Dali Day Trip

Today, we spent our time studying Salvador Dali, a surrealist artist alive between 1904-1989. We traveled to Figureres to explore the Teatre Museu Dali. This museum showcases some of Dali's most known work, explanding our horizons to a different expression of art. Lunch was spent in the small village of Besalu. We then visited the Gala Dali Castle in Pubol. The home of Salvador Dali dates back from the 11th century but is newly expressed in a way signiture only to that of Dali.

No time to stop now...

After returning home from our busy week of travels, we were right back to work on our studio projects. We continue to log long hours producing models and drawings to help push our designs further in between each critique. On Wednesday, March 11th, Tom Adamietz celebrated his 22nd Birthday. "Happy Birthday Tom!" During Rafael's Seminar on Thursday, we discussed our plans for our city instillations. These represent our primary assignment for this course, which is to create a series of ephemeral interventions in public places around Barcelona. We will be showcasing these projects at the end of the year along with everything else produced during the semester. We ended the week with a special presentation of "Little Talks" at the COAC, Architects' College of Catalonia. The speakers included Oriol Bohigas, Beatriz Colomina, Peter Cook, Hans Hollein, Chip Lord, Rafael Moneo, and JM. Prada Poole.

Spring European Travels

Travels continued around Europe during our "Spring Break" this semester. A majority of the class left Friday evening, taking a cruise ship over night to Roma, Italia. From what I heard, they had an amazing time and were able to spend a few extra days in Rome before class tours started Monday. A few of us chose to travel to Athens, Greece instead. We spent one day riding mopeds around the Aegina Island and the next, celebrating my 22nd Birthday on Sunday, March 1st at the Parthenon, before heading to Rome to meet up with the rest of the class.
While in Rome, we each prepared a short presentation about different structures around the city. Although it ended up being very rainy those few days, we were still able to enjoy our time and visit the Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, Piazza del Campidoglio, Markets of Trajan, the Pantheon, St. Ignatius Church, Trevi Fountain, Stadium of Domitian, Santa Maria Della Pace, Castel Sant' Angelo, Piazza Navona, Baths of Diocletian, Jubilee Church, various Catacombs, Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Palazzetto dello Sport, and Vatican City, including Piazza of St. Peter's, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. The busy days passed by quickly, but we learned a lot about the history of Rome and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
One student chose to spend his entire week traveling to Oslo, London, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Glasgow with his brother. They were able to tour Oslo Opera House, Akershus Castle, the DogA Exhibition, the Nobel Peace Center, Vigeland Sculpture Park, Viking Ship Museum, Edvard Munch Museum, and Fram Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, while spending their nights on a ship in a fjord. The biggest attractions in London, England were the London Eye and Tower Bridge. Then visiting Edinburgh Castle, Calton Hill, the Scottish Parliament, and walking up Arthur's Seat, while riding around Edinburgh, Scotland on Double-decker buses. They finished their time in Scotland with the Glasgow Transportation Museum, Stirling Castle, Stirling Bridge, and William Wallace Monument, located in Stirling as well.
At the end of the week, many of us split up to visit more of Europe, traveling to many far away places such as Oslo, Stockholm, Venice, Paris, Florence, Milan, and Pisa, each of us gaining new experiences that we will take away with us forever. Oslo and Stockholm proved to be very expensive for only a few days, but visiting the Modern Museum of Art and Museum of Architecture was definitely worth the trip.
Gondolas were experienced by travelers in Venice and Paris showcased the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel Tower. In Florence, we saw the Cathedral of Saint Maria del Fiore, Giotto's Bell Tower, Baptistery of San Giovanni, Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medici Chapels, the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery containing the statue of the David, Church of Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, and the Church of the Autostrade. Milan's Piazza del Duomo and its cathedral made a powerful impression on its visitors, along with the Modern Design Museum and Sforza Castle.
We visited Pisa's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square), also known as Piazza del Miracoli (Miracle Square). Within were such notible structures such as the Baptistery, Campo Santo Monumentale, and the Cathedral of Saint Mary and its bell tower, most known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. All in all, we had an amazing time on our trips and wished our time could have lasted longer.

Montserrat

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.

Design Partis

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.

Colònia Güell

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 with 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.

Madrid

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.

The start to a busy week...

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...

Getting Messy!

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.

Switzerland, Germany & France

Many set out traveling this past weekend. Five of us flew to Basel, Switzerland, a town right on the edge boarding France and Germany. This was the perfect place to stay because there were so many places nearby that we could visit quickly and easily. Upon landing, we headed to Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry in Weil am Rhein, Germany. We were also guided through other buildings on the site including the Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome, Jean Prouvé's Semi-portable Gas Station, Zaha Hadid's Fire Station, and Tadao Ando's Conference Pavilion. Then we took the local transit to Riehen, Switzerland to see Renzo Piano's Beyeler Foundation which housed beautiful works of art by many amazing artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

The next day, we rented a car and drove to Ronchamp, France to visit Notre-Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier. It was freezing but absolutely worth it. We then drove back through the Autobahn to get to Lorrach, Germany. There we visited the Rotteln Castle and Pfarrgemeinde St. Peter. We were able to make it back in time to see the snow in Basel and finish out the night watching the Superbowl with German commericals. It was eventful weekend, getting back just in time to start class at studio Monday.