having apartment-mates like Bob and Ben is enough to keep me awake until 3 am!

Enferma...otra vez: Sick...again

I woke up sick this morning but pulled myself together to go to sketching class. It was the COLDEST day we've had so far in Barcelona...and the longest outdoor-time, too! Figures...

We walked through Gracia, saw one of the oldest remaining farmhouses tucked into the dense city that grew up all around it...then saw one of the first Gaudi buildings for a tile-maker of the city, then Plazas, as per usual. One of them was plaza de Rebellion where people used to gather to protest and such, and Placa Rius i Taulet, which I ended up sketching. It has a bell tower and acted as a town meeting space. Monica and I were so cold--the pavement and marble were sucking out all of our heat--so we just hit up a cafe and sketched from there while we drank some Cafe con Leche.

We all got back together and visited a really cool library with a glass platform on one of the upper levels, and a curved facade that bubbled out over the sidewalk. From there we continued our walk to a row of buildings made in the modernista era with awesome facade-work very much like stucco, but patterned across the entire building. I can't explain and sadly I was so cold that I didn't remove the camera from my pocket for fear that I might freeze in the process. Perhaps I can steal pictures from other people later on when I create a slideshow or something...otherwise you'll just have to come visit and see for yourselves!

After all of our work on the model, it was scrapped today and we are now re-working the topo to be representative instead of literal. We didn't finish the topo I proposed, and after all of the hell we went through it's sad to see it go to waste, but I think that this will be better for the group's sanity and efficiency-wise it makes sense. So...Here is a pic of the old topo...I'll be sure to update when the new one is completed tomorrow or something. We got an extension for the model until after we return from the field trip, but the sooner it is out of the way, the better. I guess it's a good thing I enjoy model-making!

After studio, it was firm-visit-time, except today we went to the gym (across from the hostel Bob and I stayed at on C/St. Pau) that was designed by a friend of Eugenia in the University that won a competition. Part of the building was originally a factory and had to be re-finished and incorporated into the new part of the building, which made it really interesting. There were major efforts made to maintain many aspects of the industrial feeling of the spaces.

BECAUSE WHO DOESN'T CARRY THEIR MATTRESS HOME FROM THE STORE?

A NICE WINDOW DETAIL IN THE EXTERIOR OF THE OLD FACTORY

BEN, JOEL, TOM, EUGENIA, BOB-discussion at the rear of the bldg.

MONICA SHOWING OFF OUR POOL-SIDE SHOES (worn to keep the areas hygenic)

THE SPA-ZONE: SNOW! This is the first snow I've seen in nearly a year, if not more...it is the 2nd step in the process...the 1st is the sauna. The snow is meant to be smoothed over the hot skin to tighten, tone, and heal. I especially like the effects of the color!

THE SPA ZONE: Step 3, a lower body jet-stream massage treatment! Push a button and the water jets out to massage your legs--apparently this encourages blood flow!

THE OLD FACTORY: re-finished interior with treadmills, free weights, and other equip

Mas tiempo al estudio: More time at studio

Not much to say about today...

We met for graphic design class just to talk about our ideas for the class and the book that we will be creating to document our experiences with the study abroad program here in Barca. We didn't do too much other than communicate our hopes and expectations--which is pretty important. Christi and Esteban are probably going to create a syllabus from the discussions so it's kinda interesting to be part of creating your own class...I guess that's why they call it "indepent study," no?

Gisela and I went to the International House today for a tour because we will be starting Catalan classes when we return from our trip. It's weird to think we're starting a class 1/4 of the way through the semester, but they are about 2 hours long and I'm realy excited about it since Catalan is SO different from Spanish.

History as usual. Then studio until forever to work on the model! Go team!

BEN-Still working hard on topo

BILLY-cutting out pieces Monica traced

BOB and TOM-discussing city blocks

BRIAN-sanding the edges to make pieces fit on the base

FELIPE-finishing up Torre Agbar model

MON and BOB-working on their presentation boards

Trabajando...rapidamente: Working...quickly

So--after lots of work to figure out the actual topo lines of Placa de les Glories, the group effort kicked in more than ever to get the base produced so we could start making the actual building on the site. It's a pretty tough process so much so that I'm going to give a short list of tasks that go into the model itself, before any buildings can even be placed.

I took a plan of the proposal for a new road plan and green space for Glories, and placed it into a CAD drawing so that the lines for the topo could be drawn on in different layers. We used section drawings created for the same proposal to get the main points for the topo, then used the European topo map of the square (consisting of points with meters above sea level listed) to fill in the rest of the points in between the ones given by the sections. From that I could draw lines for each meter of rise in the land in order to build the model. Because there were 14 meters of difference between our lowest and highest points, we chose to simplify them to 7 layers, each 2 meters in height, and so began the model-making process.

Since we do not have a plotter like we do at Catholic, and our model is so large (about 4 or 5 feet in width and length) we came up with the idea to use the projector. By hooking up the computer with the CAD drawing of the topo lines, we could trace the topo lines onto trace paper. We had to do this in multiple pieces since our trace paper is only about 2 feet wide.

After completing the entire topo on trace and matching them up to make sure they fit, we could begin to transfer this info onto chipboard. To do this, we traced the lines with a ballpoint pen to make an imprint on the chipboard below. From that imprint we could either retrace to see it better, or just cut straight from the print.

We needed 4 pieces of chipboard cut for each of the 7 layers...as you can imagine this was quite a feat! Unlike the chipboard we are used to, this chipboard is very warped...we are hoping that with the glue and a bunch of books and other heavy objects around studio (laptops, backpacks, human beings...haha) we will be able to flatten out the pieces as the glue dries.

After the pieces are glued together and dried, we have to make sure that everything fits together correctly. This requires lots of sanding!

While we work on the topo, we also have to be getting prepared to make buildings for the model, so we are also tracing the city blocks out t be cut when we complete the topo. Our presentation boards are also in progress...ALL AT ONCE!

As you can tell, we are all pretty hard at work...but it will all be worth it when we get to the Field Trip at the end of this week! Check out the process in pictures:

GISELA-workin on the comp.

SEAN-working on the computer.

FELIPE Y TOM-beginning work on the infamous Agbar Tower

ROB-Cutting out topography like an all-star!

MON-Cutting out MORE topo!

BEN-YEAH TOPO! (and you thought this was a small task!)

BRI-utilizing all of the books we have to keep the chipboard glued together flat

VICTORIA-using our inventive use of the projector to draw out the Cerda city blocks

BOB--helping to direct Victoria to draw the blocks

BILLY-working hard on CAD

VICTORIA...THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STAY UP TOO LATE IN STUDIO :)

Don't get me wrong...we're still managing to have fun!

Casa Batllo y la noche: Batllo House and the night

GAUDI MUST HAVE BEEN ONE OF THOSE "CRAZY/GENIUS" PEOPLE

TERRACE ROOM-flooded with sunlight

ROB AND MON at the Mushroom-shaped fireplace seating

THE FLOOR PLAN-check out those curves!

THE STAINED GLASS OF THE FACADE WINDOWS-gorgeous!

HIDDEN STAIRCASE-there seemed to be lots of these...I was curious...boo for rules

THE DRAGON'S BACK-not the colors that I expected, but neat just the same

THE TOP FLOOR OF THE ATRIUM-yeah--it was pretty intense

ROB SEAN CHRISTI MON GISELA BEN

After Casa Batllo, we checked out the HUGE art supply/anything-you-could-possibly-want-to-buy store, then grabbed lunch, went to Aldana for a bit, then hit up studio til 8:30, when we went home to get ready to go out. I walked to dinner with the group, ate about 6 rolls and had water while they waited for their food, then peaced out to meet Alfredo at 11. We walked down Las Ramblas, checked out a British bar that had fake trees placed throughout the interior--it was that whole "indoor/outdoor" theme-haha. Then we walked over across the water to MarMagnum (a big mall), and up on the roof, where at night, the mall stays busy by attracting anyone into the club scene with about 5 or 6 different dance clubs/bars on top! We went to "Sunset" and danced until about 3 or 4, then headed back and just talked as we walked back to Aldana until 6 am. Yes, this type of schedule is actually NORMAL here!