Sagrada Familia

Our private tour of the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família given by El arquitecto jefe del templo, Jordi Bonet, was one of the highlights of the trip thus far. We were able to climb the scaffolding to the roof to witness the construction of the hyperbolic dome being constructed above the transcept. Check out this info on the hyperboloid. It deals with some pretty complex stuff!

Dr. Bonet was able to explain parts of the construction processes being employed in the Sagrada Familia . It was interesting to see how current materials and technology are being used to complete Gaudi's masterpiece. For example, they have begun to use reinforced concrete in some areas rather than stone which was intended by the original design.

This can be seen in the column pictured below.

Field Trip 2_Girona, Rome, Bilbao

Girona, Espana

Roma, Italia

Bilbao, Espana

Zooming in on the building...

We are entering the final stages of the semester and as we near the end we continue to work on the proposal for Plaza Glories. We have developed our proposal for the blocks around Plaza Glories and now we are focusing in on the buildings contained in one block.

Below, in red, are the buildings I will be designing for the remainder of the semester.




This image shows the strong facade facing the open green space of the plaza. The design of the facade will become a major focus in the design of the building.



Her are my first attempts at designing the buildings on either side of Diagonal. As you can see there is a large billboard type facade facing the square which begins to wrap around the building as it moves into the city.

Documenting the Olympic Village

Today we visited the Olympic village down near the water. This area used to be the industrial area and port for the city but now it has been transformed into a residential area with access to the beach. The Olympic village is interesting because it contains many apartment buildings designed by different architects under one master plan. The only requirement was that they used brick. Here is a bit of what we saw. By the way, the weather was beautiful. Now we are ready to hit the beach.

Spring Break: GERMANY

Friends of friends are the greatest. Without them my spring break trip would have been very boring. Instead, I had the opportunity to see some increadible places and at the same time become friends with the friends of friends. This map shows the path of our trip through Germany starting in the Dusseldorf airport and ending in Munich.

Here are my friends Bob and Meghan with their friends Malte and Daniel.

Cathedral in Koln.
Train Station in Koln.

How Cool is this! It's the Maus Castle on the River Rhine. (my mom's maiden name is Maus)
This is Mike. Great Guy. He let us take over his house in Wurzburg.

This sums up our experience on the Autobahn.

Neushwanstein Castle.

Taking pictures from that cliff was quite the experience.

The flight back to BCN.

Design for Plaza Glories: The Square

Here is Plaza Glories. It is an intersecting point for three main avenues in Barcelona including Diagonal, Meridiana, and Gran Via. In its current state, it is a very confusing area for pedestrians. The circular roadway in the center is raised up above a parking garage which blocks the views through the center of the plaza. We are developing a proposal in order to make plaza Glories a more friendly place. It is, in fact, a major city center and deserves to be enjoyed by all.

Here is a map of a current propasal for Plaza Glories which eliminates the raised motorway and reorganizes the center square. We are working with this proposal to design the massing of the buildings surrounding the plaza.

And finally, a glimpse of our proposal for the site. Our proposal contains three main ideas. First, we have developed a strong, more consistant facade bordering the L' Eixample side of the site.

Also, we introduced a pedestrian corridor under a cantilevered portion of this facade. And finally, we considered the views from the center of the plaza toward important landmarks including the National Theater.

Model of our Proposal

SKI

Many of you know I go crazy if I can't get my fill of skiing in the winter so we planned a trip to the tiny country of Andorra. (click if you want to see more about Andorra from Wikkipedia).

Anyway, I had a blast skiing for the weekend with Ben, Brian and Meghan.

Here's a little video I took while I was skiing. Check it out-

Andorra ski video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-558591177751976035 .