Explore and Discover

The most beautiful and exciting part of Barcelona to me is the exploration. It is the most amazing thing to simply walk and get lost. Finding your way leads you to explore and discover so many wonderful places and areas that you would have never been to or come across. Although this past week has been quite hectic, to where we spend all day and night in studio, you just have to make that 30 minute to an hour walk everyday. It really is the most amazing part of this city. Carla and I have made a pact to walk for at least that long everyday, or else we will miss out on so much. Today, we were walking to studio, on Valentine's Day (because studio is our Valentine's...it never lets us down for being there for us), we walked through Plaza Reial and saw a stage set up for a puppet show for children. It was the best surprise to walk through on your way somewhere. Then, during our lunch break, we went walking again and found the best gelado place in Barcelona! It was so delicious! I had pistachio and raspberry and it was perfection! After going back to studio again and working on our model, we left at around 7, only to find ourselves in the midst of a drumline parade. We ran to catch up with the beating drums and mass of people. We followed and danced with the parade for a while, then took a side street to escape the density. We walked towards Santa Caterina, the market that had the roof redone by Miralles, and on the way, saw a small arabic restaurant/hooka bar. I was so excited to go there because the guy turned out to be Iraqi. I spoke to him in Arabic for a while and found out that he serves hot tea, my favorite thing to drink after a meal. That's one thing I really miss back home with my parents...hot tea. We then got some refreshing, fresh orange and mango juice from him and walked more towards the market. On the way, we saw another stage set up and a band playing loud music. People were gathered all around and it was so exciting! Here we were, busy all day in studio on a Saturday, and all we did was walk down a few streets and found so much life and activity. I truly love this city and all it offers. I love watching how people act and react, how you can find the most random yet beautiful places, how you can get lost and find a new way home. It's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Being here has taught me more about life and about myself than I had ever known. It's worth every penny.

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Valentine's Day....

I'm really at a loss on what to say today, for with insurmountable work loads and little free time, my mind tends to meander much less than in past semesters. Today was different though, in standing in line for a much needed dinner with the gang in none other than plaza reial-two blocks from studio, a beggar of the city came up to us. I indulged him, to stand and talk to this man for no less than thirty minutes truly opened my eyes, not only to the beauty of life we all have, but to the beauty of this city. The love and passion that each of us have as not just students of architecture, but as individuals, it was in talking to him that i realized what school, architecture, life, love, happiness is all about. Desire. It's the passion within us to do whatever it is that we aspire to do that will or won't make us successful. As i look into the facades of the many buildings that line the streets of barcelona, i see a passion, and a desire to move forward, as a designer. Though the vernacular and orientations may change, the people are the same, our needs are the same. life and architecture are in a way united through our journey through them. one thing to say on this very special valentine's eve is that architecture is a life long journey and we are merely getting our feet wet, it's the desire and motivation that we must keep to separate ourselves from the rest. happy valentine's day everyone-i miss you kristin

Nature and the City

It's amazing how much one person or place can teach you. Since I've been here in Barcelona, seeing all of Gaudi's work, I've been especially impressed by his particular style - the integration of elements of nature into his designs. It's certainly interesting to see how much one thing can impact one person's outlook on life and subsequently their designs. I'm also impressed by the great level of detail in Gaudi's work. For example when we visited Casa Mila, he planned the apartments to a "T" so that each room would have a great deal of natural light, using a courtyard to allow light into the center. And just as interesting was the level of detail he put into the handrails on the facade of the house around the balconies and the amount of attention he paid to the experience on the roof by making the chimneys themselves sculptures.

Also, in terms of nature, I've enjoyed seeing how often trees and natural elements appear within big cities. It's a refreshing change from city life in the U.S. where the most natural thing that can be said about a lot of places is that it's a "concrete jungle." Seeing this time and time again in Spain has really been helpful in terms of affecting my designs - it's pushed me to more readily include landscaped, natural elements. It has especially done so for this semester's studio design where I know that I need to be relative and sensitive to the urban aesthetic already created in Barcelona.

Last Friday, our class went to visit Gaudi’s Casa Mila (aka La Pedrera). It was exciting to finally enter the building, as we had passed it several times on our way to other places but never had the chance to go in. The attic space was the most interesting, and I enjoyed the hundreds of parabolic arches that composed the area. The roof area was also very complex, and it was inspiring to see how Gaudi created the terrace so intricately with many levels.

We also ventured out to Montjuic yesterday with the hopes of seeing the Barcelona Pavilion, though unfortunately it had closed down for the next couple of days. We visited the Joan Miro Museum, and it was helpful to see another successful museum and how it is planned out in order to relate these ideas to our own museum design.

I was thankful for these class trips this week, as we have had a lot on our plate between studio and organizing our independent travel trip and weren’t able to explore on our own very much. Barcelona is a never-ending city with new things to discover every day, and I hope to experience as much of it as I can during my stay here.

This week has gone by so quickly since we have been working in studio for most of it. By working on designing a new interchange within Barcelona, I feel like I have learned more about the culture in Barcelona and how people work within the city. The mix of I have found Barcelona to be so different than any other place I have been to before. I still feel like I have so much to explore. Going yesterday to Montjuic was awesome. It is amazing to have so many things to do within walking distance of where we live. Walking through only part of Montjuic yesterday has made me want to go even more now to get good views of the city and explore the Olympic park more. Not being able to see the Barcelona Pavilion was a little discouraging, but by walking around, I realized how much more there is to do on Montjuic. It is another thing to add to my list of things to see and explore in Barcelona. While we keep going to see buildings and places in classes and on the weekends, I don't feel like the list is getting any shorter!

this past week has been a sort of blur. we have been pushed and forced to interpret a site and develop a layout plan rather quickly. for me as a landscape architect, this design structure is fairly new. typically i spend many weeks developing a comprehensive, cohesive master plan (layout plan). in this realm, the architectural competition realm, i have been asked to quickly develop a layout so we can then focus on architectural specifics. this has been a challenge and an adventure for me. i do however, understand that this site is fairly small in comparison to other urban and regional plans developed in past courses.

about the madrid, toledo, bilbao trip: i really enjoyed seeing the various urban patterns of spanish cities. there was a distinct difference between madrid, toledo, and bilbao. in madrid, there was a clear divide between old and new city. the fairly organic growth of the old city sharply constrasted with the structured grid pattern of the new urban fabric. toledo, nestled adjacent to the tajo river is a UNESCO world heritage site. other sites of this stature include the great pyramids of egypt and the great barrier reef in australia. unesco encourages the identification, preservation, and protection of such sites. toledo is a must see when traveling to spain. bilbao was an amazing city to be in. it is situated along the nervion river. the presence of water within the city is never forgotten as the inhabitant and visitor are continuously urged to move back and forth from side to side. the greatest site for me was the guggenheim museum designed by frank gehry. gehry has always been a design hero of mine. i remember loving his work and then questioning the metal exterior. upon seeing the structure, my feelings were again flopped. the building was beautiful in every since of the word. the spaces created outside and inside engaged the visitor and never left them on idle. it is truly a magnificent piece of architecture.

Barcelona...THIS PLACE IS HUGE!

i cannot get over the size of this city. I have never lived in a city before this semester and have never realized the deep complexity involved in its existence. There are so many layers to a place like this. Even 3 months isn't enough time to see it all...not even close. It seems that everytime i think that i have seen all it has to offer (or at least most of it) it unpacks another little suprise for me just around the corner. 

It is one the to travel through a place, another to stop and stay a while, and yet it is a far different thing all together...to KNOW a place. 

Oh My Calatrava

It is not hard to figure out why Calatrava is so awesome. He is an architect and and engineer! That means that he has all the creativity and expertise of two people in one. This is only accentuated by his well developed and well defined style that he has rarely strayed from. Is it bad for someone to have such a narrowly defined style? I would say no....conditionally. IF it is in fact unique and is not copied by others to the point that it vanishes. and IF it is in a large enough context that it doesnt get repetative but becomes objects of recognition.

Better Late Than Never

Well, if you wonder why my first blog is late, it is because I waste time on things like these pictures. I will make up by talking about architecture that the class has not visited yet. I speak of the Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. One of the mega monuments of modernism.

One can learn almost everything you need to know about modernism from this building. Including the way in which Mies expresses the columns, the free plan, and the use of the materials of steel and glass. The difference in this piece is Mies' exploration and combination of more materiality such as the stone flooring instead of the previous concrete dominance.

I love the way this city has so many things that you can run across something so important and hardly realize it. I can't wait to go back and get a chance to go inside and discover more.



A side note: This may deteriorate from my comment but being at the pavilion felt like a fake. I guess knowing that they destroyed it and rebuilt it has something to do with it.

City of Activity

I went on a run through the city today and was overwhelmed by the amount of activities happening in a certain space. It was not uncommon at all for me to look on a street and see people walking, biking, running, listening to a person playing guitar, eating, site seeing, and so much more all in one area. I have never experienced such great interaction between a space and people's purpose. In the United States it seems that each space plays a certain role in a persons everyday activities and there is no moment for pause. Here it is hard for me to walk a block without stopping to admire the crowds or the performers. I find it hard to sit in my room knowing how much activity is going on all around me, and although we have spent a month here there is never a day where I walk and don't see something new and amazing.