84 Hours in Madrid

Been spending a few days in Madrid with Sai (uni friend of Warwick and Erica), her boyfriend Sirio and their beautiful dog - who you´ve already had a preview of - Rupert, in a gorgeous flat just next to the main square. So far so good.. i would even go as far as saying it´s my favourite city in Europe..

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Man Ray (L)

Painting of an artist´s studio

Edward Scissorhands: Definitely one of the best and most creative street performers i´ve seen

Gourmet food/tapas market

I´m sorry, i can´t help it.

Bad design: A ramp... or a slide?

Tiny cars

The Royal Palace

Cafe Colette: for just $10, you can get 3 courses, a coffee, unlimited wine/shots, tea biscuits and some damn good TLC from the owners. Not bad at all.

Sai and Sirio - first course

Caixa Forum

What´s wrong with this picture?...

A piece of the balcony across the road broke off from 4 storeys high. You can imagine our excitement when we realised what great views we had!

Advertisments for Porn Films: don´t be deceived by the brightly coloured, child-like titles...
Subtext - ¨The women need to have a reason to make love. The men need a place.

¨My girl wants to do it with her¨

Vintage Market

Rupert

Name? Rupert.
Owners? Sai and Sirio.
Personality? A dog who really thinks he´s a human: Caught him last night sleeping on my bed, his head resting on my pillow.






....That dog has some serious issues, but boy is he cute.

La Sagrada Familia

[Barcelona]; i figured Gaudi's immense La Sagrada Familia deserved it's own post, given it started construction in 1882, and is STILL being built today. I think they're predicting the church to be finished by something like the year 2026. What persistence!





You think that was good? Well the most incredible feature of the building is the inside. So if you're thinking of ever, EVER going to see this building, you must pay that 10 euro entry fee. I'm telling you, it's worth every cent.

Warwick sketching

The only frustrating thing was that the pope was due to visit the following day. This meant that some intense cleaning and setting up was under way, with video cameras and plastic chairs conflicting with the gothic vibe.

World Architecture Festival

World Architecture Festival, Barcelona, 2010...Great 3 days of seminars from respectable architects and artists, as well as project presentations regarding works that related to education, art spaces, landscape, residential etc. Even though i have no concept of architecture in terms of who's who and what's what, it was great exposure for me and really confirmed my interests in design.

Picnic Lunch with Erica, Warwick, and their uni friend Sai


Closing ceremony


There were a range of current and future buildings/concepts, from a radical city research projects in Copenhagen concerning the concept of robotic cars (i.e. no human drivers) to artificial micro-climates for the general public in Singapore.


To see a really cool video about the Singapore project, go to http://www.directorsnotes.com/2008/03/19/gardens-by-the-bay-squintopera/

(*copyright http://www.cpgcorp.com.sg/press/view_newsletters.asp?Lang=en&id=55, http://www.directorsnotes.com/2008/03/19/gardens-by-the-bay-squintopera/)

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech..... Dalí The Great

While in Barcelona, i had to visit Salvador Dalí's hometown, Figueres, to check out the Dalí Museum (constructed inside the ruins of the old Municipal Theatre). With all it's crazy crazy features (such as eggs on the roof and people pertruding out of the walls), Dalí actually created the building as a dedication to himself. Egotistic, but a bloody genius to say the least.

The incredible installation, Face of Mae West 1934 - one of Dalí's most famous works dedicated to an entire room