Jordi knows best...

Today’s midterm reviews were very interesting, we had a board of guest reviewers (architects) that came to give us their criticisms and complements (rarity). Our two studio professors were also present (Jordi and Toni) however their comments were limited and reserved. The head of the BAC, Barcelona Architecture Center was present for part of the morning; there is a clear reason why he is the director…he was absolutely ruthless will his critiques! I have never observed such a sharp and blunt professor before during a review, if he did not understand the proposal he made you extremely aware of it. There is a fine line between honesty and rude criticism; I must say however his critiques were never rude…just straight and to the point.

The midterm review got a little more exciting than what Mallory and I had expected. Remember how I stated that we were going to review on Thursday, well that did not happen. During a short intermission between presentations Jordi came to Mallory and I and insisted that we present our project today. Obviously we did not want to comply with his request; we had our new model complete and the accompanying diagrams on our computers, but we did not have a formal presentation prepared. At first we said no, but then Jordi explained why we should go today (basically he wanted us to get feedback early this week so we had time to review it and he stated that Thursdays review was going to be a little more strict). After considering this and realizing that Jordi actually had our best interest in mind Mallory and I put together the most haphazard presentation I have ever compiled in about 5 minutes. Luckily for us the director of the BAC left during the intermission, so we did not have to endure his iron fist.

Much to our surprise our review went very well, it was almost night and day from last Thursdays review and I was astounded by the positive feedback we received. That is not to say our review went without criticism (this just would not be natural, pigs will fly first…no seriously they will, there is no such thing as a flawless review…the professor WILL find something to turn negative, even if it is the most obscure element of your project!) Our major criticisms were how we intended to create a community center out of our proposed “pedestrian highway”. They liked the idea of a bridge above the street that allowed for continuous car traffic below and seamless pedestrian traffic above…they even stated that we should try to be even more radical with our intervention (I thought proposing a bridge above the street in a heavily trafficked area was radical enough). Mallory and I have some good feedback and case studies that we can examine over the next few days to continue our project! I have to give Jordi credit, I doubted him at first but his motion to make us review today paid off!