Valencia, Spain

I have just arrived back in Barcelona from Valencia, Spain. We are on our second of three class trips, and the past two days we had the honor of being invited to the Valencia University School of Architecture to attend a charette with their architecture students. Two students from IIT were paired up with three students from Valencia, and we were given one day to design a restaurant within an older building. We met the students on Sunday night where we were grouped off and then brought around the city for a quick tour. We stopped at a "market", or at least it was an old food market now turned in to a modern version of a Spanish market. It was an open space with floating boxes containing restaurants and bars. These boxes were just amazing- they were made out of 1.5" thick "structural" glass- no steel columns- with lit ceilings and absolutely no electric chords shown to power it. It was a beautiful space. We ended up at a traditional Spanish restaurant where all 35 of us met, ate, and had a great night.

The next day was charette day. We were supposed to meet at 9:00 in the morning at the university- and were given a bus to get there on. Two hours, three buses, and infinite frustration later- we FINALLY ended up at the university and started the full day charette. By the end of the day, we were expected to have a strong concept, plan, sections, and elevation drawings, and interior views. The language and culture barrier made it quite an interesting experience.The Spanish culture was greatly different than what we were used to. As their professors walked around- teachers and students were more friends than anything else. They acted like family or friends towards each other, hugging, laughing, joking, kissing (on the cheek) and were much more "touchy feely" than what we were used it. Every table looked like this: Spanish students on one side close together, kissing, hugging, and conversing with each other over the party the night before- American students on the other staring at the Spaniards in awe like "what the heck are you doing, is this seriously happening right now?"! Ok- it might not have been that bad, but it wasn't the easiest day of my life. It took a while to adjust to each other and figure each other out- but finally my group came up with a solid idea.

We agreed to design the restaurant around altering perspective. When you first enter the restaurant, it is only 7.5 feet high and the floor progressively sinks deeper and deeper. There are 7, six foot wide steps each with sets of tables leading to the courtyard with a sculpture strategically placed so that you are able to see it all the way from the entrance. As the floor slopes down, the ceiling slopes up so that each step down, the space feels bigger and bigger towards the sculpture until you are outside, in front of the scupture, and the ceiling disappears and the view is completely open. It was a strong concept, but at the end of the day, we weren't able to produce as much as we wanted and fell a little short in the competiton. But I must say, I love the idea and am going to try and finish it on my own to see where it could go.

Today was the last day we had in Valencia. In the morning, one of the professors took us on a tour of "Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias", or the City of Arts and Sciences. The entire complex was designed by Calatrava, who lived, grew up, and attended school in Valencia. The complex was definitely extraordinary. There were six different buildings designed, the Opera House, Hemisphere Theater, Garden, Science Museum, Bridge, and Agora Theater. The Opera is the first in the series and most known. I like to call it the "Helmut". The building itself was striking with large structural tension members and enormous cantilivers. It was a pretty building, but it was too much of an object for me with too much stuff going on. He made some strong moves, including the large canteliver over then entire roof (how he did it, I don't know how), tension members entering through the ground, and tiles covering the entire facade. To me- if Calatrava made just one of these moves insteaod of combining them all, it would make the building so much more appealing to me. It is too complex, too over the top, too much for me.

The second building was the Hemisphere Theater, or what I like to call the "Eye". It looks and acts just like an eye. The bottom piece of glass opens up like an eyelid to open the entire lobby to the exterior.

Next was the gardens. This was so much simpiler and because of that, I really liked this space. It was just a covering over an outdoor garden, but it produced beautiful shadows and created a calming space.

The Science Museum continued on with the theme park. It is very similar to the bus station by Calatrava in Lisbon in the way he produced the structure. I did enjoy the exterior windows and the way he undulated them, it created a new perspective from the interior.

The bridge was a typical Calatrava bridge, which crazy enough it is now a law to have one in every Spanish city throughout the country (just kidding- but that's what it seems like). There is one main structural piece leaning back pulling the bridge in tension.

The last building was still under construction. It has the same tiles on the exterior, but this time in blue. By far, I think this is the ugliest of all the buildings- but it was cool to see the construction workers cascading on the facade.

The last part of the day I spent just walking around the city. It is such a BEAUTIFUL city. The streets were gorgeous, each designed differently, and clean as can be. Throughout the city would be different plazas each with a different function. The one right next to our hostel had enourmous trees that were absolutely gorgeous.

I arrived back in Barcelona this evening and we start class tomorrow. It's going to be a busy next couple of days, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Barcelona again at a different time of year and from a different perspective. I miss you all SO much back at home. Love you! (P.S.- the internet is pretty slow here and these were the only pictures I was able to put up- but I promise I'll put the rest up as soon as I get back to Paris)