Every Gaudi structure shown here, while open to the public with accompanying museum and book store, is still used for its intended purpose. The younger ones are a hundred years old and several are older. There has been some reuse providing shops on the first floor of several. The Temple De La Sagrada Famila is still under construction. As construction, these buildings are remarkable for how well they are built, have stood the test of time, have been maintained, and in recent years, restored.

These picture show only four of Gaudi’s projects, mostly from his later period, with only a few pictures of each. Yet, the remarkable variety of forms, engineering integration and practical inventiveness can be easily seen. The material richness of the buildings is one of their outstanding characteristics. As varied as they are in purpose and solution there is a uniform world view which permeates all. Each is a total and complete world of its own and each relates to the other, to Barcelona and - to a significant degree - defines barcelona.

Gaudi was one of the few architects, in modern times, who actually took a direct and active role in the building of his works. This allowed an attention to detail not possible with drawings alone. It also infused the kind of energy into the buildings that is usually reserved for art made on a more intimate scale. I have observed, in my own work, that this attention - all other aspects being equal - produces a significant difference in the quality of the result and in the response of those who experience the “completed” environment. This was demonstrated in the building of the Unicredit NavCenter which is the first time I had committed this level of involvement since the making of the Palo Alto knOwhere Store in late 1997 - nearly a decade ago. It is clear to me that the future works I have in mind will require this approach. I have always been disposed to build this way - and have often in the past - and advocated it; yet, my recent experiences have reinforced in my mind the absolute requirement of this approach. To be clear: it is not just the result in the technical and mechanical sense - it is the feeling that finds its way into and permeates the structure. This is clear in the many works profiled in this writing. It is factor of how these works were built, used and in many cases rebuilt over long periods of time. An entirely different sense of architecture emerges out of this process than the “secular,” linear, “commercial” approach of today [link: real estate].

Gaudi saw his work as an essentially religious act. If you go to the root of this word you will discover that it means “to connect back.” I feel the same way just not necessarily in the framework of a dogma. I also believe a work must lead forward [link: mrs pew]. Great works of authentic architecture have the power to transform human perception and experience [link: mt thesis]. To do this they must be designed and built right and also used and evolved properly over a lengthy period of time. Our modern attitude of seeing buildings as a utility - only, and a commodity - commercially, along with our present real estate practices, produces monuments to humanity’s baser expressions at the expense of providing an exalted, transformational experience of what we individually and - as a species - can become. I beiieve that Gaudi knew this and it was this inpuse that determined his architecture, apporach to practice, and the personal decisons that governed his life.

What is interesting about Gaudi is that his work is both unique - it still stands alone as a highly individualistic expression - and how he fits within a long, centuries old, tradition and within a period when this very tradition - which he started within - was being challenged and transformed. As his work evolved, he became increasingly controversial and the conflicts between him and his clients increased. He ultimately abandoned secular work and devoted his last years to his temple. He turned away from the very life-style and client base that supported his early work. The exact details of this are shrouded in mystery as Gaudi was an intensely private person. He published little and what writings and drawings did exist were lost during the Spanish revolution.

Like most of Organic Architecture, his work cannot be successfully copied. It is bound by time, place and circumstance - as it should be. It is, however, one expression of not only an approach to architecture that is steeped in universal principles - but also a body of work which became a testament to life itself. Gaudi searched for the underpinnings that made Nature what it is and sought to employ this harvest as a means to the making of human habitat. And, like all true artists, he was an expression of his time and of a world that was not yet but could be. At this, he was supremely successful. I expect, today, Gaudi and his approach is considered by the profession to be an exception from the past. If we are going to have a viable architecture, I suggest that Gaudi be studied as a precursor to a new approach to the art of making architecture.

With the exception of the last photo, which is the hotel near where we stayed, these pictures are all from the Medieval old town section of Barcelona. Here, buildings have been built, modified and used for hundreds of years right up to today.

There are few environments which have the amenity of a well preserved/restored Medieval town that has been carefully retrofitted with modern technology. The Pattern Language of these towns is extraordinary. The streets are great social spaces. There are abundant private courts. Light and ventilation is handled well and materials are rich with texture and history. Add modern sanitation to this, electricity and electronics, steel and glass where appropriate, sensitive (not a copy) additions, and the results are often an architecture far richer than what is built from scratch today. Certainly more enduring.

We walked for miles in Barcelona. I think it was Ian McHarg who said the measure of a city’s greatness is the degree you want to walk in it. Barcelona invites walking and I do not think you could absorb its variety in five years of continuous exploration. This is not because of size. It is the richness of human experience that Barcelona expresses and supports that attracts so.

While in Barcelona I reduced my contact with the outer world to the minimum possible. The eliminated distractions and left my mind free to respond in this place and moment. This became a period of absorbing and reflection. The many pictures I took were shot as a reflex without a focused intent an prescribed purpose. 5 mega-pixel cameras which fit easily into a pocket and palm of a hand are such a joy. Gail and I had some good conversations but I think the time for both of us was more a meditation and a taking in rather than mental processing and putting out. This was deep time and it has taken a lengthily process to pull it out and objectify it in this documentation.

The hotel bar, shown in the last picture here, is a surprising space. It is a corner room which looks out onto a busy barcelona intersection. We came here twice because the ambiance was so pleasant and the subtle way that it mediated between private and social space so effectively. The arrangement between the exterior fenestration, the interior columns and the arches was peaceful yet so intriguingly complex that, after several hours a a few glasses of rich Spanish wine, I was still probing its puzzles - a rare pleasure for someone who can usually grasp and architectural solution in an instant.

A four star hotel in a restored royal palace that is part of a chain across Spain. A restored palace, where a Conqueror’s family lived for hundeds of years, that is now an active foundation and research facility, with visiting scholars, studying the history and relationship between Spain and the New World. An abandoned industrial building now a sparkling restaurant overlooking the city. A defunct cement factory to become an incubation center - both symbol and tool for a renewing knowledge economy. A once prosperous Medieval city, where our host played in as a young boy - when it was nearly empty - now alive again with shops, restaurants and homes and religious facilities that have been continuously in use for hundreds of years. A vast Roman site with baths, circus, theatre and homes buried and forgotten - rediscovered a century ago - now a national museum with the theatre used as it was in the first century. A river and trade center for 2,000 years; Roman, Christian, Islamic, medieval, industrial - all gone with a modern city emerging from it all. Vast farmlands cattle, sheep cork - once again connected to the major cities as it was in ancient times - reawakening. This is the Extremadura Region of Spain. Rich in history. Rich in prospect. At a crossroads of time.

This description and these pictures do not even begin to tell the story of three days of sensory overload, engaging dialog and a renewed sense of the continuity of past, past and future. Here is one version, in a nutshell, of Western Civilization’s story - including the profound Islamic influence - and the issues it faces today. Are we going to replay history or reinvent ourselves [link: 4 step recreation model] and our future?

This was my first exposure to Roman architecture and engineering on any scale. It is a very different thing than Hollywood movies (no surprise here) and pictures would lead you to believe. It is far more organic, material, textured and nuanced than I expected. The quality of the construction I did expect but this also had a greater emotional and esthetic impact on me than I was prepared for. The Romans knew how to make place. They built to last. A great number of modern buildings and roads rest happily on Roman foundations. The Romans were also extremely practical builders who took care of drainage and other such considerations. They did not hide these concerns - they made their solution an organic expression of the work as a whole. While employing ornament is all the ways they are known for (marble columns, freezes, etc.), they also embedded ornament into the way of building - in the structure - in a manner that any organic architect practicing today would heartily applaud. I wonder what the total weight of these two tendencies really was on the scale of a completed town or city. I expect it was toward the more direct expression of simplicity and expression of structure and building method.

I found my self thinking when looking at the Roman Theatre: “I would love being the construction superintendent building this project.” I actually felt this as a physical emotion. If someone had walked up at that moment and offered me the job of completely restoring this work I would have started in a moment.

As one raised in the organic tradition it is easy to appreciate Gothic and even Medieval from the distance of time and through the media of pictures. I have been surprised at my reaction to the Renaissance and Baroque periods. These are certainly not idioms I would draw on, however, these architects knew the basics far better than I was prepared to believe and solved the design problems of their time very well. We lose a great deal when we do not study these periods of architecture very carefully and not just on the the visual level. Their construction methods and how they dealt with lighting and ventilation and other such issues is also worthy of close attention. These “periods,” as we tend to think of of them as separate and distinct, are not the point. It is the fabric of 2,000 years of building and rebuilding, use and adaptive re-use, that reveals the true quality of this work. This is a tradition and architecture of continuity - and while there are pieces of great individual value - it is the fabric of the whole which makes the enduring human landscape. The architecture of our time with its blunted sensitivity to context, subjugation to real estate economics, and the egocentric stardom of developers and architects, is creating a fragmented environment. We are making a bunch of pieces - some brilliant most atrocious - that add up to a random peanut butter spread over the landscape. We are obliterating Nature - and even our own civilization - and ultimately, the planet [link: planetary architecture] all in the name of a theory of economic practices [link: 12 aspects of upside down economics] that are so absurd that only their monumental insanity protects them and those who promote their atrocities. Few, raised and trained in the “advanced” countries, can believe that anything can be this wrong - so, it somehow must be right.

I am not romanticizing the times that built these architectures. They were often brutal and stupid times. Each of the historical periods, which these architectures represent, self-destructed just as ours will if we do not pay attention. This does not mean, however, that some of their assumptions and methods where not right. It does not mean that we should ignore the achievements that were accomplished despite the many negative conditions of their time and wonder how we cannot do far better given the circumstances we enjoy today. We can appreciate the art that was accomplished when so much was against this happening and we can learn from this example of the human spirit to prevail even when logic says it could not. I am not saying that every building should be built to last 1,000 years. I am saying that every building should have intrinsic value and should be built to a programmed use life-cycle by studied, sustainable, true life-cycle economics and it can be a work of art of immense practical utility.

What we build can be a part of a social fabric made up of place and time and summing to a whole that is life-giving and sustainable. Our ancestors were able to do this to a remarkable degree with a fraction of the freedom, knowledge, wealth and technology which we have in hand today.

Architecture is both social memory and aspiration. It is the background musical score for the movie we call life. It shelters us from the storms and at its best allows us to still experience weather, time and seasons. It provides a place to hang our clothes, cook our meals and organize our lives and, hopefully, does this in a way that transforms the mundane into an expression of the art of living. Architecture has value and is a major contributor to economy and wealth - it is not commodity.

Architecture is PLACE and place is an essential ingredient for human health, productivity and happiness. Architecture emerges from every society even when the conditions are such it is difficult to believe that the time and energy involved could possiblly have beeen marshaled. The paradox and tragedy our time is that we produce so little of it compared to the wealth we squander. This is why when told “we cannot afford it” I stare in mute incredulous anger. If we can afford doing what we are doing to ourselves and our planet today - we can afford anything.

The Museo Nazionale is full of treasures however here I will focus on its architecture. Like many of the buildings we saw in the last two weeks it is build on the foundations of a Roman work. We spent about three hours in the building which allowed us to basically walk it and get a sense of its structure and contents. The first thing to realize is that here is a building that has been used, altered, added to and rebuilt for centuries. It has Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and, at this point, largely Baroque elements all, now, with the careful insertion of modern technology.

It is interesting to note that the character and amenity of old buildings changes significantly with modern technology properly applied - in this case, accomplished in a very transparent way. From Medieval to the late 19th Century, buildings could not have been very comfortable. Roman technology, at its best, would have been better with running water and in-wall/floor heating. What is clear is that these older works did adapt better to weather and lighting requirements, sans technology, in terms of the basic structure than most modern ones which rely too heavily on technology. Tall ceilings, good ventilation, courtyards and solid materials were abundant. In many respects, they were much greener than the majority of contemporary built works. It is actually the Victorian era that proliferated overfilled, fussy, stuffy rooms.The combination of old architecture and modern sanitation, technology and transportation can be outstanding and calls for reexamining the value of these pieces. It should be noted, however, that these works were only for the very wealthy. In the case of what we are looking at here, the King. While their economy, symbol and architectural grammar may not be fit for our time, two things are true: their command of architectural technique and skill of building is far superior to the vast majority of modern works - whatever the budget - and if properly retrofitted, they can have a useful life today for specific purposes.

There is something about what time does to a properly designed and built work of architecture that provides a quality that no new structure can match. This quality needs to be better understood and we need to understand better how buildings weather, age and adapt, and incorporate this in our modern works.

Three architectures working together to create a constantly changing landscape for creative action.

It is difficult to see this integration from pictures because the camera cannot show what the human eye can see and they do not adequately provide the sense of space and feel of materials as they actually exist. In reality, all three architectures: the original classical shell, the contemporary work of glass and steel, and the wood of the organic NavCenter Armature, floor and WorkFurniture can be seen together no matter where you stand.

One of the goals of this architecture is to remind people WHO they are - in terms of their best sense of themselves - and WHERE they are - in terms of place, city region and world - yet, to do this while not triggering memories of workplaces which only obstruct the free flowing exercise of their creative capabilities [link: a manifesto]. PLACE is necessary and so is historical context - symbols that trigger not-useful reactions and habits are not wanted [link: the 22 aspect of memory]. There is nothing conventional about the totality of this environment yet history is respected [link: unicredit navcenter tour]. It is also a requirement of the function of the NavCenter that, when inside working, people lose the overwhelming presence of the world from which they came. The NavCenter has to create a reality sufficient to function on its own for an extended period of time. It is in this exciting yet safe place - that represents the best past, present and future, that we can make possible - in which people are challenged to learn and recreate their preferred future. In the world they normally work in the overwhelming environmental (physical place, work process and tools) context encourages the status quo and at best improvements on a future that is already designed by default [link: a future by design not default].

Everything “speaks” every thing is embedded, manifested idea. It is interesting that Verlyn Klinkenborg would write the following: Letter From California: Looking for the Pattern of Ordinary Life about Southern California which is a place at once so rich and yet so indistinct. What have we done to ourselves? It could be credibly argued that Southern California has the richest collection of modern architecture that exists in any one place as well as a heritage that goes back to Spanish times [link: esther mccoy five california architects]. Yet, so much of the armature is shattered. What is this experience and what does it mean? How does it affect health, work and humanness? How did it come about? What will facilitate its change? What will another generation of signature buildings by star architects combined with mundane commercial workspaces and homes add up to?

I refer to the NavCenter as a landscape for work and I do not mean this as a metaphor. The variety of people who will work here - their skills and preferred cognitive modalities - and the scale and scope of the challenges they will engage - from learning to design and from local to global issues - requires a place that is as variegated as they are and what their work demands. This is an issue of requisite variety [link: ashby requisite variety] not esthetic opinion.

It is best to think about the requirements of an effective NavCenter as being exactly those of a viable city - the same pattern language and ecology-economics are involved - they are just exercised on a more intimate level of recursion. Not only it this necessary, functionally, for the NavCenter to operate as it should, it also is a direct expression of the key aspects of the Taylor Method which artfully employ the principles of iteration, recursion and feedback link: taylor method table 2] to promote systematic emergence [link: zone of emergence engine].

The economics of this NavCenter “city” have to be what Jane Jacobs calls a replace economy [rbtf book: cities and the wealth of nations]. They have to be able to reinvent themselves and their economic basis as required by changing circumstances. The must function and have all of the characteristics of a replacement economy and bring the principles of a replace economy to their users in a way that allows them to embed them into their solutions. A NavCenter which lives only by corporate patronage will soon grow stale and die.