Day 4. Barcelona
Arrive to a warm sun and a new culture. The crew is excited to see how the financial crisis has affected this nation.

Arriola and Fiol spent a generous afternoon with the team today, beginning with a tour of the Parc Central. Interestingly, the competition process that we tend to associate with european practice appears to be having a detrimental affect here, with the chances of winning so low that practices

are no longer as interested. Renumeration is now
poor also. Reform to the system appears immanent. If that is the case, it prompts the question what model would be a suitable replacement?

This is especially relevant given this offices’ history with the
Parc de la Villette competition back in the 80’s. Aside from the usual issues of maintaining design integrity through the construction process (an apparently universal phenomenon, along with D&B), the studio finds that there are often different expectations of the role of a winning practice when working abroad, particularly. Design ideas competitions are a notable point of contention here. Should the architect be guaranteed the opportunity to see the winning scheme built? This is certainly the cultural expectation here for now but there appears no guarantee the contractors will take it through to completion with the same integrity, as in Australia. Unfortunately the language barrier didn’t
enable us to probe further on this issue. Eye-opening none the less.

Sagrada Familia
Mind officially blown! Elated elevatoring to peak of sagrada familia, all faces drenched in expressions of awe + amazement