The works of Antoni Gaudi & Paella
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2008
1
3
Trip End
Aug 03, 2008
Barcelona, Spain
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Pedrera building which is one of the famous works of Gaudi is situated on the main street of Passeig de Garcia. In the top floor of the house is a an exhibition of a typical housing accomodation of the affluent of the early 20th century in Barcelona. The chandeliers used in this flat are absolutely amazing. The flat is well designed making maximum use of natural lighting. Most of the furniture also of this period depicts the furniture of the time though i think tht it was made much later.
The attic of the building is the important part of the tour. The flat though the work of Gaudi is quite normal by his standards. The attic houses an exhibition called Espai Gaudi, which is a detailed description of the works and the design techniques of the man. On display here are also scaled models of the famous works such as the Pedrera and Casa Batllo along with sketches of Gaudi's biggest project the Sagrada Familia. For those who are familiar with programs such as AutoCad and Solidworks will understand what a wire frame diagram is. The true genius of Gaudi is revealed in the way he developed his own wire frame models before computers were a reality.
The final part of the exhibition explains the strange appearance of most Gaudi buildings. The roof of the Pedrera building is another part of the exhibit that must be visited. The roof is a multi-level floor with the 4 stairways being topped off by the water tanks. The design of the chimneys is also interesting and is said that it was done so that the breeze would have perfect aerodynamic flow to carry away the smoke.
After the visit to the Pedrera, Kenneth and me went off on our way to check out the Sagrada Familia. On the way we saw some lesser known works of Gaudi and grabbed a bite to eat. The first word that comes to mind when I saw the Sagrada Familia was that its huge. The building has an unique design for a church though my friends insist that its not really a church but more of a temple for prayer and peaceful reflection. The building has been under construction for nearly a century now and is still incomplete. I was told that the plans made by Gaudi were destroyed during the revolution in Spain. On the resumption of work architects had a tough time figuring out the original intentions of Gaudi. Many Spaniards today are not sure if the work is going along the directions of the master architect.
After the visit to the Sagrada Familia we took a short walk to another building by one of Gaudi's contemporaries, Lluis Domenech i Montaner. The Sant Pau hospital. After visiting the works of both these famous architects we decided to head back home and make plans for the evening. Plans for the evening were to head to my favourite part of town "la Rambla and the old city quarter." The plan was to sample a typical Catalan dish called Paella. Paella can be made form a combination of rice with many kinds of meat, but the best of combination is to have Paella with sea food. I liked this new dish as well that I tried in Barcelona and was also my first time at eating a mix of sea food like shrimp, prawn and molluscs. Anyway that was the end of another day....
