26 January 2010 was a very nice Tuesday for 4 reasons: First of all, the weather was not our typical “Barcelona weather” but sunny, warm, and enjoyable (inside joke about how the weather for January has been cold and rainy, atypical for the Mediterranean city). Second, simple mathematics: a camera + great lighting + weekday + great weather = great photo opportunity. As for the third reason, you can’t complain when you have no class ’til 3. The last reason had to do with the day’s activities.
From a really late start, I hit the streets looking for Muji, my new favorite store that sells the perfect sketchbook (so good that I have ditched Moleskins) for a euro 50 (yup, a whole sketchbook for ~$2). After my big shopping trip, I headed over to La Pederera (also known as Casa Mila) where the tourists were all missing in action and the sun was shining perfectly.
After shooting around 200 photographs (don’t worry, I didn’t post them all), I was in the Gaudí mood so I headed over to Barcelona’s Block of Discord.
The block is famous for not fitting in, with all of the buildings having very different facades while being of the modernisme style (the Catalan/Barcelona version of Art Nouveau). Gaudí’s famous Casa Batlló is the focal point of the block but the other facades are still impressive, being designed by some of Gaudí’s contemporaries.
Our first day of studio was a very relaxed yet exciting class where we had a quick talk on our project, then we hit the streets for a site visit where we would be redesigning a youth center within a Eixample city-block’s center. The Proeixample project is a city initiative that is revisiting Cerdá’s 1850’s plan for the city which ended up being the famous grid Barcelona is known for. In the spirit of public spaces, the Proeixample project buys up land in the center of the city’s blocks with the intention to redesign the space for the public.
Projects have included public parks, youth and senior centers, libraries, and more – all of which are being designed by local architects to maintain the Catalan identity.
One of the better examples of the completed Proeixample projects is the Càndida Pérez Gardens which included a library and senior center. We toured the center and it’s 5 floors which included spaces for anyone from kids to seniors to students.
» Photos of the Day’s Adventures
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