Reece's and Pieces

Trip to Cordoba

   The trip was really fun it was for my Argentina and Context class so our teacher and Bonder came and gave us guided tours to all these different buildings. I really liked it cause traveling alone is so different then traveling with people who know what they are talking about. Our teacher also arranged for other people who live in the cities and are kind of experts on the area and architecture. So we got like an inside view on all the good works to see and what was important about them. We went on bus which most of us slept through so it was fine but they were like 12 hour long bus rides. 

Courtyard facade of the Secondary School. 

Detail of the Secondary school in Cordoba.

Our first day in Cordoba we were running around looking at so many buildings. This building is The Secondary School designed by Bidinost, Chute, Gasso, Lapaco and Meyer. It was really cool cause its modeled after Le Corbusier's Chandigarh in India. Its an open air roof over the school complex. Its a really huge scaled roof compared to the size of the people. You can see it in the photo. The roof is vaulted at the other side and turns smooth as it gets to the front and then turns up. Theres almost no columns in the middle of the space  holding up that roof either. 

Then we visited the Botanical Gardens designed by Monica and Carlos Bartolli. There was really cool skylights along the edges and center of the room that, when you realize the section through the building, is only a thin piece of concrete maybe 6 inches wide that is folded to make the depth appear much greater. Also On the bottom floor under this space you realize that its skylights are actually embedded in the wall section of the exterior wall of the floor  above it.  

So this is what it kinda looks like if you draw a section through the room. The picture above is of the top room and that skylight existed inside the wall between those windows on the right hand side. 






More pictures of the Botanical Gardens 

The next place we went was a quick stop to see this house that is a bridge connecting two sides of what used to be an important water source for the city. 

After that we met up with an architect friend of Bonders Carlos Ricardo the Director of Technology at Universidad Di Tella. He grew up in Cordoba so he was able to give us a better explanation to the city at a glance. Firstly we began our tour at the canal de Cordoba that cuts through the city. We learned about Togo Diaz and his usage of brick with great detail and care. He worked in the 1970’s and his family owned a brick company making him apt to use it a lot in his construction.  His detail was so precise that the workers would never have to cut a brick to make his buildings.

This Carlos Richardo and our friend Reece's. He was a stray dog who decided to come sleep by our feet while we talked and then followed us around for about an hour or so. He was amazing. All he wanted was friends and love. 

This is Reece's finding us some dinner. 

This is Reece's protecting us from every single car that passed by. 

A storm began to roll in. 

Cue torrential down pour flooding everywhere and forcing us to run and find shelter.

This is right after we found Pieces, Reece's friend. 

They both followed us for a while. 

Dont worry they protected us from the storm. 

A tree fell down right in front of us across the canal. 

We waited there until our shelter began to flood from overflowing sewage systems. 

So we had to run to a cafe. 

And Reece's and Pieces couldn't come in. 

... 

So they waited ... outside. 

Until finally we took too long and they disappeared ... :( 

The Cathedral on our way back to the hotel.  

My favorite part of the trip to Cordoba was the visit to architecture firm that Ricardo took us to. It was really important for me to hear their design strategy using the old and new together because I feel like that is a really important question when designing anywhere there is existing architecture. There building was forced by the government to do something they didn’t want it to do. Instead of backing away from the project, they decided to take the challenge and make that problem their solution. The change, in reality, dictated a whole new set of design strategies that enhanced that quality of the project. This kind of reality is something we, as architecture students, do not face when designing for studio. We never hit challenges where our idea is simply impossible because of outside forces. This is a reality that is important when designing because design is dictated not only by the architect, but also by laws and construction abilities, funds and outside opinions. I felt it was very helpful for us to see how it is possible to keep our integrity as architects while shifting through the sea of challenges.

Pictures of the firm

(go ahead... take a closer look)

...after they talked to us we all had a beer, went out to dinner and listened to some traditional spanish guitar music. 

end day 1