Today's class started off with a bang. A lot of walking and a lot of city to see. We started at CirculodeBellasArtes, where we talked about the city, and the class over a cup of cafe con leche. We then headed to our first spot, Caxa Forum, a renovated building that used to house electricity generators that is now an art museum. The renovation was done by Herzog and De Meuron, who are famous for their obscure facade treatments, and they didn't disappoint. Their new treatment is a rusted perforated metal facade that contrasts greatly to the original brick building and the green wall next to the museum. The building itself almost floats on the site, cantilevering over three majors supports, creating a very compressed space under which the floor and ceiling planes undulate. The stair that unites the floors within the building, is a great trompel'oeil with slightly slanted walls and lighting highlighting different parts of the stair. The experiment in facade treatments continues in the auditorium with another type of perforated metal and wood floors that warp and curl creating seating areas, etc. And that's not even getting to the exhibits, one of which was very textural, by MiquelBarcelo, similar to the building facade treatments. Our first assignment was also at Caxa Forum, we had to draw a section and plan of the building from the outside, learning how to draw and better understand what we see. Next on our list was the Reina Sofia, a hospital that was converted into an art museum with an addition by Jean Nouvel. The addition does almost the opposite of the Herzog and De Meuron building, not even touching the existing building and almost turning its back to the street, creating an interior public courtyard. A large cantilevered roof unites the whole thing and reflects images of the street, making you always aware of the city just on the other side. The most amazing part of the building however, comes with the stepped plazas accessible by the public, giving amazing views of the city. Here we were to go see Picasso's Guernica and try to analyse the different layers of the painting. The second half of the class, called city walks involves walking around the city and understanding how the urban fabric evolved. Madrid has an old and new city, that are distinctly different in how dense and how they are planned. Finishing the day with spanishchoizo or sausage on fresh bread and a beer, on a cobble stoned plaza made for the perfect ending. We walked all across the city and by the end of the day were exhausted but content with the massive amounts of architecture and the city we saw. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds...
Upon arrival home in New York City, the first thing I did was jump on a bike and visit some of the new architecture that have sprung up since I've been away (who wouldn't?). First on my list was Jean Nouvel's residential building on 21st street and 11th avenue. Located just across the street from Gehry's IAC building, Nouvel's residential tower, which fitsbeautifully into its surroundings, made its neighbor seem like a fanciful sculpture someone just plopped along the highway. The front facade is made up of many faceted pieces of colored glass whose frames also jut out at strange angles, giving the facade a shimmering effect. The back facades that abut neighboring buildings are a simple dark brick with scattered windows that also angle slightly. These sides do well to fit in with the neighborhood, evoking the tenement style buildings of yore, while the angled pieces of glass bring the unite the two faces of the building.
Continuing down the bike path to Battery Park City, I visited the new Public Library. The area itself has really come along since I was going to high school just down the block. Many of the residential high rises are completed and the landscaping between them does nicely to tie them together. With giant slides that cut through man made rock outcroppings and end in sandboxes, its no wonder Battery Park City is a kid's paradise. The library itself was very cleanly done: well lit with clean edges and furniture that gives it a touch of color, it was a great place to work or browse. Its collection of books and movies was also very well stocked and the computers brand new, without a doubt the best amenities I've seen in any of the New York Public Libraries. With stairs that doubled as a plush seating area for the kids section, the final piece in making Battery Park City a child's fantasy playground is in place. A stop at the Center for Architecture for an exhibit on solar design in everyday objects, and the plans for the domino sugar factory in Brooklyn , soon to be a residential complex, and then on to 40 Bond Street, Herzog & De Meuron's residential building. The glass treatment on the exterior of the building and the graffiti-like fence on the ground level do a lot to help the building stand out, however it remains grounded in the vibe of the Bowery.
As I mentioned before we had to prepare short descriptions on one or two of the cities we will visit while away. After we come back, the edited text along with our pictures and sketches will be put into a book. I was given Bilbao and El Escorial, hopefully I did them some justice...
Bilbao
Since its beginning, Bilbao has undergone many transformations, brought about by changes in industry and technology. However, it was this adaptability that allowed Bilbao to ultimately reinvent itself from a small port town into a center of culture.
Bilbao was founded in 1300 by Don Diego Lopez de Haro along the bank of the Nervion River, which flows into the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean. At its beginning, Bilbao was a village composed of just three streets: Somera (“Upper”), Artekale (“Middle Street”), and Tenderia (“Shopkeeper’s”), following the layout found in many other Basque towns. At its center was the Santiago Church and surrounding the entire city was a protective wall.
As the city grew, four more parallel streets were added to the city’s layout, creating the area known today as “Seven Streets.” Various wars between noble families as well as floods and fires disrupted the growth of the city in the 15th century; however, the city was always quick to recover and eventually grew beyond the city’s wall. In 1511, Bilbao became the main export port for Merino wool from Castile to northern European cities, causing Bilbao to become the most important commercial and financial center of the Spanish north coast during the Spanish Empire era.
The growing importance of Bilbao as a major port of Spain caused the city to gain the title of capital city of Biscay in 1602. In the following 100 years, Bilbao continued to grow financially especially after the discovery of iron deposits in the surrounding hills. These iron ore deposits allowed Bilbao to recover from the economic crisis that hit Spain at the end of the 17th century and the city continued to grow throughout the 18th century, exhausting the city’s boundaries.
Bilbao reached its financial peak during the industrial revolution with its strong mining, steel and shipbuilding industries and at the beginning of the 20th century, Bilbao was the wealthiest city of Spain. It was during this time that Bilbao truly became an industrial city rather than a small mercantile port. The harbor was key to Bilbao’s success and was renovated in the 1870’s using both public and private funds. Due in part to the annexation of the nearby villas of Begonia and Abando in the same year, Bilbao’s population tripled in just 30 years (from about 18,000 in 1857 to about 51,000 in 1887) and railways connecting the mines to the harbor and the coastline were underway.
The need for an enlargement of the city was evident and so the first Ensanche project was begun in 1861. A second Ensanche of a much larger scale was commissioned in 1872 under the guidance of engineers Alzola and Hoffmeyer and architect Achucarro. The enlargement created an entirely new city on the left bank of the river, connecting to the old city on the right bank with the El Arenal bridge. The new city was organized around a center and longitudinal axis, creating an ellipse in plan. This Ensanche became the new economic center of Bilbao: financial institutions moved there, and elite housing sprung up around the city’s center. Further enlargements to this Ensanche were developed as needed.
With the coming of globalization, Bilbao’s iron and ship-building industries quickly fell into ruin, leaving the city and its approximately 1 million inhabitants with no source of income. As a result, Bilbao has turned to a service and tourism economy as part of its urban renewal. Big name architects were brought in to reinvent parts of the city, moving it away from its industrial past and towards a future of culture and gentrification. Among these major developments are Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Santiago Calatrava’s culture center, Euskalduna Palace, and Norman Foster’s design for Bilbao’s new metro system. Most significant of all, the Port of Bilbao, formerly located on the river was relocated downstream to the Bay of Biscay, opening real estate along the river for further gentrification and signifying Bilbao’s morphing from small port village, to industrial city, to cultural center.
El Escorial
El Escorial, located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial just 28 miles northwest of Madrid, is a historical residence of the king of Spain, however; it’s much more than just a palace: El Escorial also serves as a monastery, museum and school. Born into fruition by King Philip II, El Escorial was to serve as a monument to Spain’s role as the center of the Christian world.
With the Protestant Reformation sweeping through Europe during the 16th century, Philip II spent much of his reign and New World gold trying to stem the flow of the Protestant tide in any way he could. With the help of the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, whose work included the basilica of St. Peter’s, Philip II designed El Escorial as a necropolis for the remains of his family, royal palace, and an architectural manifestation of the Roman Catholic religion, as well as a monument to commemorate the Spanish victory over the French in the battle of Saint Quentin in August 1557. The building was begun at the top of Mt. Abantos on April 23rd, 1563 and was completed in 1584. Since its completion, it has served as the burial site for most of the Spanish kings of the past five centuries.
The layout of the palace is in the form of a gridiron, the origin of which is still debated. The most common explanation, however is that it is following the design of the Temple of Solomon. No matter what the origin, the buildings layout changed drastically over its completion due to the large amount of programmatic elements King Philip demanded to be included. In addition to being a monastery and palace, El Escorial was also to include a pantheon, a basilica, a convent, a school, and a library.
El Escorial is built primarily out of local-quarried gray granite and has little decoration, adding to its austere façade, making it appear more like a fortress than a palace. Within its walls are a series of intersecting passageways, courtyards, and chambers and at each of the plan’s four corners is a square tower topped with a spire. Towards the center of the palace rise the belfries and round dome of the basilica, whose plan takes the form of the Latin cross like most of the Late Gothic cathedrals in western Europe. Housed in El Escorial is an enormous amount of master artworks and priceless manuscripts. Everything about the complex was to fit Philip’s instructions to the architect Toledo: “Simplicity in the construction, severity in the whole, nobility without arrogance, majesty without ostentation.”
Traveling through 16 cities in Spain and Portugal in 30 days could get confusing from time to time, which is why I have set up this blog to document this summer's trip and hopefully maintain some sort of sense of place. Following a month sketching and photographing throughout Spain and Portugal, I'll be spending an additional three weeks in Barcelona where I will be participating in an international design workshop at the School of Architecture in Barcelona. This workshop allows students and professors from around the world to work together to tackle a design charette that centers on the urban scale. For more information on the trip or workshop in Barcelona, check out the trip's website.
In preparation for the trip, the ten other students from IIT and I were asked to research some of the buildings we will be seeing while abroad as well as to prepare an in depth study of the cities we will be visiting. Below are the descriptions I wrote of the buildings I was assigned, unfortunately one of them we will not be visiting as it is only accessible by car, but it is still interesting nonetheless.
Carabanchel Housing
Foreign Office Architects
2007
Calle de las Tubas
Metro: Ctra del Barrio de la Fortuna 1, 38, 49
FOA’s Carabanchel Housing is one of a series of new public housing projects in a new development in southern Madrid in which regulation sets the number and type of units, sizes of certain areas, and heights, however, the design is left at the hands of many well-known architects. FOA’s particular approach to this challenge involved creating units that could be manipulated individually and yet contribute to a building that reads as a whole. The building is situated on a parallelogram-shaped plot, running along a north-south axis, giving each unit access to both the east and west sides of the building on which runs a wide terrace that is protected from the intense summer sun by a series of sliding bamboo screen panels. These panels give the building a uniform cladding, while still allowing the owner of the units to maneuver them to their preferences, giving the owners a sense of personal identification with their unit.
The parking complex is sunk below ground, allowing for green space to be added on either side of the building, which contrasts with the building facade and adds a touch of color. Overall the project does well to lower costs, stay sustainable and provide spacious and flexible living spaces for its residents.
Abengoa Tecnological Campus Palmas Altas
RSH+P & Vidal y Asociados Arquitectos
2009
41012 SE-30 Ring Road
Currently accessible by car only
Abengoa’s new campus rethinks theway a business park functions both socially and practically. Abengoa, an international technology company with a focus on sustainability, applies much of its sustainability knowledge to its new campus, in everything from the orientation of the campus to the selection of materials. The design of the individual buildings and their arrangement on the site maximizes self-shading and photovoltaic panels, hydrogen batteries, and a tri-generation plant are just a few of the sustainable additions to the campus. Everything is suited to protect from and harness the energy provided by the intense summer conditions in the south of Spain. All of these sustainable functions earned the campus the LEED Platinum award.
The colors in the buildings are a nod to the glazed tiles traditionally found in the Andalucia region and the layers of screens and glass on the facade work to maximize light while reducing glare and heat.
Abengoa’s other goal with this new campus is to maximize communication and interaction across the many divisions within the company. A large central space unifies the seven buildings, however level changes and the offset arrangement of the buildings allow a unique sequence of spaces to develop. The nature of these spaces also allow them to be occupied year round and the organization of the spaces reduce the heat load on campus, avoiding heat islands, which would be particularly intense during the summer. The campus also includes many social services for its employees, making more of a small, contained city than a business park.
This blog hopes to act as a forum for all things urban. As in the agora, the center of ancient urban life, feel free to share ideas, suggestions, or inspiration to fuel the urban discussion.
undulate. The stair that unites the floors within the building, is a great trompe l'oeil with slightly slanted walls and lighting highlighting different parts of the stair. The experiment in facade treatments continues in the auditorium with another type of perforated metal and wood floors that warp and curl creating seating areas, etc. And that's not even getting to the exhibits, one of which was very textural, by Miquel Barcelo, similar to the building facade treatments. Our first assignment was also at Caxa Forum, we had to draw a section and plan of the building from the outside, learning how to draw and better understand what we see.
t even touching the existing building and almost turning its back to the street, creating an interior public courtyard. A large cantilevered roof unites the whole thing and reflects images of the street, making you always aware of the city just on the other side. The most amazing part of the building however, comes with the stepped plazas accessible by the public, giving amazing views of the city. Here we were to go see Picasso's Guernica and try to analyse the different layers of the painting.
re planned. Finishing the day with spanish choizo or sausage on fresh bread and a beer, on a cobble stoned plaza made for the perfect ending. We walked all across the city and by the end of the day were exhausted but content with the massive amounts of architecture and the city we saw. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds...
