why I love Barcelona Pt. II

Spring Break

For Spring break I stayed half the week in Barcelona, while my friend Claire visited me, and the other half of the week I visited Paris. Having Claire visit me was awesome! It was nice to see a friendly face from home. It was also nice to re-visit places in Barcelona that I had not been to in a while and to be able to experience the atmosphere of the city as a whole while I showed her around.

The second half of my spring break I spent in Paris and that was amazing beyond belief. I saw many, many sites! One of my favorite aspects of Paris was its overall atmosphere…whether walking along the Seine or spending a picnic meal in the Luxemburg Gardens.

Villa Savoye was definitely one of the neatest buildings I saw while in Paris. Although it can be initially a little disappointing since the context of the building is quiet different from the way it originally was (and also from the way your teachers would have to you believe it still is!), once you get over that there are many things that you can learn from this building that no text book will teach you.

I visited many museums in Paris and so Ali and I began to analyze and compared their success through their use/control of light and circulation. There were some that were very successful is this but it is amazing how many museums there are that have very poor circulation and light. It makes you realize how complex the design of a museum actually is.

It was interesting to compare Paris and Barcelona's built environments especially since Cerda's expansion of Barcelona was going on at around the same time as Hausmann's changes to Paris. Hausmann definetely created much more bold gesture's than Cerda and this creates and city that feels much more grand and monumental. I think the variation in the scales of the city - from the Seine, to small scale buildings, to large, help to keep the city from feeling completely monumental in scale.

why I love Barcelona

Insider tour of the Sagrada Familia

We were very privileged to be able to get a tour of the current construction site at the Sagrada Familia. One of the most interested aspects was to get to see the synthesis between Gaudi's orginal ideas and current construction techniques. The best part was being able to see their current work on the roof; i'm sure it will be beyond incredible when it is finished.

The whirlwind trip: Southern Spa

The trip of a lifetime: Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Merida all crammed into a week…where to begin:

Madrid;

Madrid was very interesting to visit, because in comparison to Barcelona’s old city their old cities streets are very wide and the layout is much more open. It definitely felt like the D.C. of Spain to me since it had a much more civic and grand scale than Barcelona. It's also a much newer city than Barcelona and that definitely shows.

Highlights:

-“Power viewing” at the Prado, which is the largest painting gallery in all of Europe.

-Having my first churros and chocolate since I’ve been on this trip…actually not my favorite

-seeing the Cathedral de Saint Ma La Real de la Almudena

-Seeing the Guernica

Cordoba;

The next day we got up bright and early and headed over to Cordoba. On our way out of Madrid we found out that there was a car bombing in Madrid earlier that day so they were doing random checks on the highway. We didn’t get stopped but there was tons of traffic and it took us a while to even get out of Madrid, but finally we got to Cordoba. Cordoba is a really awesome city. If you ever just need a break from life to chill out think and see lovely, lovely things go to Cordoba! The city is extremely small so there really isn’t much life but at the same time it is very relaxing and peaceful.

In Cordoba I have never felt so safe in the built environment either in Barcelona or at home. When we wandered the streets at night they were empty but it wasn’t scary or eerie; it was nice, peaceful and still.

Highlights:

-Haman baths

-wanderi

ng the city

-Mosque of Cordoba

Granada:

After visiting the mosque we headed pretty much straight away to our next destination – Granada! I think Granada and Seville are tied as my favorite cities on this trip. For different reasons they are both completely awesome cities

Granada has a very interesting and somewhat odd juxtaposition of a built environment focused around the ancient Alhambra vs. the built environment of a completely new city. The procession that takes y

ou from the new city to the old is very interesting and I think it is reinforced by the actual physical action of having to go up a hill to reach the older part of the city.

Highlights:

-watching the sunset behind th

- Alhambra from the Saint Miguel Mirador.

-The Alhambra

Seville:

Seville is the city I love with my other half. Every section of the city is beautiful, open, tropical and warm

Highlights:

-cathedral of Seville

-the Alcazar

Merida:

Merid a was a small city that we went to at the end of our trip. It is mostly known for it's Roman ruins although there is an excellent museum by Moneo there as well.

Highlights:

-Roman ruins
-Moneo museum

Some sketches

Some sketches from past field trips:


Santa Maria Del Mar



Plaza Virrena




Meteorology Center

BCneta/ graffiti

One thing I like about Barcelona is how clean the streets are. This is because BCneta works its magic. BCneta is almost like a heavy duty cleaning crew that goes around the city throughout the day and literally cleans out the streets. I think it's cool that they care that much about keeping their environment clean.

On the other hand I it's interesting the amount of graffiti that is everywhere. I think its cool to see but I know back home it would definitely be considered as a symbol of something that makes a less desirable neighborhood.

I guess what is interesting me to is the fact that at home nobody cares enough the have the streets cleaned so often they are really gross but on the other hand nobody here really cares and/or does anything about the amount of graffiti that is around.

In other news I will be heading to Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Merida this week so stay posted when I get back and i'm sure there will be pictures, and sketches. I should be posting some studio work soon too!