Moved in to our apartment/dorm (RESA) on wednesday and it's pretty nice. We have a stovetop and fridge for a kitchen so we can finally start to prepare our own meals instead of having to eat at restaurants for every meal. Still no AC...
Our studio started on thursday and we had a chance to meet all of our professors and studio-mates from Clemson University (S. Carolina). I'm really excited about this studio because the head professor is a practicing architect in Barcelona named Miguel Roldan. It's a really unique experience and a great chance to hopefully see how an actual architect works and designs. If you are interested you can check out his website/projects here http://www.roldanberengue.com/. He's very active in the competition world here in Spain and it looks like his firm wins quite a few of them every year. This studio is going to be showing/teaching us how he approaches designs and his own methodology. The studio project is to design a civic center or sports complex in the expansion part of Barcelona. There's the old city/gothic part where there is no grid or real organization at all and about 150 years ago they developed a gridded city plan for expansion. We are focusing on 4 particular blocks and will be doing research on them starting this week. The head professor is not in charge of day to day teachings but is more like an overseer and will be coming in regularly to do desk crits. We have another architect who is training to become a professor who is there everyday for us. All in all i think there are 6 or 7 profs/architects who are dedicated to us for the semester.
On friday we had our first "seminar" class. In this class we are spending the semester researching specific architecture/a specific architect in Barcelona and then writing a paper and formulating a presentation. Seems pretty interesting. Our prof is taking us on a lot of tours around the city as part of her class to show us what we will be researching and also giving us a bit of history of Barcelona.
We have one or two classes that we haven't been to yet but will start this upcoming week. No classes on Monday though, WOO!
Some of us are going to the Picasso museum and a digital fabrication event/show/something here in about 5 mins. Ill post pics asap.
I've had my hands pretty full moving in and getting settled in the apt and school so I haven't had a good chance to write much. Our profs are expecting a TON of work out of us this semester (Miguel Roldan said we need to find a way to work 48 hrs every day of the week).
I'll let you know if i can break the space-time continuum.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sagrada Familia
First off I just discovered wifi in the hostel I'm staying at... so now i can post pictures and give your imagination a bit of a break.
Rachael and I took the metro up to Guadi's infamous Sagrada Familia the day before yesterday and it was amazing! I posted some pics via facebook but just in case you missed them i'll post a couple highlights at the end of this entry. The subway system aka 'metro' in Barcelona is super easy to figure out and we wasted little time finding our way up to the church. Once we arrived we found the entrance and then followed the line of people around the corner and waited to get in. Stationed at the back of a huge line we got a good glimpse of all the construction/additions to the church (scheduled completion is 2026 and about half of the exterior is covered in scaffolding). Despite being a work in progress, there was plenty to see; it was awesome. I'd explain in more detail but the pictures do it more justice.
Just tried to attach some photos but the internet connection/something is preventing them from uploading so you'll have to get them from facebook.
There are almost and endless amount of sites to see around Barcelona as far as architecture goes but I've decided to hold off until we figure out which of the sites will be toured with our class (don't want to see the same thing twice/don't want to pay for the same thing twice).
The room I'm staying in at the hostel sleeps 4 so we've been getting new roommates every other day or so. Rachael and my favorite so far have been a pair of French girls: Elodie and Axelle. They spoke almost no English so the convos never got too intricate but they were of similar age and really nice. They gave us a pass that's good for a bunch museums before they left, too.
Apparently Sunday is the day you're most likely to get robbed at the beach in Barcelona so I'll most likely avoid that part of town tomorrow. However, I do want to get some pictures of the Frank Gehry sculpture which is right on la playa...we shall see. I'm going to try to better document all the places I'm going and will post pictures when I have them. We're about to go wander around the city for a while so this is the end. Expect more posts now that I (knowingly) have wifi!
Adios,
Andrew
Rachael and I took the metro up to Guadi's infamous Sagrada Familia the day before yesterday and it was amazing! I posted some pics via facebook but just in case you missed them i'll post a couple highlights at the end of this entry. The subway system aka 'metro' in Barcelona is super easy to figure out and we wasted little time finding our way up to the church. Once we arrived we found the entrance and then followed the line of people around the corner and waited to get in. Stationed at the back of a huge line we got a good glimpse of all the construction/additions to the church (scheduled completion is 2026 and about half of the exterior is covered in scaffolding). Despite being a work in progress, there was plenty to see; it was awesome. I'd explain in more detail but the pictures do it more justice.
Just tried to attach some photos but the internet connection/something is preventing them from uploading so you'll have to get them from facebook.
There are almost and endless amount of sites to see around Barcelona as far as architecture goes but I've decided to hold off until we figure out which of the sites will be toured with our class (don't want to see the same thing twice/don't want to pay for the same thing twice).
The room I'm staying in at the hostel sleeps 4 so we've been getting new roommates every other day or so. Rachael and my favorite so far have been a pair of French girls: Elodie and Axelle. They spoke almost no English so the convos never got too intricate but they were of similar age and really nice. They gave us a pass that's good for a bunch museums before they left, too.
Apparently Sunday is the day you're most likely to get robbed at the beach in Barcelona so I'll most likely avoid that part of town tomorrow. However, I do want to get some pictures of the Frank Gehry sculpture which is right on la playa...we shall see. I'm going to try to better document all the places I'm going and will post pictures when I have them. We're about to go wander around the city for a while so this is the end. Expect more posts now that I (knowingly) have wifi!
Adios,
Andrew
Thursday, August 26, 2010
First Impressions
Just got to Barcelona on tue. and can already tell I'm going to really enjoy it here. Right now rachael and I are staying in a hostel in the heart of the gothic quarter. We have two roommates right now, both French girls who speak little Spanish and no English but seem very nice from what i can comprehend. Rachael can talk to them more easily and she basically is my translator in most scenarios (I can essentially only order food and beer for myself). Also the hostel we're staying in has no AC. Not so bad looking on paper but it gets HOT and i tend to break sweats every time i nap. Could be worse.
This part of the city isn't set to a grid system so finding our way around is a bit difficult. but it's starting to make sense somewhat. Still get lost every time i go out, but it's good exercise... i guess. Anyway, we haven't seen too many historical or architectural sites yet, just kind of hanging out and getting familiar with the place. We move in to our apartment (RESA) in a week and start school the day after that so i foresee a week packed full of relaxing/beaching/wining/dining before we are completely overwhelmed with copious amounts of studies. I'm going to try and fit in a few trips to see some Gaudi landmarks this week so hopefully I'll post pics and stuff on that later on this week. But for now it's time to visit la playa and get my bronze/burn on. Miss yall!
Love,
Andrew
This part of the city isn't set to a grid system so finding our way around is a bit difficult. but it's starting to make sense somewhat. Still get lost every time i go out, but it's good exercise... i guess. Anyway, we haven't seen too many historical or architectural sites yet, just kind of hanging out and getting familiar with the place. We move in to our apartment (RESA) in a week and start school the day after that so i foresee a week packed full of relaxing/beaching/wining/dining before we are completely overwhelmed with copious amounts of studies. I'm going to try and fit in a few trips to see some Gaudi landmarks this week so hopefully I'll post pics and stuff on that later on this week. But for now it's time to visit la playa and get my bronze/burn on. Miss yall!
Love,
Andrew
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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