Bike Ride Sketching !

       The first photo shows an apartment building with a highly dynamic facade. In my sketch I tried to capture this shifting facade with 3, 5 and 8 lines. The operable louvres on the facade help create this dynamic and always changing shift. This outer skin of the building gives a texture that is very hard to capture in such an abstract drawing. The screen like quality of the facade makes it hard to choose between showing the verticality or the horizontality of the building since both are present at different times during different lighting situations. Therefore I believe my first set of sketches was very unsuccessful. To improve, next time I will need to build my drawings in a more consistent fashion. 

        The Second photo shows the Torre Telefonica building. This building also has an amazingly dynamic facade. However, this building is easier to draw since its facade in easier to translate to paper,because it stays the same. I feel these drawings are more successfully developed then my first set for the apartment building. The idea was just to show the zigzagging facade and also the context of the Museu bleu in the foreground. 

Overall, these simple sketches really help you visually filter the facades down to the simple yet memorable image that captures the main concepts and ideas of each facade. Not only are they fast drawings, but the really help lock the building into your memory and supplement your mental images of the building as well. I will probably use similar sketches like these in the future if I ever see an interesting building, or for precedent studies. I really enjoyed the bike ride as well, and look forward to exploring more on my bicycle back in Washington D.C.. The combination of these quick sketches and riding the bike is a good way to see and comprehend multiple buildings in a short period of time. 

Sketching Review and Reflection: San Antoni Library

        While reflecting back on my drawing of the San Antoni Library, I feel a sense of accomplishment. This drawing is the first 2 point perspective I have ever done. With that being said it does need a lot of work. The first aspect missing from the drawing is the surrounding context of the neighboring buildings. These buildings would offer more insight to the exact scale of the library within its urban context. This additional context from adding a roofline would also provide a more experiential feel to the sketch. This would allow the viewer to understand the feeling of enclosure from the interior courtyard, and make the sketch more successful.

        

         The second component missing form the drawing is the lack of toning accuracy. The exterior of the San Antoni Library is a dark and reflective black material. This material is used beautifully to cast reflections of the courtyard and surrounding buildings upon the surface of the library. The reflection angles have been thought out very cleverly by the building’s designers, and in fact the reflections invite you deeper into the building’s courtyard space. Displaying this is crucial to portraying the library’s materiality accurately. When drawing, I found that capturing the appearance of this material in a sketch was quite hard.

         In conclusion, I find my drawing does accomplish an accurate display of form and proportions. I am very pleased with my representation of the overall form of the building, especially with the volume of the bridge connecting the two towers of the library. This bridge is the major focal point when looking from the courtyard at the library. Capturing this was crucial to accurately showing the overall building form. I have learned a lot about what I need to improve from this assignment. I also really enjoyed seeing this out of the way building! It is nice to sketch hidden gems like this within the city, and it gives a great insight into the many well-designed buildings within Barcelona’s urban context. 

botanical gardens vs. Ciutadella park

The Ciutadella park located next to Barcelona’s gothic quarter is one of the largest parks within the city limits. Josep Fontsere designed this park in 1877.  While visiting the park I felt a sense of clearly defined circulation and order through out the interior. Even the pathways branching off have a clear function and layout. Since there are many buildings within the park, the pathways have been laid out strategically to support the building and the parks interior elements, such as Gaudi’s fountain. The gardens and trees seem to have also been planned along with the pathways.

While visiting the botanical gardens, I felt that these gardens and spaces had a less systematic ordering to their overall plan. The randomness of the pathways circulation gives a sense of removal from the city and immersion into the surrounding green space. Montjuic in general seems to have a less orderly lay out when compared to Ciutadella park. While the multiple elements on Montjuic flow together, they all seem to be their own separate entity to the area. The botanical gardens give a nice contrast to the very orderly and linear layouts of the castle and the Olympic complex.

Overall, I believe both of these places are enjoyable spots within the city. However, I believe the botanical gardens offer a superior feeling of tranquility from the everyday chaos of the city. The heavily ordered layout of vegetation and circulation within Ciutadella park does not remove one from the city as well as the botanical gardens on Montjuic.

Southern Spain vs. Barcelona - Pick your plethora of awesomeness

My travels to southern Spain have provided me with a broader understanding of Spain and its many diverse subcultures. The first city we stopped in was Madrid. Madrid has a very modern feel when compared to Barcelona. Madrid is the New York City of Spain. It’s many bustling squares, and shopping avenues give a fast paced vibe comparable to New York City. The plan of the city is similar to New York City’s grid system. However, Madrid is similar to Barcelona in the fact that is has fused modern public architecture, with historical buildings of high cultural importance. Also a great portion of Madrid consists of winding alleyways similar to those of the gothic quarter in Barcelona.Besides amazing architectural buildings, Madrid is also the home of an awesome funk bar called Maher Faher, which is a great place to check out for a fun night, with cheap drinks and great local vibe.

            The next city we encountered was Segovia. Segovia is a very antiquated town. This Medieval town has one of the best-preserved Roman aqueducts in the world. Segovia was full of richly detailed renaissance and gothic architecture. Every building seemed to be very old, and this was reinforced by the lack of modern architecture in the center of town. Barcelona’s combination of the modern and the old gives an extremely diverse feeling to the city. Walking down the alleys of Barcelona feels like walking through the pages of an ancient scroll continuously layered to include even the most modern styles and trends.

            The next city we traveled to was Granada. Granada is home to the Alhambra, which is arguably one of the most remarkable Islamic palaces in Southern Spain. The use of water and geometric designs bestowed a tremendously strong feeling of tranquility through out the entire palace. This tranquility touched each sense of the body, as one moved through the different thresholds deeper into the interior spaces of the Palace. 

 Sevilla was another amazing city, home to the best tapas I've had in all of spain thus far. Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla was the 4th largest cathedral in the world. Sevilla is renowned for its rich culture of bull fighting and flamenco dancing. The Torre del oro was a very interesting tower, but did not compare to the Castillo in Segovia or the Alhambra architecturally. 

Each Southern city in Spain had many similar elements, and many unique qualities. Sevilla felt to be purest stereotypical spanish city, because of its rich history is flamenco, tapas, and bullfighting. Segovia was the most well preserved city, however it is clear that it did not face the same challenges Madrid and Barcelona faced as large and rapidly growing metropolitan areas. Granada was amazing due to the significance of the Alhambra in the architectural history of Spain. The Alhambra was pretty well preserved, and one of the most interesting Islamic Palaces in the entire world. Overall, it is difficult to choose which part of Spain is the best. So my advice to you is to pick your plethora of awesomeness! Because you can not go wrong with any of these Spanish cities!