(Daniela, Casey, Me, Daniel, and Saran at the bar before going to Shoko)
(After we recruited our IES friends - free round)
(One view of Taller de Arquitectura)
(Bofill's Apartment)
(Not sure which room this is in...but you get the idea..architects everywhere in every corner of the building)In class I had my second quiz and then we had to split up into groups and go out onto the streets and try to get people to answer our questionare. Me, Tania, and Saran tried desperately to get people to talk to us but even the cute old women sitting on the bench wouldn't answer our questions. I mean, I never answer those questionares either but it really sucked. Haha. So we decided to split up because we only had like 20 minutes left to gather at least 12 more responses. It actually worked out much better once we split up. I'd ask people in Spanish if they had a minute to answer some questions and then they'd ask me what about and I'd tell them that it was about the use of Catalan vs. Castellano in Barcelona. Then their eyes would light up and they were happy to talk to me. I talked to all different sorts of people. An IES professor, a street vendor, and a school teacher. The last one was my favorite; she was soo nice and was helping me correct my grammar errors. It's was really interesting to hear what they had to say. Our questions asked whether they mainly spoke Catalan or Castellano, whether they believed Catalan would ever die out, if there were places where they could not speak their main language in the city (like at work, etc), and whether or not they've faced discrimination based on their language usage. Their responses were so heartfelt because apparently people are really into discussing linguistics in the city. The goal is to keep the language alive so people are always willing to discuss it.
Of course today was a gorgeous day to go to the beach, the day I'd been hoping for all week, but I had already arranged an appointment to go to Taller de Arquitectura. I was really dreading going because I was really intimidated and nervous about the whole situation...plus all my roommates were going to the beach. But after class, I ran back to the apartment, changed into dress clothes and set out to find the bus stop I needed - quite a challenge in itself! I had already looked up how to get there but was very unsure of the whole thing. It would be 24 stops and nearly 45 minutes by bus....all the way out of the city. Turns out, that the stop I was supposed to get off at did not exist and I noticed I had gone too far. So I asked the bus driver and he didn't know of the stop either but said that we were about to reach the end of the route, rest for 5 minutes, and then go back the other way where I would be able to get off.
Luckily I had left with an hour and a half until my appointment, but I found the stop I needed, got off and then...thank god I had looked up the office building online because I would never have found it. It used to be an old cement factory and is composed of a ton of silos. It's completely hidden from the street and surrounded by beautiful greenery and trees. I stumbled upon a random door and little office - the secretary. She only spoke Spanish so I was trying to explain why I was there but she didn't know anything about my appointment. I had to get her to call up the women I had been emailing with and talk to her myself.
Finallllllly, an architect Roxanne came and got me and brought me around the firm giving me the grand tour. It was the most confusing building I'd ever been in...like a labyrinth! Offices are in the silos (so the studios are round and have the tables in the middle) and there are all different levels and secret doors and passages. Every single space was used up. It was nuts! She'd been working there for nearly a year and a half and we still got lost a couple times. There were parts of the building she had never even been to. Because some of the people were gone for the weekend we were able to go into very exclusive areas that even Roxanne hadn't been in to...like the grand conference rooms, Bofill's area of the silo, and his own apartment in the building that they called the "white palace" or something. She was very nervous going up there because she'd never had the chance to go up there...we had to be escorted into his apartment and it was beautiful. The whole room was covered in white curtains from ceiling to floor (probably 20 ft) and they had access to wonderful garden terraces on the 4th level of the silos. It was like another world...
But anyways, it was a very interesting experience. I had the opportunity to meet Ricardo Bofill's son Ricardo Bofill (haha) and many other architects. I was shocked that the staff is from allllllll over the world - 20 different countries. When I asked Roxanne what was the primary language they spoke in the office, she said English and that you hear a lot of Italian too. I met people from Brazil, Italy, Japan, China, Mexico, Spain, Germany (Roxanne), France, Netherlands...and more. It was just such an international company, I was amazed with how so many different people with such different cultural and linguistic backgrounds could all work together so closely and produce these amazing products.
As I told Dad today on the phone, one of my favorite parts about the whole thing was seeing hand-drawn sketches, floor plans, details, sections, renderings, and elevations. It's such a lost art in architecture. Everything has been taken over by computer. Don't get me wrong, they still produce everything by computers in the end and are really good at it, but the projects make so much more sense to be when you can see how the concepts, ideas and designs were developed. I loved that part of it.
I was able to sit down with one of the guys who works on the renderings which are extremely impressive. They use a lot of the same programs that we are taught in school so it was pretty cool to see how he did them. Roxanne also showed me her facade designs on AutoCAD.
One of the things that was a little strange about the whole place was that there was such a sense of division and hierarchy. Roxanne was so nervous when we just peeked in Bofill's level and really nervous when we went to the apartment. It's very exclusive in a way.
I had the chance to talk to the son a couple times and he kept asking me if I was looking for a job. Haha. He said I could come back whenever I wanted and that if I ever needed an apprenticeship that he "would give me a skyscraper or something to work on." Haha. Ricardo sent Uncle Larry an email while I was there..pretty funny. Apparently he is meeting Uncle Larry to meet with the king of Saudi Arabi on Monday or something crazy!!
So I was happy that it turned out well. We walked around and talked to people for about an hour and a half and then I headed back to Barcelona. The whole experience was just "surreal" as Dad put it. It felt like I was in another world: the whole labyrinth of the building, the people from all over the world, and the white palace room.
What an awesome experience...
Thanks again to Uncle Larry, my manager. Haha. Well I got to get ready. We're going to see Bob Sinclair in concert at a local club. I miss you all and love you all very much. Thinking about ya all the time. Hope Grandma recovers quickly. Hasta luego.
XoXo
DD
No comments:
Post a Comment