Today we had both our Contemporary European City Class and Field studies class; Kathrin, our professor, will be traveling to Boston for a conference tomorrow so she moved class to today. It was a relatively long day because of this but as a reward we have no class tomorrow!
I have a lot of work that I can get ahead on tomorrow, I have 3 five page papers just for the Field studies class, a 15 page paper for Contemporary European City, and a 5 page paper for my materials class...then there is studio! Time is flying by and after doing the math (without counting the week in Germany) I really only have THREE FULL WEEKS left to get everything done. It is starting to become crunch time!
I had some down time on Monday after studio so I put together this short (3 minute) "movie" from the footage I tapped while I was hiking on Montserrat....I had to go to studio just to upload this video and it took me a little over an hour just to upload it; sooooooo I hope everyone enjoys it! haha. MAKE SURE THE VOLUME IS TURNED UP...the music adds to the effect!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Futbol!
Our studio review went relatively well today, however Miguel Rodan was not present so we did not have to endure his frankness; although a part of me really wanted to hear what he would have to say about our designs and schemes. Oh well!
Jordi seems to forget some of the minor details of our design, so every time we review Mallory and I have to "jog" his memory. After today we finally have the signal to progress to the next part of the project...fitting the programmatic elements (square meters/footage) within our layouts. This part is always the hardest, because frankly it is not any fun, the best part is coming up with the design. Jordi does want me to scale down the bridge...again (sigh); I just don't want the end result to be a "plank" that connects the parts of the civic center...that would be extremely boring and plain.
Played some more futbol with the Spanish guys tonight. Naturally I had to play goalie first, I still don't appear to be a worthy contender yet...that's fine I keep getting better each time I play. While in goal I had a few exciting stops...but I couldn't stop them all, one did get through.
Long day tomorrow, good night!
Jordi seems to forget some of the minor details of our design, so every time we review Mallory and I have to "jog" his memory. After today we finally have the signal to progress to the next part of the project...fitting the programmatic elements (square meters/footage) within our layouts. This part is always the hardest, because frankly it is not any fun, the best part is coming up with the design. Jordi does want me to scale down the bridge...again (sigh); I just don't want the end result to be a "plank" that connects the parts of the civic center...that would be extremely boring and plain.
Played some more futbol with the Spanish guys tonight. Naturally I had to play goalie first, I still don't appear to be a worthy contender yet...that's fine I keep getting better each time I play. While in goal I had a few exciting stops...but I couldn't stop them all, one did get through.
Long day tomorrow, good night!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Montserrat!
Woke up at 8am this morning so I could catch the 9am train to “Montserrat” about an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. “Montserrat” is Catalan for Serrated Mountain, and there is a very vivid reason why the mountain was named this; it is a multi-peeked mountain that forms its own small mountain range (it is similar to Mt. Kilimanjaro almost). The mountain is home to a small monastery which has evolved over the years into a small “village” within the mountains; it now houses multiple museums, hotels, and parks. It is uniquely structured, in my opinion, because the organization of Montserrat is broken down into 3 separate zones or levels. There is a small village unrelated to the abbey at the foot of the mountain, then there is the “base level” of the monastery, and the last section contains the rest of the monastery along with trails to the peaks of the Mountain. Each zone is higher up in the mountain and can be accessed by either use of the funicular, car (tedious method), and walking (even more tedious).
Once we arrived at the foot of the mountain we took the first funicular to the base level of the monastery. This area houses the main chapel for the monastery along with the museums, cafeteria, and shops. We stayed in this area for a while and attended the mass service held in the beautiful chapel (gave a new meaning to high mass, haha). Part of the service was in Catalan and then the other part was in Latin, I was still able to understand what was going on thanks again to the music! The all-boys choir was extremely good, they were in perfect unison and pitch, I guess they get a lot of time to practice being secluded up in the mountain all day.
Afterwards we took the second funicular to the higher level of the mountain; we only had time to complete one trail so naturally we chose the trail that lead to the highest peak, Sant Jeroni. The funicular closed at 5pm and if we didn’t make the last trip we would have to hike back down the mountain which was estimated to take about 3 hours; the trail to Sant Jeroni was estimated to take about an hour. I have not been hiking since my scouting days (at least 5 years ago) so it was nice to experience nature so purely again. The trail was not for anyone who is afraid of heights…at some points it narrowed to about 6-7 feet wide, mountain on one side, and 50 foot drop on the other! Some parts of the trail had railings and sidings but even still it was very narrow. Along the way we experienced some of the most breathtaking views I have ever witnessed…the verticality of the trail also gave “breathtaking” a new meaning haha. Once again I don’t think my words would give justice to the magical yet paralyzing sensations that the vistas gave me today….so I’ll let the pictures below help me!
We did see a small family of mountain goats scaling the side of one of the peaks…it was insane to see these animals effortlessly and elegantly prancing about on the side of the mountain. I am not sure if anyone else is familiar with the television series LIFE and Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet but there is one particular episode that this event reminded me of; recall the episode when they showed the group of mountain goats walking on the snow covered rocky sliver of a peak? Well that is exactly what I saw today…minus all the snow of course, I feel so lucky and blessed to have witnessed such a spectacle because the videographers on the show had to wait a full week just to catch it on camera and I just happened upon it! And I did record it, but thanks again to the terrible internet here I cannot upload the video right now.
After about an hour and 15 minutes we reached the highest peak of Montserrat, Sant Jeroni a staggering 4055 feet above sea level. The Air up there was so clean and refreshing, it was untainted! The journey back down was a lot quicker for obvious reasons but more so because we were walking (sometimes running) much faster so we didn’t miss the funicular back down.
At the top I could see Barcelona, the area where Madrid is, the snowy capped Pyrenees Mountains, and France! Who would have ever known Spain to contain such breathtaking mountainous views?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Say hello to my little bridges
Sorry about the blog yesterday...once again the wonderful Internet here at RESA was not cooperating, but here is Friday and Today
Friday:
Began the day with a very refreshing run, I am not sure if Barcelona weather is as unpredictable as Charleston weather but if so I better not get used to it. Outside today was beautiful, it was a nice 60 degrees and the sun was shinning...at the beach there was a constant breeze too. Hopefully the weather will not switch to freezing cold or blistering hot tomorrow or Sunday.
I finally watched Scarface today on Netflix (the Al Pacino...Tony Montana Scarface), I definitely see why I was not allowed to watch it when I was younger...it was gruesomely graphic and explicit. I cannot precisely say what my expectations for the film were, regardless they were not met; the movie was nothing like I expected it to be, all of the hype, acclaim, and pop culture prominence surrounding the movie created a false sense for me. In some ways I was disappointed in the movie, but overall I enjoyed it; I think the premise of the movie was lacking and the ending was terrible (I won't spoil it just in case there is anyone who still has not seen it). But I am glad that I can say I have seen it, now I need to watch the Godfathers.
I also did some more work on the designs of the bridge, I tried some variations on the idea of "structural glazing" as the prominent design feature and I came up with these two ideas. So in the spirit of Tony Montana "say hello to my little bridges"....
Friday:
Began the day with a very refreshing run, I am not sure if Barcelona weather is as unpredictable as Charleston weather but if so I better not get used to it. Outside today was beautiful, it was a nice 60 degrees and the sun was shinning...at the beach there was a constant breeze too. Hopefully the weather will not switch to freezing cold or blistering hot tomorrow or Sunday.
I finally watched Scarface today on Netflix (the Al Pacino...Tony Montana Scarface), I definitely see why I was not allowed to watch it when I was younger...it was gruesomely graphic and explicit. I cannot precisely say what my expectations for the film were, regardless they were not met; the movie was nothing like I expected it to be, all of the hype, acclaim, and pop culture prominence surrounding the movie created a false sense for me. In some ways I was disappointed in the movie, but overall I enjoyed it; I think the premise of the movie was lacking and the ending was terrible (I won't spoil it just in case there is anyone who still has not seen it). But I am glad that I can say I have seen it, now I need to watch the Godfathers.
I also did some more work on the designs of the bridge, I tried some variations on the idea of "structural glazing" as the prominent design feature and I came up with these two ideas. So in the spirit of Tony Montana "say hello to my little bridges"....
Saturday:
Today began with another run…thankfully the weather was just as pleasant as yesterday’s was. The beach seemed even more crowed and the “boardwalk” was swarming with people and new vendors; I have started to recognize the vendors so it was obvious when new ones appeared today…I guess they come out with the beautiful weather.
The rest of my day consisted of designing more bridge schemes…I came up with another concept that utilizes the structural glazing technique…this one was a bit more “organic” than what I usually try to design but personally I was pleased with how it turned out. Mallory and I have to present these ideas to Miguel Rodan, the director of the BAC (Barcelona Architecture Center), in class on Monday. I don’t know if everyone remembers me talking about him and his blunt critiques during the midterm the other day, but we are pretty nervous about having a one-one desk critique with him. Wish us luck.
Let Mallory and I know which of the designs you like best! (Keep in Mind that these are digital sketches so all the supports and technical aspects have not been "drawn in yet")
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Glass Bridge
Our studio review today went well, our most negative comment was that Mallory and I had come up with too much. It is always easier to take away design elements than to come up with more additions. The design that I came up with for the bridge was centered on the idea of being “invisible”; going back to the very beginning of the project our purpose is to create a “surgical intervention”. Mallory and I both agreed that our intervention should be natural and seamless; the challenge with that, however, is trying to compose a design that fits in as well as creates a new monument that invites people to the area. The idea of the bridge spawned from the concept that we wanted to take the pedestrian congregation on one side of our site and extend it to the other side…while doing this we did not want to disrupt the existing traffic patterns, thus the “pedestrian bridge” was born.
In order to try and make the bridge seem invisible I used glass as my primary material; I utilized a building technique known as structural glazing, or curtain wall. Structural glazing employs a steel or other lighter metal frame that connects glass panes together in order to form a very stable and strong structural system. This method allows glass to become a primary structural support within buildings and walls, usually glass is only used for facades and ornamentation.
So this weekend Mallory and I have to take away some of the “monumental” aspects of the bridge, one option that we are seriously considering is making smaller separate bridges. Jordi did like the design but he just wants us to “scale” it down a tad.
Here are some renderings of the bridge design I had prepared for today….
On the deck
under the deck
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Is that the Sun rising?
Today’s Contemporary European City class was pushed back until 2:30pm because Kathrin, our professor, was aware of the Carnival festivities that were taking place last night…more like this morning haha.
So Spanish Carnival…
It was definitely an experience that I am glad to have had, but do I have to do it again, not really. The shear amount of people that was concentrated in one single area at one time last night was the most I have ever seen. No theme park (Disney World, Universal Studios, the fair etc.) can even come close to containing as many people as Carnival did last night. There were countless moments when I could not even move because there were that many people; everyone seemed happy though, not a single sole seemed bothered by the overabundance of people…except me haha. As I stated in the blog post yesterday Gerado, William, and myself went with the Spanish students here at the dorm to Sitges (the city where the events took place). The dorm rented a bus for the residents so the three of us decided to join the “locals” for the night; Gerado is fluent in Spanish but William and I are not as savvy with the language. It was actually a lot of fun trying to converse with everyone in Spanish (luckily the majority of them spoke some level of English). Everyone had a costume, it was actually an “unofficial” rule in order to be allowed on the bus, the most popular costumes where Mario/Luigi, cows, and BANANAS? Gerado and I were pirates, his was more of a “Jack Sparrow” pirate and mine was similar to a Spanish Conquistador, while William was a clown! We saw the end of the masquerade parade, which featured some very oddly dressed “ladies”, I’ll let you figure out why I put ladies in quotes haha. We came across an Irishman named Liam who was also studying in Barcelona for the semester…it was a bit of a relief to be able to speak English with some new people. I tried my British accent on him and he said, and I quote “that’s the best English accent I’ve ever heard from an American”; he stated that I would have to try it on a true Englishman but in either case I was happy I sounded convincing! Unfortunately we lost him while we were walking from the beach and we never found him again…thanks again to the amount of people!
I thought that I had reached my limits in terms of late night escapades with going to the club Razmatazz a month ago…I was terribly wrong. My “night” did not end until 7am this morning when I finally laid my head down to go to sleep! We did not get back to the dorm until after 6am, when I finally turned off the lights in the room I noticed that the sun was coming up!
Studio desk critiques tomorrow wish me luck! Buenos Noches.
Carnival.....
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
It's Carnival!!!
On the way back from Madrid yesterday I suddenly felt sick…my nose was congested and my throat was itchy. I have no idea where it came from; I thought that I had already had my “cold bug” for the season when I first arrived in Barcelona. Needless to say I was not trying to get sick again so it was imperative that I ran this morning, the exercise helped me to feel much better and get all of the “cold” out of my system.
In field studies class today we visited another cemetery, however this one was not located in Barcelona. It was about a 1-1/2 hour train ride outside the city…no it was not an AVE train again. The cemetery was also very interestingly designed and planned. It utilized a terracing system because the site on which it existed used to be a stone quarry; also the area was very mountainous in general…I would have never known Barcelona and its surrounding areas to be so hilly.
Everyone here (including the locals) was very excited for the Carnival festivities that are going to occur later tonight and throughout the early morning. Sitges is another sister city to Barcelona and they are supposed to be very famous for their Carnival celebrations; Gerrado, William, and myself are going with a group of Spanish students here at the dorm to the city to celebrate Carnival…the Spanish way! I very excited to participate in the festivities, it is not as big as Carnival in Rio de Janero but it is supposed to be larger and more festive than Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Apparently Sitges is extremely renowned in Europe for its Carnival celebrations; costumes were almost “required” so we all purchased some cheap costumes…I’m a pirate for the night!
Usually I would be celebrating Shrove Tuesday with my parents at church with PANCAKES at the pancake supper…but tonight I will hopefully experience Carnival, something my Spanish teacher from middle school termed as “making Mardi Gras in New Orleans look like a slumber party” end quote.
Happy Shrove Tuesday everyone! The season of Lent begins…what will you give up?!
Holy Toledo! I went to Madrid.
Friday:
5 am came much quicker than I expected this morning so I was extremely tired when I awoke. I was not alone however; pretty much the entire class was behaving like zombies as we “dragged” to the METRO stop. We all made it to the train station, barely awake but successfully, and our train left right on time.
The train ride was even more captivating than the ride to Valencia; for starters the AVE train we rode on today was the “higher class” version than the one from Valencia. It soon became apparent that the terrain between Barcelona and Madrid is very mountainous and full of fields. It was amazing to sit in the train and watch the large expanse of countryside breeze by; the fastest time I saw the train get to was 306 km/h (190 mph!!!!) Looking out of the train window made me realize yet again how huge and different this world is, and how small my “world” of Charleston and Clemson is. Along the way we passed by wind mill fields and traveled through many tunnels that were cutting through the mountains.
Once we arrived here in Madrid we visited the Atocha Station Memorial located in the train station. It was erected to honor and remember the fatalities of the 2004 train bombings that occurred in Madrid. It was a very well designed memorial in my opinion; the design invoked the proper emotions and reactions. Afterwards we walked all over Madrid to various public spaces…I am not sure how many miles it was but we walked all day from about 10am to 9pm! Madrid is very different from Barcelona, for starters there are vastly more people here in Madrid than Barcelona; Madrid is actually the third largest city in Europe (after London and Berlin). The metro system here is also very different than Barcelona’s, it is surprisingly not as organized and “streamlined” and it’s also much larger. There are some parts of the city that have “westernized”, there were a few times when I almost felt like I was back home…then I was quickly reminded that I was still in Spain by the Spanish. We visited an architecture exhibition that displayed Spanish architecture and architects from the past 200 years; the “great hall of architecture”, as I called it, was full of many interesting designs. Later on that night a small group of us searched around for some dinner and we happened upon a Thai restaurant. Inside smelled delicious and one of the waiters helped us through the menu; I had chicken Pad Thai (noodles, egg, chicken, carrots, “some type of vegetable haha, and PEANUTS!!!)
It was a long day 5am to 12am, and it was all off of 5 hours of sleep…needless to say I hit many brick walls throughout the day and I was relieved to lay my head down for the night.
Saturday:
I did not have to wake up as early, but everyone had breakfast together at a very popular café here in Madrid called “La Mallorqua” (it was paid for). I had a French omelet (just the egg) with some variation of a roll, and a croissant; this was by far the freshest, flakiest, softest, and most delicious croissant I have EVER had. It was just a simple croissant with a buttery glaze, nothing spectacular looking but its taste was mouthwatering.
Our train for Toledo left at 10:50am; it was not an AVE train just the regular medium distance trains here in Spain. The trip only took about 30 minutes and we arrived in Toledo safely. Toledo was much more fascinating than I thought it would be, it definitely exceeded my expectations. Here are just a few reasons why:
· It was extremely medieval; the original wall that surrounded the city back during Roman colonization still existed in almost its full entirety.
· The city was very picturesque, the medieval architecture along with Moorish influence made for very interesting views.
· Everything has been preserved so it was very easy to get a real sense of how life was during medieval times.
· Swords, Knight Armor, and gold decorated the sun kissed streets and every building was beautifully preserved. Toledo is famous for its sword and steel crafting along with its gold work.
After we spent the majority of the day in Toledo we ventured back to Madrid and went to a museum which featured “media art”…the media art was not my forte. However everything was worth it when I came to the Pablo Picaso exhibition…the real original paintings! I got to see so many famous works of his up close and personal. Unfortunately they did not allow guests to take pictures of his work…I am starting to realize a trend with a lot of the famous artwork, they rarely allow video recording or pictures to be taken.
Sunday:
Today started off almost identical to yesterday, we were provided breakfast at the same famous café here in Madrid and I had the same meal as yesterday (with the phenomenal croissant). After breakfast we walked around another part of the city and visited another unique museum which featured a “live” or “green” wall. The museum, La Caxia Forum, boasted a very interesting design because it integrated an old building with modern facades. After we left the museum we encountered a mass protest happening in the street…apparently the Spanish government had just announced a huge amount of money was being cut in order to save money.
For lunch we went to another very famous restaurant here in Madrid…Casa Mingo; their “specialty” was chicken and cider. So that is what Kathrin ordered for everyone, a half chicken and apple cider (alcoholic type). The meal came with bread, salad, and chips…it was also very delicious! After we stuffed ourselves full of chicken and cider we went to the Prado Museum. The Prado Museum is one of the most prominent museums not only in Europe but in the world. It contains a vast amount of artwork, most notably Fransico de Goya whose work accounts for about 10% of the total collection. Once again it was surreal to see the paintings and famous artworks that I have studied in school, and once again PICTURES WERE NOT ALLOWED!!!!!
Monday:
Instead of a plain croissant for breakfast I tried the “fried” version in which they cut the croissant into two halves and quickly brown it with honey and butter…it was also very good, they served it with peach jam.
After breakfast we visited a very strange yet amazing building…Torres Blancos. This structure was built in the 60’s and its purpose was to “test” new architectural ideas…I will let the pictures do the talking for me on this one. Afterwards we visited another photography gallery then we had the rest of the afternoon “free”. A small group of us went to the park and rented row boats to go out into the large man made pond; it was nice just to relax in a row boat and just let the beautiful weather encompass us. Other than that today was pretty laid back, the train ride back to Barcelona was not as exciting since everything was dark outside…but it was still fast!
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