The BitterSweet End to Sketching in Barcelona

The past few weeks we were given a sketching assignment and we had to go out into the city and sketch certain areas.  Here are the four assignments I chose to do!  

 

This is MNAC and the focus was on the procession.  Plaza de Espanya leads you up to a grand entrance with stairs and ramps to give the viewer with feelings of importance.  

Fundacio Joan Miro is a contemporary building on top of MontJuic.  The focus of this study lied in the circulation of the building and how the glassy, bright spaces, circulate you through the museum.

CCCB is a project that incorporates the new into the old.  A contemporary glass box is inserted into an existing building and the glass box creates a circulation tower for the exhibits.

MACBA is a building conceived by Richard Meier and exhibits contemporary art.  The building is an interconnection of geometries and those geometries determine the entry sequence.

I Never Get Tired of a Gaudi Building.....

Just because I think that everyone should see Gaudi's works, here is another one of his famous buildings.  It was a housing project that he did in Passeig de Gracia and it's name is Casa Batllo.  The picture probably don't do the building justice, its complex on every surface, walls, ceiling, floors, ect.....  If your ever in Barcelona, GO!!!!  Don't think about it, just go!

The front facade of Casa Batllo 

This is the ceiling inside the house and it mimics a whirlpool.  It is located on the second floor in the main living room that actually was also designed to be used a a chapel space.  The adjoining office space was to be used as the alter.  The alter that was used there is actually going to be the alter used in the Sagrada Famillia when it is completed.  If you haven't gathered it yet, Gaudi was very devoted to his faith.

This is a hallway that is actually the attic spaces

The central stairwell designed to let the maximum amount of natural light in because Gaudi loved natural light and you can find it in most of his rooms.

The roof top of the house looking towards the front.  This ornamental piece was made in Ibiza and shipped over to Barcelona.  On the way here, it cracked.  Instead of sending it back, Gaudi wanted to keep it because he said the cracks add interest to the building.

Another roof shot

Sagrada Famillia!!!!

We went on a hardhat tour of Sagrada Famillia last Monday and it was insane!!!!  We got to go in construction elevators up to the top of the construction, which had an amazing view of the city.  And to top it all off, we got a private tour from the current architect whose father worked with Gaudi himself.   Guadi's design is crazy, how one man could think of up all of it is unreal.  He designed and engineered his buildings.  From the pictures you can see that the detail is extreme and you should be jealous because it was an experience of a lifetime!!!!!

This isn't my photo, but it's a great view of the passion facade

We were so happy to get hardhats!

By the school in the front of the building

The nave in the interior of the church.  The whole structure uses parabolic forms for design and engineering reasons.

The construction elevators that took us up to the top

The architect explaining the church to us, we were standing where the center spire will be.  There is going to be a total of 18 spires and only 8 are built now.  The center one will represent Jesus and stand 190 meters tall!

Parabolic Forms 

The culminating view

On our way back down, I got another shot of the nave.  You can see the space is huge!!!!

One more shot of the spires from the top

More Sketches from 517!!!!

This is the COAC building and this is where we got a lesson in speed-sketching.  We were timed for each drawing and were told to create a narrative composition. 

This is a 22@ building which is a company who takes buildings in the city and re-designs them to create a better city.  This building was turned into a University.    The old building it the one in the back left corner and the other buildings were added to create a complex.

This is a housing project by Market de Santa Caterina and these buildings were inserted to mend/repair the urban fabric around the city.

Conversations and Revalations

I was talking with fellow classmate Lindsey Dehenzel over a homey dinner of breakfast foods and reminiscing about our time spent in Barcelona.  While drinking mimosas, Lindsey made a good point "we knew when we came over to Barcelona we would be going home, but who knows if we will ever make it back?"  We all say that we'll be back, but we don't know.  Slow music is playing in the background and made the mood even deeper. We exited the apartment door into the air of plaza universitat singing the best country song "sweet southern comfort."  The same comfort of the south is here in Barcelona and I am excited to go home, but will greatly miss Barcelona.  I want to take a vacation to the US and then come back to Spain.  It is awesome that coming back from this trip I can call Barcelona my home away from home.

Girona For The Day

I got back from Girona an hour ago and I can honestly say that I think it is one of the most beautiful places in Spain from what I have seen.  The city is north of Barcelona and is a small city divided by a river.  The town for some reason is moderately wealthy and the buildings are well preserved.  There is the old city wall that we followed for a little bit in the morning.  After we did some sketching in this really interesting complex.  After we had lunch then went to the Arabic Baths and the old Roman Church, which is one of the best examples of the Roman Style in Spain.  The train ride back was rough and we ended getting off somewhere we hadn’t originally planned, but it all turned out to be good.  

View from the bridge

Mila came to explore her heritage 

Cloisters of the Roman Church

Another bridge view

The addition to the University

A cool sculpture we found of an architect overtop the plan of the church

Courtyard we sketched in

Arab Baths

I Just Got Back From Turkey And Now I Off To Morocco. Ask Me How I Live My Life, I'll Say Large

Sorry its taken so long to blog!  A lot has been happening these past two weeks.  I hit 3 continents in a matter of 10 days!  Two Thursdays ago I went left for Turkey and t was amazing.  I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was nothing like I would ever think of.  It is one of the most beautiful places to go from the parts of the world I’ve seen.  The Mosques are jaw dropping and the culture is fascinating.  I went to Asia while I was there because it’s the only city in the world that spans two continents.  After getting back on Tuesday I stayed in Barcelona for 40 hours then left for Morocco in AFRICA!!!!  Talk about an intense trip, but words can’t describe what it’s like to be there.  Everyone was in awe and liked Fez a lot (Who wouldn’t).  I’m back now and there’s no place like home in Barcelona where you can kind of understand people and you sort of know where your going which in Fez was impossible on both ends.

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Morocco was a great experience an one that I will keep with me forever.  The city is vibrant and has a great amount of culture.  The city is a labyrinth of streets and roads that are crazy.  People that have lived there their whole life still get lost.  The Islamic architecture is inspiring 

and I am really glad I was able to visit.

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Flag of Morocco

This is a picture of Africa taken from the plane.

This is a sketch of the Medersa or school and I was analyzing the division between the sacred and profane.  The sacred was divided by a stream that one passes over that is a symbolic cleansing.

This s another Medersa called the Medersa Sheratin and the thing that was interesting and I studied was the light wells.  Since a lot of the spaces in the huge structure are dark, the main focus was the availability of light.

This is the shop where we purchased a lot of pottery after seeing the factory in a small ceramics village.

This is one of the monkey we fed.