“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
Within our stay in Barcelona, second years one of the tasks set was to complete three different cross sections of a place of your own choice, showing different aspects of the area. We were to look, measure, record the place of our choice. The aim within this task was to develop our spatial understanding of the waterfront Landscape Barcelona had to offer, we were to spend good time looking closely at the area, the dimensions, materials and the activities the space had to offer to the public.
As a group our chosen site was apart of the beach, from the near buildings up to the sea.
(My cross sections were to big to be uploaded, will be available on request)
A week in Barcelona I would say one of the best, interesting and education wise trips I have been to. A great week it was with great sites visited with different experiences I learnt.
Even though the rooms were small and compacted, with no hot water within our room and less sleep with early mornings, still a great experience that will be a long memory.
Experience within Spain - Barcelona
Design - The great sense of unique landscape designs and strong bold architectural buildings has widen my understanding about landscape and has defiantly showed me a different pathway within my understanding within my studies in landscape designing. Been in a place and experiencing the area in person, strengthen my understanding about the landscape or architecture more than looking at photos or researching on the Internet.
Transport one of the other things - Having to travel to every site ourselves and only depending on the maps we were given. Even though the transport system is very similar to the transport system here, with the undergrounds, still at times got confusing and fun.
We went along to many famous landscape, architecture and art based visits such as CasaBatllo, SagradaFamilia, Font Magica, ParcGuell, Camp Nou, the Barcelona Botanical Gardens, MuseudelFC Barcelona President Nunez, that has defiantly gave me a insight of the richness about these places and how much history and hard work lays behind these works that millions of people go to visit every year.
I will say every sight visit that I have been within our stay has defiantly inspired me one or another. And the unique and different styles and designs the Spanish Culture has to offer. I would say experiencing all these sites was a big advantage in my studies.
Laban is one of the world’s finest centres for the training for professional contemporary dance artists. It is a creative and cosmopolitan community of performers, choreographers, teachers and researchers from around the globe.
Well our work did not have anything to do with dance. We were more interested with the landscape Laban had to offer.
Landscape Design
The Laban Centre was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. The building is clad in diaphanous, and multi-coloured, polycarbonate sheeting. The entrance front is approached through multifaceted composition of geometrical grass mounds. Reflections of the mounds in the mirror glazing propagate the design idea. The angled grass mounds are re-inforced with geotextile and the arises are formed with timber. The timber is being damaged by grass cutting machinery and will have to be replaced in due course.
The regrettably unavoidable aspect of the project is the security fencing which cuts off the building from its surroundings. It therefore looks a much less attractive building from outside the compound than from inside the security fence.
