5 Sites to See, 5 Cities to Be

Site 1

CaixaForum, Barcelona

This week Architect Jack Kelley of Chicago came to Barcelona to help us learn how to analytically sketch as future architects. The first place we visited with him was the CiaxaForum in Barcelona. The CiaxaForum is a wonderful museum that combines the architecture of an old factory in Barcelona with a new and modern design for the front entry. (entry area pictured below)

While at the museum sketching, many of us also went into the exhibits that the museum had going on. Exhibit one, “Warhol. Mechanical Art,” focused on the work of Andy Warhol. Many people may know him as a leading figure in the founding of Pop Art. When no one thought that there could be any more shock in the art world, artist like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol stunned the art world with art that was sexy, glamourous, silly. It focused on celebrities, comics, and coke cans. The exhibit at the CiaxaForum represented Warhhol’s work perfectly in making a fun and colorful exhibit to be a part of. My friend Christian took my advice from last week and listened to Andy Warhol's interesting musical mixing in the museum!

The second exhibit that was being featured at the museum this week was a collection of work by Giorgio de Chirico. His work greatly influenced surrealist artist, and I found his work to be quite comparable to the work of Salvador Dali.

Site 2

Empuries, Spain

The second city I visited this week was the ancient city of Empuries that is constantly being excavated to reveal the original city underneath.

The city started as a Greek-Hellenic trading post and eventually became a large port city. Later, when the Romans were expanded their influence and culture they changed this city to a purely roman city. The more roman you were, the better place you lived in the city. Generally, the people that were purely roman lived on the top of the hill near the Roman Forum, and in a stunning house. Many of the Roman houses on top of the hill had a mosaic tile flooring that you can still see today even after the excavations. (mosaic tile floor pictured to the right)

Overall the city was very cool to see excavated. You can still easily see the beautifully tiled floors, water system utilities, and the first couple feet of many of the structures. Inside the museum at Emperies you can also see some Greek pottery and even statues like the one pictured to the left.

Site 3

Forteresse de Salses, France

The Fortress of Salses was by fair my favorite building on this trip. (Fun fact: It is also Louis Kahn’s favorite building.) As you can see by the pictures below this castle is beyond beautiful. Not only is it a gorgeous site to see, but massive as well. In general, most castles are made for one thing, being a military structure. Castles can provide safety in times of siege, can defend themselves against cannons, and give everyone inside the feeling of safety. To insure than no one could pierce the castle walls, the exterior walls of this castle were built to be 12 meters thick to resist an opposing military. That means, that wall is over 39 feet thick of solid brick! Some of the higher level interior walls were not as thick and spanned only 6 meters. The only openings in these extremely thick walls were these tiny holes that men could climb into and shoot the opponent from. I tried climbing into one of these myself, and I would have to say it is not that easy even at 5’ 3’’.

Site 4

Chateau and Ramparts of the city of Carcassonne, France

Though the Fortress of Salses was my favorite castle to see, the Castle of Carcassonne is a close runner up. The castle itself was also beautiful, but with all the renovations it had over the years it did not feel as authentic as Salses. In the 1800’s the castle was actually restored and architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc choose to make the city walls coincide more with the north of France and not the south. He did this by changing many of the roof structures to slate roofs instead of repairing them back to the Romanesque roofs that they were originally. (A picture of the slate roofing appears first below, and then the roman tile roofing second.)

(If you go to my sketch book at the end you can see that these photos are the same position as the views I sketched on site.)

Even though the castle was not my favorite, the castle walls were my favorite here. The views from the castle walls were beyond amazing and made this place a magical city that truly made me feel like I was living in a fairy tale. From the tops of the walls I could see Gothic style churches, roman style churches, roman houses, mountains, and maybe even half of France.(might be a slight exaggeration) Our hostel was inside the city and even the view from the bathroom was one that you could paint for hours.

Site 5

Sant Miquel Del Cuixart, France

Sant Miquel Del Cuixart is a stunning monestary of the Romanesque style intended to remind a person of the great churches in Rome. With the large naïve, Romanesque colonnade, and massive structure it does just that. An interesting feature to this church is that the columns do not tell a story like I lot of religious structures at the time did for people who cannot read. Instead, the columns act more as gargoyles and serve to ward off evil spirits from the church.

(view of the mountains behind the church below)

Recap

Overall, my sketching trip was a success. I saw some amazing sites that I probably would not have the chance to visit on my own, because you have to get to a lot of them by car. My sketchbook and camera memory card are now a fourth of the way full, and I constantly had other tourist looking over my sholder to take pictures of me drawing.

(Below I included a page from my sketch book about Carcassonne to show the type of analytical sketching we did during the trip.)