It's about Mies, but I really think it's about architectural landscape ecology and modernism!

Well tonight I would have to say it was really about Barcelona winning the cup. I watched the last half an hour or so of the game on the megatron at Catalunya. In about the 75th minute or so Messi headed in a goal off a pretty sweet pass that sealed the deal. It was fun to watch and also to see how crazy the rest of the world gets about soccer (futbol, whatever). I've never watched a full game and I probably never will, but I can always get into a game in a country where people care about it. I mean, if I could get into cricket I could probably get into anything.

Now to the real post. It was a full day. We walked a good 7 or 8 hours, and by the time I was done I was sorry I started, but we did see some pretty amazing things. As the title of the post suggests, the day started out about Mies, but since he will require multiple posts throughout the trip, I'll skip over him and start right into architectural landscape ecology and modernism (as our fearless leader put it.) I will say that our first stop was the Barcelona, I mean "german" pavillion and it blew my mind. Awesome.

We made quite a trek up the hill, passing lots of civic buildings that included what I'm assuming is the capital building as well as other structures erected for the 1929 International Exposition. The place still seems like an exhibition in a lot of ways, attracting mostly tourists and disconnected significantly from the main city, but it is quite a grand space to be in.

As we got about half way up the hill, there started to be various installations within the landscape leading up to the Joan Miro Foundation Museum designed by Josep Lluis Sert.

Our next stop was an interesting above-ground cemetery. The place was like a labrynth. We couldn't tell where it started or ended, but was actually a really pleasant place to be in. As we made our way up we were given great views of the city and the ocean below.

The signal tower below is by Calatrava. Built for the olympics in 1988. They wouldn't let me go up.

We at long last arrived at the botanical gardens. It was a very new project by an old architect, Carlos Ferrater. This is where we get to architectural landscape ecology and modernism. I won't bore you with a lot of rhetoric, but suffice it to say that until I saw this project I thought that those two concepts were utterly opposed to each other. But to see this Mies style building overlooking the gardens was a thing of beauty, and the two seemed totally in harmony with each other. And if I hadn't been utterly exhausted by the time we got there I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more. I may have to take a second trip.