Amazing New Media Technology

More procrastinating finds.  With most of the computers today being sold with cameras integrated some companies have started using full advantage.  When viewed through a certain website a symbol on a page can call up a full 3D digital model on the screen.  The model moves which ever way you move the paper, giving you tactical control to see the model at which ever angle you want.  This site is in german, but it has a video showing the process of making one of these adds.

Eames Shell Chair Production

Finals have been consuming all my time hence the lack of posts, and I will finish up Barcelona and Paris after I'm done with finals.  On a quick study break I found this great video that shows the process of making an Eames shell chair.  The film is a great 70's period piece and the soundtrack is a great jazz score.

La Pedrera Part 1 of 3: The Facade and Roof

This is the outside of La Pedrera the Gaudi museum and apartment building.  The top two floors and roof are museum and the rest is either residential or retail space.  Gaudi's twisted art nouveau style is on display with the organic bay windows.  Notice the nature inspired wrought iron work for the railings.

The iron work continues here on the main gate with curved art nouveau shapes and symmetry.

Heres a look at the building from the line to get into the museum.  I love the mix between the straight lines of the stones being put together and the flowing curves that are carved around them.

This is one of the two interior courtyards.  They were not in the original building but Gaudi added them to bring light into all of the rooms in the apartments.  He was a champion of bringing in as much natural light as possible and therefore a hero of mine.

Here is another one of the courtyard, I just liked how the sky came out on this one.

This is the courtyard from the roof down.  You will notice that the shades are metal hurricane style shades.  An odd choice I thought.

This is the rooftop sculpture garden on La Pedrera.  For the most part these are the chimneys, exhaust pipes and water towers that are disguised under Gaudi's odd perceptions.

This is one of the mosaic covered water towers.  I suppose all of the swirly lightness was supposed to look like clouds, to me it looked like a cool whip commercial or Marvel soft serve.

The chimneys almost look like roman legions.

Some of the chimneys were covered in green glass, or staying with the theme, green sprinkles.

The lighting was great as the sun was setting, there were also great views of this section of the city from the roof.  On the corners of the roof there were little caves that you could hide in incase of rain.

Other Things on Mount Juic

Some other things we saw on Mount Juic, here is an old palace that is not one of the cities art museums.

It has an highly decorative and elaborate fountain system that leads from the street level up the mountain (there are more outside escalators too but they are hiding behind the trees).

Here is a view of Barcelona from the steps of the above palace.  In the middle is the Magic Fountains.  Unfortunately we missed the show but they supposedly give the Bellagio fountains a run for their money.

Here is the 92 olympic stadium.  The day before this was the ending point for a marathon that was run through the city.  They were cleaning it so we couldn't go down onto the field but it was a massive stadium.

On the other side of the mountain by the castle you can see the brilliant planning that went into Barcelona.  The industrial harbor area is completely hidden from the main city by Mount Juic.  There is no residential area on this side of the mountain but it looks like a complete city of its own.

Surprisingly Fun Slides

On the way from the top of Mount Juic to the Olympic Stadium, we stumbled across a pair of fairly long super fun slides.  It had been so long since any of us had been on such good slides that we spent a good twenty minutes here going up and down.

Mount Juic Gardens

On the way up Mount Juic or the Mountain of the Jew (didn't get the story behind the name) there are beautiful gardens. Here are the steps with lily ponds that cascade down the slope. Quite the serene spot.

Guell Park

Guell Park is the park up in the hills of Barcelona that Gaudi designed.  It is a breathtaking blend of nature and the man made.  There is a surreal feeling of being in the blended wilderness while in this park.  Most of the Park has beautiful trails that overlook the city.  Above is a section of the worlds largest bench.  It is made of tile and there are beautiful mosaics all along it.  There is a dirt plaza surrounded by the bench where people can mingle and perform.

Here is a close up of the tiled bench.  It looks really uncomfortable, but on the contrary its comparable to the comfort of an Eames chair.  I later learned at the Gaudi museum that Gaudi studied the human body and designed this bench to match the curve of the spine.

Here is a hall that looks like a wave crashing over into the pillars of the left.  All of the curves and round features gave a very easy flowing feel through the park.

In somewhat of a juxtaposition there is a hall of pillars under the plaza of dirt that is surrounded by the bench.  Each of the pillars acts as a hollow funnel of rainwater from the plaza down to the fountains below.

The wave hall that you saw before has many pillars, the outside of each has some type of pattern or sculpture on the out facing side.  Each and every one is unique, this one looks like Aunt Jemima.  Unfortunately there was no syrup to be found.

Here is a whole series of pillars, click on the photo to see the patterns and sculptures close up.

Notice the swirling spiraled pillars in the top peer of this out look.  It is incredible how organic Gaudi was able to make stone work look.

Here is the famous mosaic lizard fountain that is fed by reclaimed rain water from the dirt plaza.

Along the main staircase the walls are covered with tiles of beautiful mosaic patterns.  Below the lizard is this fountain that reminds the visitors of the importance and beauty of nature.

At the lower entrance of the park the gates are flanked by two houses that are of the late nineteenth century gingerbread style.  One houses the gift shop and the other houses the park offices.  Guell Park is a must for anyone visiting Barcelona.

Huge City

Click on this picture to make it bigger, you can see a lot of what I have written about and you can see about one third of the city.  The right of the two main streets you can see is Las Ramblas, where the market is as well as a fun place to walk with lots of people.  On the left is the water utilities building.  In the middle center is La Sagrada Familia.  Further in the back you can see the two largest buildings in spain that are along the water front.  This picture was taken from high up in Guell Park.

Brilliant

We were in Barcelona at the end of october and it was in the high seventies.  I cannot imagine the heat in the summer.  Since Barcelona is very hilly the city has been nice enough to provide escalators for the weary masses to make the pilgrimage up to Guell Park to see more of Gaudi's brilliance.

Its Gaudy not Gaudy

So this is la Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's greatest works.  Its a massive church that has been under construction for about 150 years and will continue to be under construction for a while longer.  Once completed there will be about fourteen spires with the largest being a little taller then the empire state building.  Gaudi was a master of blending art and nature, his design is a brand of art nouveau.  As you can see above, the at a little under half the final height the front facade is very impressive, even with all the cranes and construction about.

Along the front their are little look out balconies that really put the massive size of this project into perspective.

Here is the main theme of the front facade, the tree of life. (or a Christmas tree?)  From this branch there is a network of intertwining branches that run down the front of the church, there are lots of animals and lifelike people in scenes of merryment.  All very nature oriented and organically carved into the stone.

Along the side of the church which is much more sober than the main front the spires are toped by baskets full of fruits.  Good for family sangria (get it, get it?)

Here is the opposite facade of La Sagrada Familia.  It is the complete opposite of its more famous other half.  This side is much more sober, somber and straight laced.  It shows scenes from the later part of Jesus' life.  

Here you can see that the nature is gone, the lines are more straight and its entirely inorganic.

The one nice thing about this facade is that all of the figures are cubist sculpture which is pretty neat.  There is an interesting juxtaposition between the flow of the capes and the boxy figures.

Here is cubist Jesus that hangs at the top of the cubist side of La Sagrada Familia.

Utilities Buildings in Barcelona

This gleaming glass structure is the natural gas company in Barcelona.  It almost looks like a glacier made out of glass, I love all the different angles used.  It would be incredible to see the view from one of the offices above.

Another great utilities building is the water utility building.  Its shaped like a giant cucumber and at night it has a crazy lighting system that makes it glow red and blue in different patterns.  The coolest thing about it is that the whole lighting system uses an absurdly efficient hydro dynamic power system, To light the whole outside of the building it takes as much power as it does to run a refrigerator.

Barcelona Medical School

This beautiful building, called the wheel off cheese by the locals is the medical school of Barcelona.  The hospital is directly to the left, so its sort of a medical complex.  The wood slat exterior is neat looking and it also provides some wind and sun protection on all of the balconies around the building.

Day at the Beach

On the first day in Barcelona we did the best thing we could have done, we took advantage of the balmy weather and spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach in Barcelona is beautiful, completely fake but beautiful. Barcelona didn't have any beaches until the 92 olympics when they decided, a beach would be a nice place for people to spend time. The Mediterranean is incredibly blue.

We got chorizo sandwiches at the local shop.

This was the view looking up as I was laying on the beach. As you can see in the picture above, the beach was not very crowded so the waves put me right to sleep for a couple of hours, it was very relaxing.

Part of setting up these beaches for the 92 olympics was the inclusion of art all along the beach. This is a shimmering bronze fish. Behind it there are the two largest buildings in Barcelona. The one on the left is The Arts hotel, one of the most expensive, it also has a casino. On the right is a office building.

This is a interesting off centered piece along the beach.

At the end of the harbor they capped the wave breakers off with a pile of huge concrete blocks. it gave a really cool effect of blending manmade and natural elements.