Straight out of Bilbao...

From the White Night festival...a performance involving three guys beating the life out of this car. No joke.

the one, the other, the amazing

Very few things produce the same emotion more than once. The discovery of the unknown has always the advantage of being the first encounter with the unexpected, but the Great Mosque of Cordoba defies that rule to become an endless discovery.

We were immersed today in its complexity, and after a more than two hour-long visit, we shared a great conversation based on the idea of how two different systems met and the effects that this overlap produced.

We had 13 pairs of eyes looking at different aspects of it, and when we left we all saw much more than what we saw a few moments before.

Drawings are starting to appear as tools of thinking rather than just representation, and with that each one of us is finally traveling.

the Rottery

San Lorenzo de El Escorial is more than a palace, cathedral, and monastery; it is also the resting place of the kings and queens of Spain. After the death of a monarch, they are not immediately placed in the crypt. Instead, they are moved to the waiting room (or "rottery" -david goodman) where they stay for 40 years. yum.

"Don't show the limit of your knowledge or the bottom of your pockets" - said the architect that we visited today in Toledo. You can take a lot out of these words.. For me architecture stands on the edge between clarity and ambiguity, transparency and mystery. The more I learn about architecture the more I understand that it is not simply design. It is a very deep and thorough study of the site, history, human expectations, and the needs for the building. It has to be approachable, but it should surprise at the same time; it has to create a sequence, a procession; finally, it has to create an emotion. What kind of emotion do we want a building to create? For me this is the hardest question. The archive building we went to today created a feeling of stability, serenity, embrace of the past... The architect seemed to have a strong passion for his work and the deep understanding the past, the site and the culture of the town...

Toledo

wow. today we traveled to Toledo by high speed train (only 30 min away). We were all scoping out rental properties in hopes that we could someday live there. A beautiful mix of architecture, landscape, and willingness of drivers to let timid touring teenagers :) cross the road has made Toledo a 'muy bueno' experience.

HIGHLIGHT: met Ignacio Mendaro Corsini, architect of the Archivo Municipal de Toledo (archive building). I loved listening to him describe his project, even though I don't speak spanish. It seems architecture IS a language of its own.

HIGHLIGHT # 2: the El Transparente (skylight in the middle of the Toledo Cathedral). I've never seen anything like it. If you're reading this now, you need to go see it...really, right now.

The day started smoothly with a cafe con leche in the Circulo de Bellas Artes.

By 9:00pm we were all feeling that that steamy, milky coffee was a couple of days ago.

The day was full and exhausting, Caixa Forum, Museo Reina Sofia (...Guernica...), Atocha Station, Parque del Buen Retiro, and a long, endless walk for some, through the new and old city.

The high point of the day, an outstanding, Tim Burton's fantasy Spider Man in the Plaza Mayor, trying to convince one of our students to proudly take his place... We will keep you posted with the latest news about this concern.