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.