Barcelona
Tuesday 17th November 2009
The aim for the morning was to meet in Parc Diagonal Mar at 11am, however me and a few others had a couple of navigational problems and ended up at the building site of Zahar Hadid's Edifici Campus, it looks like a very interesting project, typically Hadid, with a spiraling tower to give off the best view at every window in the building.
We eventually made it to Parc Diagonal Mar, which was designed by EMBT a design team of Benedetta Tagliabue and Enrique Miralles. The park is very surreal at first glance; there are high undulating metal strips reminiscent of a roller-coaster with huge mosaic planters floating at impossible heights and a huge lake with including several different levels and fountains spraying onto and around the metal in the air. The park is divided into six main areas: the fountains, a “magic mountain” for children, a sports area, an amphitheater, a playground and a dog run. All the areas are grouped around the large lake. The park is a central feature of the new Diagonal mar district (the diagonal seafront district, as it lies between the end of Avinguda Diagonal and the sea) which features residential areas, hotels, a modern shopping complex, and the new Centre Internacional de Convencions (International Convention Centre). Unfortunately the park has faced heavy criticism for the lack of use of the park by local people. However I feel that whatever your personal opinion of the design of the park, it is without doubt a spectacle. My personal a opinion of the park is that, as I have said, it is a fantastically surreal and unusual design, however i am not a fan of the mosaic planters, and I think that the overhead metalwork seems a bit manic, it could have worked better over a resticted area maybe, or maybe there should be less of it. I can't quite decide what or why I don't like the metal, and am well aware that the manic feel to the structure is probably exactly what other people might find attractive about it, but it just didn't seem to work. The play areas within the park however were incredible; far more fun than most. They were so imaginative and played on the senses too, eg. you jump on something and it makes a noise. The equipment was just higher bigger better than we seem to have in England, which made me question wether it was health and safety which is preventing anything like that being built here. We all had an awesome time playing like proper kids and then moved on to a more mellow area of the park. Here there were beautifully ergonomically designed benches, for us all to wind down on. The area seemed to be more popular and better used, there were a few people relaxing on benches with books/ computers etc. the form of the benches was a undulating concrete cast, so you could sit or lie. These were placed around a wide path with planting one side and lawn the other. A very relaxing area within the park.
Above: The 'roller-coaster' metal work over the park
Above: Unusual benches, the undulating concrete form as described above.
Above: some of the play equipment in the park
We then headed away from the park through the Diagonal Mar to the Parc del Auditoris, part of the forum used for the Second World Urban Forum 2004. The forum also included the Forum Building and Photovoltaic sculpture. The Forum Building or Edifici Forum, was built from 2000-04, designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects, and is a huge blue wedge in the landscape with mirror sections all along and underneath it, it is a fascinating building, but seems to be marooned in an empty disused space. the feeling of the whole area is slightly rundown and very underused, our group were the lone users of the space on the day we visited and it just felt completely deserted. Clearly designed with large events in mind you can't help but wonder wether the designers considered that there will be times when there is no event held in the space. The area was staggering in its scale and had beautiful directional paving towards a fantastic looking sail like structure which over looked the bay and port. However the over all feeling was that I wanted to move on, I didn't want to linger in what felt like an eerily big disused space in a severe state of disrepair. At a distance it was beautiful and it seems such a waste to let it go.
Above: At the venue for the International Forums of cultures 2004
After some lunch we met up again at Placa d' Espanya and walked up the hill towards the Museu nacional Art de Catalunya which is an extremely grand looking building. In front of the building is Font magica, a huge water fountain which wasn't working the day we visited, however on this same level is the Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe. A stunning pavilion made from marble and glass with clean simple lines and open space the fluidity and movement from exterior to interior is barely distinguishable. The pavilion was originally built in 1929 as the German pavilion for the World's fair, after which it was dismantled and moved only to be rescued and reconstructed in 1985. The structure is built around two shallow pools one of which features a statue by Georg Kolbe, the German sculptor known for his female nudes, an elegant contrast to the simplicity of the lines of the pavilion. I was taken by the quality of materials and the way they are displayed to perfection by the simple large and undisturbed areas of the walls. In particular the purple and orange slab of marble inside the pavilion is lovely. Inside is the original Barcelona Chair designed by van der Rohe and seen (mainly in reproduction form) throughout the city in reception areas.
Above: View from Placa d'Espanya of the Museu nacional Art deCatalunya.
Above and Below: Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe, the Kolbe sculpture and purple and orange marble wall
We then walked up the hill for miles and miles looking for a garden, but got entirely lost and eventually made our way to Castell de Montjuic, which had fantastic veiws over the city (if it hadn't been so hazy) From the other side of the castle looking over the docks the views were awesome- There was a layer of low cloud over the sea which cleared over the docks which were all lit up, the view from above all this was fairly spectacular.
Above: the view from Castello de Montjiuc over the docks to the sea.
