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This past week, a few of us traveled to Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona. The journey began early in the morning taking the train out to the base of the mountain. We were lifted by the Aeri de Montserrat cable car about half-way up to the height of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. After visiting the church, we took the Monserrat Rack Railway up to the walking paths near the peaks 1,236 meters or 4,055 feet above sea level. We spent some time hiking the trails, making our way up to the top of the peaks, taking in the beautiful scenery and fresh air. We then took the Railway down to the Santa Cova, a church that was built around a cave where visions of the Virgin Mary have been seen. We spent the entire day there walking the trails and enjoying this little city in the sky.
We definitely were productive this past week in class and got a lot of things accomplished with our work time. Earlier in the week, many toiled to complete the group site model for our project, which turned out more amazing than ever imagined. We also spent much of our time developing individual narratives and partis for the design of our train station and hotel. Our designs must incorporate Barcelona as a city and culture and the people within it. We've had some amazing experiences so far here in Barcelona and we want to keep them in mind while we reflect on the idea of the traveler of the city or what we have come to know as Citizen X. This will represent our entire project and give life to the stories we create, hopefully giving even more meaning behind our future projects.
Thursday during our seminar course with Professor Rafael Gómez-Moriana, we visited Colònia Güell by Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí was commisioned by Eusebi Güell in 1898 to design a church for the textile estate that he had founded in the municipality of Santa Coloma de Cervelló. Building began in 1908 with the design of an upper and lower nave to be constructed. However, it was in 1914 that funding was stopped, forcing Gaudí to abandon the project w
ith only the lower nave finished. The church, which is now commonly known as the crypt, was blessed by the bishop of Barcelona in November the following year. Additions were made between 1915-1970 and 1999-2002. The church still receives daily visitors and holds weekly and holiday masses.
February 5th-8th, our entire studio, along with Rafael Gómez-Moriana, spent the weekend in Madrid. We flew there Thursday morning and checked right into where we were staying -- 'Hostal Adria.' I highly recommend it if you're ever in Madrid...it was beautiful, fun, and cheap! We ended the evening with a walking tour of the city including sites such as Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, and the "World's Oldest Restaurant." Friday, we spent most of the day at the Museo Nacional del Prado, where we saw the entire collection of art including a special exhibition of Francis Bacon's works. We ended the day with a tour of CaixaForum by Herzog and de Meuron.
Saturday, we took the metro to Matadero Madrid, a former slauterhouse renovated into a gallery and work space for art and architecture. On our way to Reina Sofia Museum, we also visited La Casa Encendida and saw some very interesting exhibitions. The Reina Sofia Museum was amazing, filled with many different modern works of artists and photographers, including Pablo Picasso's 'Guernica.' Sunday, we got up to take the high-speed train back to Barcelona. At the Atocha Renfe Train Stain, we visited the Monument in memoriam of the victims of the March 11th Terrorist Attack on Madrid. We all had a memorable trip and wished we could stay longer.
We were right back to work when we got home Sunday from Madrid, anticipating the late nights ahead. The class stepped up to work together on the site model, making the work so much faster and the end result turned out great. There are still some details left to be completed, but overall, this was a huge task to be completed. Critiques on Wednesday went well with everyone finishing what they had set out to do. With the information from the mapping, digital models, and history prepared, we have vast resources now to help us while working on our own projects. Individual narratives about our ideas went surprisingly well, moving us onto partis and our individual designs. We're all excited to be moving full speed ahead because time is moving fast, giving us only about 2 months left to complete what we've set out to do this semester...
This week in studio, we spent time working with different materials for our massive site model. The process was messy but hopefully will turn out amazing in the end. We split off into different groups to keep busy with different tasks we wanted accomplished by the next week, including the physical site model, a digital site model, site history & building context, Barcelona & architecture history, mapping the subway system, and creating narratives to the project. By next week we want any group production to be finished so we can move onto our individual designs.
This past week, a few of us traveled to Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona. The journey began early in the morning taking the train out to the base of the mountain. We were lifted by the Aeri de Montserrat cable car about half-way up to the height of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. After visiting the church, we took the Monserrat Rack Railway up to the walking paths near the peaks 1,236 meters or 4,055 feet above sea level. We spent some time hiking the trails, making our way up to the top of the peaks, taking in the beautiful scenery and fresh air. We then took the Railway down to the Santa Cova, a church that was built around a cave where visions of the Virgin Mary have been seen. We spent the entire day there walking the trails and enjoying this little city in the sky.
