Annecy  - 17 / 04 / 2010

Visit to Annecy at during the penultimate week of the 09/10 ski season. It was very strange to be in the Alps at this time of year as the pistes in the resorts were still snowy but out of the ski resorts it was completely bare of snow and very sunny! The landscape around the Lake Annecy was really interesting to see. A lot of the land directly next to the lake is privately owned, so the public parks almost compete with the privately owned land in upkeep and design. The parks next to the lake are extremely well used (most probably due to their astoundingly beautiful location and the beautiful weather) and are very well kept. The majority of the trees surrounding the lake are pollarded, which looks a little odd in such an impressive natural setting - almost like the trees are the one piece of nature that can be controlled! I also felt however that the trees take on a bizarre sculptural aspect, with there bare nobbly forms. 

Dusseldorf 

24 - 27 Feb 2010

I went to Dusseldorf to meet James (my boyfriend) for the end of Depeche Mode's  'tour of the universe', which he has been working on for the past few months. I was interested to visit Germany again as the only other time I have spent there was back in  the summer of 2005, when I spent some time in Munich. It was also an interesting visit for me to see the relationship the city shares with the Rhein (at university at the moment the focus of our main project is the river Thames and the relationship it shares with London and other settlements along it).

On the first morning i headed straight into the alt stadt which was very close to the hotel, and also runs along the edge of the river. The old town was quaint but the river edge was what i found interesting from a landscape perspective. The banks were wide and used as public space, the major use of the river for industry was apparent, but this didn't seem to stop the river being enjoyed by the general public, for leisure too. The Rhein is one of the major rivers in europe and is used in the area around Dusseldorf (lower Rhein) for transporting goods and industrial purposes, there are many plants and factories to be found on the banks around this area. Duisberg which is just up river from Dusseldorf has Europes biggest inland Port, acting as a hub for rotterdam, Anterp and Amsterdam sea ports. So you can see from the river edge a steady flow of goods carrying boats and barges on the river. The river edge still had the 'sea wall' type barriers and walls for flood prevention etc. which is what I felt so separated the town and the river at Gravesend (where the site is for my university project), however the use of wide spaces either side of the river for public use seemed to break down the 'barriers' and draw attention away from that boundary, so it almost was not a boundary any longer. There was a large stretch of the river which had restaurants and bars fronting straight onto it; this was fairly quiet when I went but I imagine gets very busy in better weather. This too draws people to the river and emphasises the fact that the river is something to be celebrated rather than hidden away. 

One of the main things I noticed which was used in a few public squares and along walkways along the river was avenues of pleached trees. It is something that I haven't seen used in public space often before and the effect in some areas was really pleasant. It gave the feel that the space was well looked after and managed, and it also gave direction to linear spaces without creating too much of a barrier.

Above: a square in das altstadt

below: pleated trees along the river front. Above: pretty facades in das altstadt

The final two shows of the Tour of the Universe, where fairly epic. I have seen the show before at the 02 in London, and was impressed by the graphics, videos and lights the first time i saw it. It really hit me how much of an impact good design has on most aspects of modern life. 

Photos from the last two shows of depecjed mode's Tour of the Universe, at the Espirit staduim in Dusseldorf.

Barcelona 

20th November 2009

Today we headed back towards the montjuic area of the city. We walked from Placa d' Espanya up the hill towards Museu nacional Art de Catalunya where we turned right and carried on walking through the Parc du Montjuic and past the Olympic stadium to the Botanical gardens. The Parc du Montjuic was impressive. Again I found myself in a huge scale landscape, providing space for large events, beautiful design; but no people. I didn't find the space depressing at all (although I did in other areas which share the characteristics i have just described eg.Parc del Auditoris, part of the forum used for the Second World Urban Forum 2004), the sculptures seemed to keep the space animated enough to compensate for the lack of people moving around. The main attraction, Landscape wise, in the Olympic city is the space which surrounds Santiago Calatrava's beautiful telecommunications mast, which was built for 'Telephonica' to carry coverage of the 1992 Olympic Games. 

"The overall form of the tower is based on a Calatrava sketch of a kneeling figure making an offering. The base on which the figure 'kneels' is covered in broken glazed tiles in recognition of Gaudi (though with more restrained colors). The orientation of the tower means that the shadow of the central needle on the circular platform acts as a (rather impractical) sundial."

There are four large rectangular lawns and the area is paved in large pale slabs all over. The pillars down the side of the lawns combined with the bright shining white colours of the site and combined again with the enormous scale of everything on the site, give it a slightly Grecian feel; which is actually very fitting to it's purpose as the Olympic village.  From the direction we viewed the famous mast, there were pretty wire sculptures in the foreground, which I really liked; I felt they gave an elegant and simplistic detail to the otherwise vast space. 

Above and Below: Santiago Calatrava's beautiful telecommunications mast, with the wire sculptures in the foreground

After The park we visited the Botanical Gardens which are positioned high up on the hillside and have beautiful views over the city to the mountains behind. The Gardens were designed by an interdisciplinary team comprising the architects Carlos Ferrater and Josep Lluís Canosa, the landscape architect Bet Figueras, the horticulturalist Artur Bossy and the biologist Joan Pedrola. The two main considerations during the design of the Gardens were:

"Firstly, how the vegetation was to be structured. It was important to plan the layout according to geographic criteria, grouping the plants according to the world’s five Mediterranean regions. Within these regional groupings, moreover, the plants should be combined according to ecological affinity, that is to say, recreating landscapes as they are found in nature.

The second consideration involved creating a project in which the mountain itself provided the topographic conditions for establishing the different plant areas in the Garden. This entailed designing the network of paths around the natural relief and avoiding large earth moving operations as far as possible."

http://www.jardibotanic.bcn.es/11_eng.htm

The result of these two considerations meant a network of paths was created around a series of triangular plots to accommodate the principle plant communities found in Mediterranean climates around the world. Attention was also paid to the available space, mountain slope and soil condition. The design of the space is very clean and beautiful the pathways are cut into the mountainside and seating areas and areas of change in level have different angled triangular shaped retaining walls clad in corten steel. The use of the rusty looking corten steel, brings a different texture to the gardens and creates swathes of orange- brown colour, which complements  and enhances the plants around it. There are trellises above some of the seating areas, created by many cords of wire pulled straight and at such angles to each other that the overall finish is a large curve of wire, with climbers making their way along it. I loved the wonder around looking at all the different plant species, you feel above the city and away from the bustle and noise of the city; it' is a very calming and serene place to be. I really appreciated the design of the Gardens, I think it's my favorite piece of Landscape architecture I have seen on this field trip. Especially the pond, the way the triangular shapes are used ti hide and reveal ares of the pond is very beautiful, and the planting surrounding it is perfect.

Above: the pond in the Botanic Gardens

Above and Below: The trellises over seating areas, and a small amphitheater area, which shows well the style in which the entire site was built.

Below: Some level changes and example of how areas are cut out of the mountainside and lined with corten steel.

Barcelona

19th November 2009

Park Guell was where we started today. Designated a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a stunning piece of work by Antoni Gaudi and a unique example of Art Nouveau landscape architecture. The situation of the park on the hill el Carmel in the Gracia district of Barcelona means the views across the city towards the sea are beautiful. The site was initially intended to be a series of 60 plots for luxury houses, with beautiful views across the city and the advantage of clean air. The mastermind behind this was Count Eusebi Guell, who concieved the project based on the English garden city movement ( which is an approach to urban planning where communities are self-contained and surrounded by greenbelts). Guell moved into the only existing house on the site, Muntaner de Dalt House, in 1906, at this time Gaudi also moved into one of only two houses to be built at this stage (neither designed by him) la Torre Rosa. The park was built between 1900 and 1914 and became a public park in 1922, after failing as a residential site. We entered the park at the grand entrance, one of the only planned things to be built, along with two houses, 3km of paths, a hippostyle (pillared) hall (designed to be a market) and beautiful terrace. we headed up the first stairway guarded by the famous mosaic lizard and turned left past the school and saw some archways and pillars in a strange mottled bubbling stone, which gave it a sort of grotto/ lord of the rings kind of feel. We then headed to the main terrace a huge space surrounded by the waving and curving mosaic seat, and with views over Barcelona. The detail of the polychrome mosiacs, made from ceramic pots, tiles and  broken stone, is beautiful, i couldn't help but wonder how long it must have taken. The shape of the seating surrounding the terrace is said to have been designed by Gaudi based on a naked woman sitting in wet clay and the shape her buttocks would leave. The curving style of the bench creates semicircular nodes where people can sit and talk facing each other or in small groups. We then walked through the park following the unusual elevated road and walkways, Jutting out from the hillside, built like viaducts, so providing pathways underneath them and supported by tree like columns. The reason for the roads being elevated is to preserve the nature of the area, Gaudi also used local stone in building the pathways, so as to minimise the impact on the landscape and knit his design into the existing landscape. We reached the top where there is a huge cross and spectacular views across the city and all the way to the sea and the Montjuic area of the city which we visited on tuesday.   

Above and Below: Examples of the mosaic all around the park and the view from the main terrace, across the city.

Below: an example of the sturdy pillars in local stone found in the park.

Below: the viaduct walk and road ways through the park intended to preserve the nature.

We then headed back to the station and to Parc de nou Barris, which is a new park built on the site of Santa creu mental institute, building work started in 1998 and the park was awarded The European Prize for Urban Public Space in 2008. The park spans the distance between Placa Karl Marx and the old Hospital, and negotiates the level change in a series of terraces, separated by retaining banks and connected by ramps, these terraces are shaped as triangles as are most other elements to the park. Roads and paths cut through the triangle features and the main road which crosses through the middle of the park, Passeig de Fabra i Puig, can be crossed by a wide pedestrian bridge, which connects the two sides of the park. there are also vertical triangular structures at points in the park which provide shade and at night, light. These structures are reminiscent of palms bending into the wind, the two arms of the structures which are joined at the bottom then divert from each other to form a triangular head crossed and connected by what look like slats of plastic or fibre glass. The most impressive area, I thought, was the boardwalk which leads you over the pond to the building. the walkway was split into triangular shapes so that at the points where they joined there was a risk factor in crossing from triangle to triangle; this was my favorite area of the park. The overall feel to the park was that it needed some attention, I felt that the design was being let down by the state of disrepair  it was in, which is a shame because I liked the bold use of geometric shapes and sharp angles. Another interesting feature of the park was the interactive fountains at the bottom of the terraces. you had to see-saw on a metal box to make the fountains work; i thought it was a very clever and interesting idea, but unfortunately, like the rest of the park, the area was run down and some of the fountains no longer worked.

Above: The interactive fountains at Parc de nou Barris. Below: The risky boardwalk over the pond in Parc de nou Barris

On the way back to the station we were distracted by a spectacular fountain, which sprayed water up into the air, which then fell and splashed onto a huge rectangluar rusted box on legs and cascaded down to the rectangular pool below, the fountain was complemented by surrounding  geometric shapes and linear planting styles. (Below)

We then headed back to the waterfront and Barcelonetta via Gas natural Headquarters which was a huge very shiny building with interesting but quite clearly private (there were security guards everywhere) hard landscape design. (below)
At the beach at Barceloneta we measured two sections which are drawn and at this link:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/24806432/Sections-Barceloneta

Barcelona

18th November 2009

Today we were completely free to do what we wanted, so we decided to dedicate the day to Gaudi. We started off at La Pedrera (Casa Milla) which translates as 'the stone quarry' and is a nick name given to the building by locals after it was built in 1910. the building was originally an apartment block, but now houses a museum of Gaudi's work in the vaulted attic, has a preserved apartment as part of the museum, and you can access the rooftop. This was stunning. Panoramic views across Barcelona's grid like town plan and towards Sagrada Familia would make it a stunning place to visit, however you are standing on a roof designed by Gaudi. I found it beautiful and peculiar, you almost feel like you are one some sort of ship, surrounded by chimneys ordered in height and undulating walls all finished with a smooth sandy colour, it is quite an experience. The museum below had succinct explanations about his design ethic, and reasoning, as well as what was going on in culture and politics around Gaudi's time. One of the things in the museum which I loved was a model explaining how Gaudi designed several of his pointed roof tops. It was a board with several chains hung in a circle and then linked at the bottom, it was then turned upside down over a mirror. so when you looked into the mirror the hanging chain were reflected to look like they were standing upright, and what you saw was a skeletal form of a Gaudi building. It also had examples of organic objects from nature which influenced his work. The apartment was so stylish and glamourous, even the kitchen had special little novelty features. My favorite pieces were the so over-the-top chandeliers and the fabrics used for curtains and linen. Everything about the building was unique and interesting, it seemed to have no hard straight lines or edges.

Above and Below: Casa Milla, Gaudi's apartment block

Below: The spectacular roof of Casa Milla and views over the city

We then walked towards La Sagrada Familia, stopping on the way for lunch. The Sagrada Familia is a fascinating building, hugely impressive on first sight, it towers and looms over the city, only the yellow cranes used in the ongoing construction of the building rival it in height. We approached La Sagrada Familia from the South West, the side of the Fachada de la Pasion. A Facade designed to represent the death, resurrection and passion of the Christ. The detail of the work is incredible. The building of the church was started in 1882 from a project by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar at the end of 1883 Gaudi was commissioned to take over, he carried on working on La Sagrada Familia until he died in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea. The church is a expiatory church, which means that since it was first built it has been funded purely from donations. The building of La Sagrada Familia is still going on today, which is one of the things which made the visit so interesting. There are stone masons, sculptors, builders and architects at work inside the cathedral, so you can watch the construction as it is happening. The absolute precision and detail required is painstaking, there must be a lot of talent required for any of those jobs! After staring at the Passion Facade, we headed inside. I was absolutely blown away by the interior of La Sagrada Familia, the sheer scale is astounding, and the design is staggeringly beautiful. The pillar system is a forest of abstract trees, whose canopies interlock creating star shaped holes, which currently are open to the sky above. The pillars, or trunks of the trees are completely square at the base and evolve by the time they reach the ceiling into a perfect cylindrical form. Gaudi was Heavily influenced by nature and natural forms, using skeletal structures as a base to build from, the tree like pillars in La Sagrada Familiar are a perfect example, nature did not only influence his design, but also his engineering. Other things which he was influenced by include, his families history of working with their hands (as boilermakers) which gave him an understanding of craftmanship, and also the area in which he grew up the region of Tarragona. Gaudi used a lot of symbology within much of his work, wether it was naturalistic, medieval or religious. Some interesting quotes from gaudi regarding his own work: “I am a geometrician, that is to say, I synthesise”; “I calculate everything”; “in the execution of surfaces, geometry does not complicate but simplifies the construction”; and “for an architectural work to be beautiful, all its elements must be appropriate in situation, dimension, form and colour”.

He also said of Sagrada Familiar's status as an expiatory church: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people."

We then went up the towers of the opposite end to which we entered, which offered a brilliant view of the city and over the building work of the church. The Facade on this side of the church is the Nativity facade, and is dripping with detail, to the extent it is almost grotesque. You don't know what to look at first. I prefer the Nativity facade to the Passion; it seems more naive somehow, I think the Passion Facade feels more deliberate and straight forward.

Above: the exterior of the towers of La Sagrada Familia with the cranes. Below: The interior of La Sagrada Familia.

After our visit to la Sagrada Familia we headed over to the Arc de Triumf and Parc de la Ciutadella, where there were fantastic fountains pretty ponds and a huge fake mammoth that we climbed on. 

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.

 (Link to information on the Edifici Campus) 

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.