It's inevitable to rent a flat in one of Spain's gorgeous old buildings and not run into a few problems. Don't get me wrong, the flats are nicely put together, plenty of room, with amenities included. The hallways may be deceiving with their cracked and uneven stairs, rise and run changing with every step to climb, hitting 90 degree turns every 4 or 5 stairs since the stairwell core is only about 2 meters by 2 meters. There are no elevators, and the wiring for the lighting runs along the depths of cracked-plaster corners where wall and ceiling meet. Every door is different in shape, molding, color, and direction facing towareds the stair core. The light from the ceiling barely reaches the second run of stairs and if you forget to hit the light switch on your way to the stairs when its dark out, well...walk with your hands out front because these stairs will surely grab your ankles and pull you down in the dark. It's a tricky climb when you have to lift your legs at different heights just to maneuver your way to your home. And I love it.
The character of each building here is different. Each building feels like Spain, but depending on where the building is, it feels like a different Spain. I live in Raval, Emma lives across the street. My stairs are crooked, beaten and battered but retain 90 degree angles where the walls of the stair core direct the stairs to turn. Emma lives across the street from me. Her stairs are nice new marble, always clean, not a chip in sight. But every she has no right angles in her stair core, and the width of each flight changes as you approach the top floor. Jess lives on La Rambla, in Barri Gottico. Her stairs are narrow but of appropriate size. The run back and forth up a rectangular stair core AND she has an elevator. A friend of mine, Natalia, who I met on the flight over way back when, lives in Borne, and has a gorgeous spiral staircase in her building that screams "Expensive!" when you walk up it.
The point of all this is not only to give you an image of my own building, but to say that, wiring in a building that wasn't built with wiring in mind often means trouble. English translation: I haven't had internet for about a week and a half and just got it back two days ago! Hooray! Back to blogging!
I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the architecture in the city and how impressive it is. Impressive not only because the buildings themselves are visually appealing but because the ways in which the modern architecture is imposed on the archaic city and it's urban fabric in such fluent ways. I feel like my blog has been talking mostly about my adventures here, which have been incredibly exciting, to say the least. But as a young architect on co-op here, its important for me to take time to talk about what I have learned just by living in Barcelona as well as what has inspired me. And, I think I have said it before, but this place truly is an inspiration at great lengths.
This city just has so much character, constantly changing, and constantly evolving. The movement of people, the hustle and busltle of traffic against the urban landscape, the materials, everything is alive and thought provoking. After living here for a few months now I can walk through the neighborhoods and know exactly where I am purely by looking at the style of the architecture and the urban planning of the neighborhood. The city has hidden reference points that I have gradually picked up on that act as my map to get me where I need to go as well as get home from where I am.
But the separation of these neighborhoods by style and era isn't the only interesting thing about the mix of architectural beauty that Barcelona offers. In so many instances you see two buildings, clearly very antique, separated by a super modern building. A lot of times, this type of architectural move turns out to be more of a faux pas than an accomplishment and it turns out to be quite a difficult task to succesfully allocate modern next to old. However, Barcelona seemingly has a nack for meshing the old and the new in near perfect ways. The modern buildings around the city seem to be effortlessly inserted into their respective sites, as if someone just came in over night and slipped the building into its place and said nothing. Everyone woke up the next day and no one thought "well, that seems out of place" but rather, "wow, that looks beautiful". And it's true. As you wander around Barcelona, past antiquity and modernity, you both gain a sense of time as well as lose it.
The character of each building here is different. Each building feels like Spain, but depending on where the building is, it feels like a different Spain. I live in Raval, Emma lives across the street. My stairs are crooked, beaten and battered but retain 90 degree angles where the walls of the stair core direct the stairs to turn. Emma lives across the street from me. Her stairs are nice new marble, always clean, not a chip in sight. But every she has no right angles in her stair core, and the width of each flight changes as you approach the top floor. Jess lives on La Rambla, in Barri Gottico. Her stairs are narrow but of appropriate size. The run back and forth up a rectangular stair core AND she has an elevator. A friend of mine, Natalia, who I met on the flight over way back when, lives in Borne, and has a gorgeous spiral staircase in her building that screams "Expensive!" when you walk up it.
The point of all this is not only to give you an image of my own building, but to say that, wiring in a building that wasn't built with wiring in mind often means trouble. English translation: I haven't had internet for about a week and a half and just got it back two days ago! Hooray! Back to blogging!
I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the architecture in the city and how impressive it is. Impressive not only because the buildings themselves are visually appealing but because the ways in which the modern architecture is imposed on the archaic city and it's urban fabric in such fluent ways. I feel like my blog has been talking mostly about my adventures here, which have been incredibly exciting, to say the least. But as a young architect on co-op here, its important for me to take time to talk about what I have learned just by living in Barcelona as well as what has inspired me. And, I think I have said it before, but this place truly is an inspiration at great lengths.
This city just has so much character, constantly changing, and constantly evolving. The movement of people, the hustle and busltle of traffic against the urban landscape, the materials, everything is alive and thought provoking. After living here for a few months now I can walk through the neighborhoods and know exactly where I am purely by looking at the style of the architecture and the urban planning of the neighborhood. The city has hidden reference points that I have gradually picked up on that act as my map to get me where I need to go as well as get home from where I am.
But the separation of these neighborhoods by style and era isn't the only interesting thing about the mix of architectural beauty that Barcelona offers. In so many instances you see two buildings, clearly very antique, separated by a super modern building. A lot of times, this type of architectural move turns out to be more of a faux pas than an accomplishment and it turns out to be quite a difficult task to succesfully allocate modern next to old. However, Barcelona seemingly has a nack for meshing the old and the new in near perfect ways. The modern buildings around the city seem to be effortlessly inserted into their respective sites, as if someone just came in over night and slipped the building into its place and said nothing. Everyone woke up the next day and no one thought "well, that seems out of place" but rather, "wow, that looks beautiful". And it's true. As you wander around Barcelona, past antiquity and modernity, you both gain a sense of time as well as lose it.
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