get to work.

So this blog is probably a couple days late... and not to mention it is right now a Thursday night, with no deadlines to be met, and nothing to do. Why am I writing this blog and not out roaming the city of Barca? The case of the winter sickness has spread around the studio. From the flu, to massive fevers, to more flu... I have luckily escaped these types, however managed to catch a cold from who knows who. Being sick in a sense describes this past week. In hopes of recovering faster from my cold, I hope to get better by Saturday so that I can both fully "work hard and party hard"
for our week long field trip across southern Spain.

Recapping last week, I have finally found a general theme for my blog: the perception of scale. After realizing the magnitude architecture has on both the human eye and the human body the week before, it might be something cool to look into while living abroad. Finally able to see architecture at its best here where anything is possible, I'll try to find anything remotely related to the idea of scale that would be interesting to note. With that said, we started the week off last week with an optional history field trip class to the Forum by Herzog de Meuron. There we were able to see the principles behind the forum and learned a bit about the history of urban planning within Barcelona. Already, the top heavy blue structure of the forum brings about a somewhat compressed sense of scale. The already vertical porous quality of the building's light wells also brings about a similar idea as one stands beneath it and look above.

Interesting enough, as professor Cecelia took us around the perimeter of the forum, we came across a gigantic-tilted-rectangular structure of which apparently used to be a pavilion. The perception of its scale is very unique. As you approach it, it doesn't seem to be "that" big. It isn't until you are beneath the actual structure that you can "feel" it. I even began to wonder as to how it is able to stay up on those seemingly thinner columns?

Scale in the urban space is everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean our sketching class field trip to the waterfront by Frank Gehry's Fish. There, the openness of the mediterranean sea brings to the person a sense of release from Barcelona's tall and enclosing city plan of the old city. Bright, sunny, and relaxing, this was probably one of the better days of the week.

Other things following that included a firm visit to a Spanish architecture firm nearby, work, and more work. Having a project deadline for the following Monday, we went straight into our automatic studio work mode til the very end. Somewhere in the middle of that, i got sick.