Bike Ride through Guardamar

This is a joint post from Kayla and Jen.

J --- I've been seeing more how the field of architecture calls us to be students of the world, requiring close observations of places and people, late night explorations of the castle and its surroundings, feeling the pulse of the city and the life that lays within it.

Last night Kayla and I rented mountain bikes right as the bike shop was closing. In our broken Spanish, we asked for bikes "por la noche." For only 6 euros each, we had the bikes until 10am the next morning. We locked them together to a street sign and excitedly agreed to meet after dinner.

We met up again at 9:30pm. Our ride started out by biking south towards the urbanizations. I thought about how they reminded me of Le Corbusier's Domino House, and made a mental note to bike back there during the daytime. Then, starting at the southern end of Guardamar, we biked along the promenade until we hit the sand dunes. As the sun started to set, we rode through the park with cacti, palm trees, and other trees flying past us.

K --- It was pretty dark by the time we came to the marina, where the Rio Segura empties out into the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful out there - we stopped multiple times so I could take pictures of the lights shimmering on the water. We rode about halfway down the pier and stopped again to admire the view.

On our way back, everyone was out in the streets celebrating Spain's victory in the World Cup game against Portugal - people here are much more supportive of their soccer team! They were driving down the streets and hooking their horns, riding on bikes with huge flags attached to them, and decked out in red and yellow.

We made it back to the plaza we started in and locked up our bikes to another street sign so we could return them in the morning. Hopefully we’ll get another chance to explore other parts of the town; it’s small, but there are many different neighborhoods to check out!


-- Jen Tai and Kayla Solheim

Barcelona

I travelled to Barcelona a couple of weekends ago with Eriko. Barcelona was one of the cities that I really wanted to visit in Spain so I was really excited. Sagrada Familia was definitely the most shocking, but I am going to talk about Park Guell, which I visited on my last day. We were actually very upset in the beginning, because as we started walking uphill to arrive at the park, the weather started to change and it started raining. Although we were prepared because we bought an umbrella in advance at El Corte Ingles in Alicante, it was not what we wanted our park day to be: in the rain, with our cameras, trying to take a picture of the whole city, which was just gloomy.

But, as we walked through the winding roads trying to not get ourselves wet, the weather started to change again. I really felt like the Berkeley weather was following us all the way in Spain.

What was memorable about the Park was that because it is an outdoor environment, the activities that took place were different compared to Gaudi’s other works. There were street musicians performing in the colonnade as well as the peristyle hall under the park. There were violinists, guitarists, as well as a duet with a violin and a bass player. Walking through the different areas that Gaudi designed, I felt like I would hear different types of music from Pachelbel Cannon to a more traditional Spanish guitar song—or what sounded like it.

Not only were there musicians, but street merchants were selling cheap accessories and souvenirs in the park as well, targeting the tourists like myself.

As we started to see the sun again, there were so many more people invading the Park. People trying to take pictures at that perfect spot where you see Gaudi’s slanted columns, with the view of the entire city with the Sagrada Familia in the background, as well as the famous lizard. It was really hard not to get anyone in our picture.

We are all tourists here. But as my hard-drive is becoming full from thousands of picture I took, I keep thinking that I wish I could experience these environments in a different context. This is how I felt when I visited the Prado Museum in Madrid. As I saw all these famous artworks of early Christian religious paintings as well as Velasquez and Goya’s works I learned in my Art History class, I felt so overwhelmed that I was not appreciating every work. As they place 50 paintings on each wall, making the viewer walk through the hall way, I felt like the value of each art piece was diminished. It would have been better if they were all in its original context, where there were found.

-Maya

There Are No Mistakes

As the first class to experience Arch Studio 101 in España, we had no idea what to expect. At the level of every other studio at Cal we had to enter the studio space with a humbled open mind ready to absorb new creative knowledge. The hope is always that the professor and their respective curriculum will challenge each student’s design aesthetic and abilities. I am pleased to report that this trip has become a worth while experience that has affected me academically and will prove useful to me in the professional realm. The relaxed nature of the Spanish lifestyle would seem to be a perk of the program, but in contrast to the tension of Wurster hall, I was actually unaware of how to approach design from a non-obsessively critical perspective. Then Alex presented the first assignment of the semester with the command:

“There are no mistakes, only evidence of process”.

We were drawing directly on one of our only pieces of presentation paper and we were not to erase…EVER. Each assignment was to be drawn directly on top of the other as to show the process of discovery in your final conclusion. This was a scary endeavor for a perfectionist like me, but given that I was in Spain…I was resolved to relax and go with the flow. Up until now Studio and relaxing have been polar opposites. I have always enjoyed design work but accepted that it would never be stress free. This class has changed everything for me. I have fallen in love with not erasing! If there are NO mistakes then I can NEVER be wrong; and if what flows out of my hand is always right what is there to be stressed about!? Our only mistake would be to stop seeking answers to the questions presented by the site for which we were to design. Twenty-five Berkeley scholars were dropped into an off the map town in a foreign country with nothing but a blank studio store front. Our space has now been transformed into a bustling hub of free-flowing thought and spontaneous design. Being forced to break out of our familiar time constrained lives has given life to rich design concepts habitually suppressed under controlled facades of critiqued students. My outlook is forever changed.

- Jenni Tures

LA ALHAMBRA. GRANADA.

For a free travel weekend several of us went to Granada to see La Alhambra. The architecture of the Palace in Alhambra was astounding. The walls and ceilings are covered with intricate designs and mosaics. La Alhambra is the main attraction in Granada so waves of people stroll through the Palace and Gardens. While visiting Alhambra many of us would sit down to sketch causing a spectacle. Many people would stop and watch us as we observe our surroundings often taking pictures of us drawing in our sketchbooks. Often times the architecture and ornamentation of Alhambra was overwhelming with the large amounts of people invading the space. It often became quite difficult to capture images without large swarms of tourists groups in the background. After taking architectural history at Berkeley it was fascinating to see and study the building first hand, rather than staring at it from a textbook. All of the information I learned in architectural history came alive as I walked through Alhambra. Granada has definitely become one of my favorites cities due to its abundant amount of character and spaces that are rich in the culture. -Cara W.

Week of Mid review

Seating in my living room wishing for internet….hopeless. Getting internet here is like a precious commodity, well for us anyways. These past 5 days have been mainly working towards mid-review. Its that time when we go from analysis to form quite scary…but Alex has been very gentle with the transition and has pushing us in the right direction. On Monday, we did an ambush quick sit analysis…CHAOS!! Quite informative.

Look at Scott! Our team is working so hard!

Look at how we invade our site! The site morphs into the site the site into the architecture. Continuing to work… please note the blue tape. Even in Spain I have my blue tape close to me during studio!

Then after studio we went home and cooked chicken! We are very fancy at Apt 2C…we make rice out of chicken broth…zucchini’s with soy sauce! It was quite delicious actually.

Then on Tuesday we continued working on our mylar adding more information on it.

Today we worked really hard towards mid-review…. But to get my creative juices running I went to visit the castle to understand the landscape more. ..finally discovered the walkway that wraps around the castle…great find…then I found Scott, Maya, Kathrine, and Kayla….they were trying to climb up a hill over the wall…. My first reaction was like ……….what are they doing….then Scott was like Christine your turn….I was like OK! Luckily I had shoes on because those bushes are sharp! After some rock climbing I MADE IT!

At this moment I will go work really hard on my rhino model. Good night.

- Christine L.

There's been a lot of talk about Guardamar's age; Its castles, its traditions, its history. But just as much , if not more can be said of its present state; something in between development speculation and decline.

Everywhere here we see gashes in the urban landscape, pieces of the city that just seem to be missing. But very quickly we realize that these wounds weren't created by some sort of destructive force, but by growth itself. The gashes are outlets waiting to accept new flesh. But in most areas of speculative development today, growth is stunted, those outlets may remain to be negatives of pure white walls and old tile roofs, evidence of neighbors, left behind in a temporary economic boom. Perhaps out of stubborness, or perhaps because they were just too late.

The view they create is strange, in places the manifestation of investment looks like a tumor, stand alone amongst its peers. In other situations they encroach what we can only assume to be what once was.

The spectacle makes one consider what other incisions development can cause, do they still resemble trauma and anomaly? Maybe they do, otherwise how else would we recognize the new. Views from Murcia (though not limited to Murcia) reveal to us a foil to our lovely Guardamar. Places that just can't seem to grow anymore must destroy its own flesh to make room. But what if, like Guardamar, the growth does not come? wounds painted brightly, vestiges of what once was, its all too familiar.

PS, We should have more table cloth lesson plans.

-Mondi

Wonderful Stumbling's

Last week or so Mondi and I made an impromptu or at least poorly preplanned adventure to Seville, the fourth largest city in Spain with a rich history of Islam influence. Dazed and grumpy (especially Mondi) from lack of sleep after our all night bus ride, we ended up at the end of a trolley line at six o'clock in the morning, looking up upon the towering Cathedral de Santa Maria de la Sede (the third largest church in the world according to Wikipedia). It was quite a stunning moment, brought upon by such a swift change in environment and outlook. I spent some time as mondi rushed around the photograph the Cathedral thoroughly, watching a small flight of black birds circle the spires in the dawn light. I made me think of Mr. Palomar and the starlings at dusk. It appears he was on to something.

We had a perfectly wonderful time meandering the crooked and dizzying streets of Seville. It is a quit a pleasant city to be lost in. In perhaps one of my all time best dérive, Mondi and I decided to explore an open door of a large, unassuming weathered facade. In our late afternoon stupor, our expectations for exciting outcomes from holes in unadorned facade were rather low. But it just so happens that the building we wondered into happened to be the Plaza de Espana, build for a world's fair in the 1920's to showcase Seville's technical achievements. It was a fun little mix of classical, art deco, and Moorish influences. The thing must of had more than a million painted tiles of blues, greens, and yellows. A good find.

Touring in a van

After missing all the first vans that Alex rented, our apartment finally got on the last van tour.
The first major stop was the salt ponds of Santa Pola. This excited a couple of us because salt ponds were central to our previous 101 studio. The ponds were tinted different hues depending on their salinity. The salt piles were beautiful because they were so white and pristine.
The Tamarit Watch Tower was situated in the salt ponds. The main use of the watch towers was retreat; through fire and smoke signals, the towers were placed so that enemies could be seen before they could reach the coast. This particular tower was too far from the coast, so it was used for communication instead. Plus, it looks pretty epic sitting there in the water underneath the equally epic sky.
The ghost town of new Guardamar was kind of eerie. All of the buildings were left abandoned and unfinished because there was no money for them to be completed. We thought it was odd that no crime had found its way into the place.

The Moorish Tower was another watch tower. I thought it looked like a golf course.
On the way to/in Torrevieja, we stopped by this cliff side. It had a gorgeous view.
We also made our way to Carrefour, which was right next to a mall. At Carrefour, I found Kung-fu noodles, which was the brand for every instant noodle.
The mall was outdoors and had a fantastic roof.

-Angela Tam

Barthelona

(I started writing this Sunday night, but fell asleep halfway through)

I am currently in Barcelona, taking advantage of the ever so precious wifi in our hostel. It's been a fast-paced 36 hours so far, and given that I only had that much time, I tried to pack in as much as was physically feasible. After an hour-long adventure hunting down our hostel from the airport, we dropped off our stuff and headed for the Barri Gotic. We wandered around for a good couple of hours, ice cream and water bottle in hand to mitigate the beating sun before heading back to the hotel for check-in and a nap. Semi-rested, we made our way down La Rambla and turned into a smaller alley in search of a less crowded/expensive dinner, and a TV to watch the soccer game. (Womp, US) The night ended with a stroll along the Port and a failed attempt at finding (or searching for) a nearby bar. Day 2 was dedicated to Gaudi...casa-hunting, Park Guell strolling, and Sagrada awe. With a little Metro pick-pocket attempt thrown into the mix. That night we headed to Montjuic to see the Olympic Stadium (where we also happened to find 10 stray cats and an Aerosmith concert). After taking the funicular to the top, we descended through the stadium, and past the gorgeously lit museum in search of the Magic Fountain show, which sadly never actually ran. But we did stumble upon a Pride concert of sorts at bottom of the hill, an entertaining sight in any country. After dinner we headed back to our hostel, exhausted from our seemingly non-stop movement through the city. Exhausting, but well worth it (duh).

Glad to be moving at a slower pace again,

Katharine

I wish I were a Murciano!

--Lily Zhang

A couple of weeks ago, our class visited the lovely city of Murcia, some 70 kilometers away from our home base. Alejandro arranged for us to see the city both for its own weekly market and for the city hall building in the center of town. Lisbeth diligently led us to el mercado… with no map. After a winding trek through the city, which led us through several neighborhoods and small public plazas, we arrived to find a market that dwarfed our mercadillo back home in Guardamar.

Water-jet cut sign? Awesome.

El mercado.

While el mercadillo slips its way through narrow residential roads, el mercado stretches across two wide streets. Both markets are teeming with people, clothes, shoes, bags, produce, cheeses, and churros. Crowds, products, boxes, and tables invade onto the streetscape. Even though the streets of el mercado are wider, a different level of obstructions surfaced with the abundance of portable shopping carts. These plastic, brightly colored contraptions wheel after their owners, who are too distracted by pouches and potatoes to notice when their carts collide into others (or others’ camera lenses). These carts caused the wider streets to feel even more contracted than the paths back in el mercadillo. As such, the sidewalk served even more as a space of retreat for the shopkeepers who could escape from the chaos of the street.

The quantity of portable shopping carts was dizzying (and painful).

The sidewalk as a space of retreat for the shopkeepers.

Aside from el mercado, the students also studied the city hall building by Rafael Moneo and its contextual response. The very modern building faces a classical plaza with a Gothic style church. Its façade is made up of limestone panels. Alex shared with us his understanding of limestone as a material built up over time of calcium and animal remains. Curious how such a temporal material adorns a new building – perhaps an attempt to pay respect to the history of the square? This material choice is similar to building in areas dominated by old brick structures with corten steel, a metal that oxidizes quickly to take on a deep reddish-orange color. The façade is reminiscent of Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio in Como, Italy. Both have an opening for a political leader to walk out and address people from above. The two buildings use a relationship to existing classical town landmarks to assert the status of modern aesthetic and thinking. Both also make use of a compositional exterior, but the Casa del Fascio boasts a dynamic interior where spaces blur and redefine through a symphony of lines and planes. Its exterior also shifts with doors that swing open in harmony to release marching soldiers and a blank wall for hanging propaganda. Though the exterior of the Murcia city hall is striking because of contextual contrast, the students who managed to visit the interior reported that it was an unremarkable series of offices with no natural daylight.

The city hall building serves as a terminal accent among the neighboring classic Spanish style buildings.

A close-up of the city hall's facade, with the Gothic church directly opposing it reflected in the glass for the mayor's balcony.

Excerpts from sketchbook on Murcia.

Lastly, a little research the night before our visit led me to a website that recommended sampling several Murcia dessert specialties. It suggested a dish called paparajotes (lemon leaves fried in crispy batter, then dusted in sugar and cinnamon), leche frita (fried milk), and fig sorbet. Jen, Cara, Kayla, and I embarked on a mission to find paparajotes. After visiting almost ten restaurants, bakeries, and pastry shops, we discovered that paparajotes was a seasonal festival food served only at very high class restaurants. So much for following research. I ended up getting miloja (?), a slice of cream and thin puff pastry at a small bakery... Delicious and nicely wrapped.

The closest I got to paparajotes.

The construction of the packaging is brilliant.

graffiti

A very dynamic piece in Murcia – the artist even left what I assume is contact information to be contracted for future work.

It’s always interesting traveling around with architecture students. From city to city and monument to ruin, it’s entertaining to see what catches our eyes. Our cameras seem to be pointed in every direction working though a city - leaving our memory cards with a collection of random details.

During my last upload I noticed a series of graffiti pictures throughout Murcia, Granada and Elche. I enjoy graffiti. I like to think about who tagged this, what the piece is affiliated with, or what it means to the artist. Here are a few highlights:

An Elche exhibit showcasing ancient graffiti.

poetry?

A piece from a childhood favorite, “The Nightmare before Christmas.”

A stencil piece used to tag benches and seats throughout the city.



Graffiti we used as a landmark to navigate through Granada.



More graffiti to come.



-Orlando Briones Monegas Junior

Valencia: A Preview

Studio Team is invading Valencia in less than two weeks! With that, here is a quick preview of Valencia from my pre-Guadamar trip with Bing and Katharine.

We got Old Parks:

(Very) Expensive Food:

Modern Sea Creature looking Museums:

Old Ornate Churches:

And much more.

We got lots of adventures to come. Be ready!

-Wayne