Barcelona Bike Tour

            Taking an architectural tour of a city is a very interesting experience.  Being able to experience a building at the moving speed of a bicycle creates different perspectives at a fast pace, allowing for a basic but important understanding of the building’s presence in the city. It also allows for one to quickly be able to recognize the buildings most important element because of the short amount of time that one spends observing and analyzing the building.

            As an assignment we were asked to draw buildings in a series of vignettes that use three lines, five lines, and eight lines. This forced us to draw what we thought was the most important element of the buildings. The buildings that I felt I analyzed best were the second and third buildings we drew.

            The second building we drew was a tall vertical building that stands alone. When approaching it from the street, one realizes that its profile is violently pierced by an extremely horizontal building in the foreground. I then chose to express the tall buildings face. It is covered by angled strip louvers that are seen from top to bottom. This gives the building a very bright and impressive feel.

            The third drawing we did was of a group of three buildings. The three buildings include one taller building in between two shorter buildings.  I felt that the most important elements of these buildings were their edges. Their edges violently collided with each other creating a very interesting perspective.

Library Perspective

Drawing the library in the Eixample was a very important part of understanding the experiential aspect of the building.  The building connects itself to the courtyard in a very interesting way.  The library’s rear façade is broken into two towers with a connecting bridge.  From the courtyard this element creates a kind of gateway marking the entrance and exit to the interior of the Cerda block.

When entering the courtyard the ground floor extends to wrap around the public space. Its façade is clad with an offset screen of steel. This creates a type of hallway along the side of the building.

There is also an overhang that creates a shelter in rain and a place to observe the courtyard from the edge.

Drawing this space allowed me to really break down the space and think about how it works. The perspective shows how the building towers over the space and dominates the focus of the area. The feeling of a gateway that the building creates makes the space seem like a safer more isolated area rather than simply a space that exists because of a lack of building.

In One Ear and Out the Other

The differences between the Botanical Gardens on Montjuic and the park of the Ciutadella are vast.  One can spot them immediately.  One major difference is that the park of the Ciutadella is part of the Barcelona urban fabric, while the gardens are more of the natural landscape of the less groomed Montjuic.  While the park of the Ciutadella is very controlled and straight cut, the Montjuic gardens are much more free, interrupted only by obscure paths that wind in and out of the mountains trees and flowers.

The feelings of the two “Ears” of Barcelona vary as well.  When walking through the Ciutadella, one still feels enclosed by the city. Buildings are visible on all sides, some of which are inside the park itself. Walking through, one never has to change their path. The park is laid out in a way that follows the grid of the Exaimple, giving the traveler the sense that they never left the city.

On the other hand, the Montjuic Botanical Gardens gives a whole different feel.  When one enters the gardens, they feel they have been isolated from the city, catching only glimpses of its marvelous view whenever there is a break in the trees.  Accompanied by total quiet and tranquility, the walker moves through the gardens without the distractions of a city and feels much more willing to get lost in the sea of green.

While the Citutadella provides a very urbanistic experience in its landscape design, the Botanical Gardens provide peace and quiet. Depending on the traveler’s mood, either could be properly fitting to the situation at hand. 

Trip 1.0 to Southern Spain

After spending three weeks in Barcelona, I thought I had made it through all the culture shock and feelings of being lost that they warned us about in all those meetings back in the US.  However, there are still vast differences between Barcelona and the rest of Spain, and who knew that all we had to do was jump on a train for two hours to experience them. Granted, the train was going pretty fast, so we were probably traveling a little further that we had originally thought.  Still, I never anticipated one country could differ so much from itself.

Our first stop was Madrid, and while it was probably the least different from Barcelona, the difference was still clear.  Just the overall feel of the city when you walk outside is almost opposite to Barcelona.  It was colder, I saw more rain in one day than I have seen so far in Barcelona, and the architecture is astonishingly different.  The neoclassical, royal style of Madrid is unlike anything in Barcelona.

The next stop was Cordoba.  We were only there for a day, but after spending three weeks in Barcelona and four days in Madrid, I don’t think any of us were truly satisfied.  While the mesquita was one of the most beautiful and historically significant buildings I have ever seen, Cordoba remains insignificant in my mind.

After Cordoba came Granada, my favorite city of the trip. I’m not sure that I have ever heard of a place where you can eat an orange that you just picked off a local tree, while looking up at the massive snow-covered mountains that tower over the city.  In Granada were some of the most beautiful buildings and views I have ever seen. The Alhambra was unbelievable and I consider it one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen.

Sevilla was last.  Another beautiful city to see.  Anchored by the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and home of some of the best food I have ever eaten, this city was probably the most different from Barcelona I had seen. The food is different.  Vast amounts of different tapas included bull’s tail, pig’s cheek, and so many others. Being that we were the furthest from Barcelona that we had been, this is where I noticed the biggest difference in dialect, which is saying something considering I don’t understand Spanish.

After seeing many beautiful sights, eating countless delicious meals and a five and a half hour train ride home, I was happy to be back in the city of Barcelona.