Wall Restoration in Fez, Morocoo

When we arrived in Fez, Morocco it was something I never expected. It was completely different then any place I have ever been too before. A good different though, because it was something that I have never seen before.

Inside the city it was completely opposite of our cities back home. Instead of having the decoration on the outside of buildings, they put it on the inside. So when you are walking around the city all you really see is blank walls with doors. Inside those doors though, there are beautiful palaces. You would never expect this though because there are not really any windows looking in from the outside. The only natural sunlight comes from above. It comes into the interior courtyard that most houses in Fez have. In all of our rooms there were windows but they faced into the courtyard and there were none facing to the outside. A very different feeling, but something very nice to see.

Instead of looking how the pavement was made I looked more into how there walls were made. One instance was looking at the old city wall which they were repairing.

At the pictures from the left it shows how they are repairing the old wall. Here they mix limestone and sand, kind of like our concrete. The wood planks are holding up the newly restored wall. The holes in the wall are used for ventilation because without ventilation in the walls the wall would collapse.

Another thing that was interesting about the making of walls in Fez is there Tiles and Mosaics. Here they use poured cement, then the tiles are put in place, it is dried, and then once completely dry it is lifted and put in place on the wall.

Also in Fez they have very decorated ornamentation on the walls. Here they carve into the plaster on the wall which is still soft. This plaster is made with marble dust and egg white. Both of these can be seen on the bottom left picture.

Gaudi's Paver Stone

For Spring Break my parents and my sister came and visited. One day we went and saw three of the Gaudi buildings in the city. We first went to Sagrada Familia, then Casa Mila, and lastly Casa Batllo. On the way to Casa Batllo I noticed the pavement that Gaudi had created was on the sidewalk. It was under construction so I was able to see how the tile was put into place.

The Sketch to the right shows how this is done and with what materials. First they lay down a concrete slab, then stone dust is used, followed by the paver stone on top.

The very interesting thing about this paver is that it is not ordinary. It is not just a plain rectangle or square. The paver stone is actually a hexagon and there are 3 different sea creatures on them.

The pavement is arranged so that there is half of the sea creature on 2 sides, so that whenever lined up with the other pavement it automatically finished the sea creature. This is seen in the picture below.

As you can see the sidewalk was under construction and this is how they were repairing it and adding in the new tiles.

Santorini, Greece

This was the last stop for the Greece vacation and it was Santorini an island in Greece. Getting there was prob. the longest trip. We first had to take a 8 hour ferry ride to the island and then go up and insane hill that felt like every turn we were going to fall off the cliff. Santorini was kind of dead when we got there though because we found out that it starts to pick up in 1-2 weeks. Knowing that was kind of a bummer, but it was still fun. We got to see these cliffs that were red, white, and black all in a couple hundred feet, and the sand was black. Also the water did have sand in it, but actually rocks in it. You could even here the rocks get turned by the water. The sound of the water and rocks together was amazing.

Athens, Greece

The next trip that we took there was 6 of us. We went to Athens and Santorini Greece. The first stop was Athens and we were there for 2 nights. We stayed in a Hostel right down the streep from the Acropolis. The Acropolis was very nice to finally see, but was kind of disapointing because most of the buildings had scaffolding all over them. It was still nice to see, but woulud have been a lot more appealing if there was no scaffolding. That has actually been something that we have seen a lot in our travels. Actually most of the buildings we go see there is work being done. That's a bad thing for pictures, but a very nice thing to see because that means eventually it will be restored and/or fixed. The pavement that I got to study in Athens was by far my favorite. It was basically marble slaps. That is very basic and I have seen a lot of that around other cities, but it also had glass plains that allowed a person to see down into the roman ruins. The glass combined with the marble and the ruins, just made it amazing and beautiful.

Marble pavement with glass looking through to the ruins.

This was seen at The New Acropolis Museuem, by Bernard Tschumi and it is supposed to be finished in about a year. This building was also my favorite in Athens because the way that Bernard Tschumi designed it. He built this 3 story building literally on top/hovering the roman ruins. He did this by have many columns through out the structure. Some of the columns even went from the roman ruins to the very top. You could actually see this through the glass. This is seen below.

Another pavement that I studied in Athens was on the way to the Acropolis from our hostel. This pavement like the pavement at The New Acropolis Museum, is something that I have not seen yet. This material was reversed from the pavements that I saw in southern spain and in Rome. This pavement was flat pavers, which is normal, but then had punches out of it as if rocks were put in it and then taken out. It was just something that different.

Rome, Italy

One weekend 7 of us decided to go visit Rome. We left on February 14, which was Valentines Day and we spent it at Girona airport having a bocadillo sandwhich and a Mahou beer, to February 18. It was exciting to go see another city in Europe outside of Spain. In that short amount of time we were able to see many things: St. Peters, The Vatican, The Colleseum, The spanish steps, and many piazzas and palazzos throughtout the city. One of the most exciting things we got to saw other than the amazing architecture was seeing the Pope speech on Sunday afternoon outside of his window. I was able to catch him on video and that is shown below.

My favorite new building in Rome had to be Richard Meier's, Museo dell'Ara Pacis. We only got to see it from the outstide because we were running out of time, but what we saw from the outside was amazing. Somehow in this old city he made this very nice buiding fit into place. I think the best part about the building was the entrance way from the perpindicular street. It had a fountain at the bottom next to the road and a wall of water that ran off of that towards the building. Then it had steps that brought you up to where the water started, which was in front of the entrance. On the facade that faced the street he used mainly glass, but had light shelves along the top. Through the glass we got to see an ancient part of Rome. I don't know what it was, but Richard Meier built around it and the Museo dell'Ara Pacis surrounded it. The material and pavements that he used here were marble for the floor and stone for the walls. They went well together because they were roughly the same material. He continued to not only use large blocks for the the building, but also for the water wall, and the floor pavements. Front of the building Two of the materials used

The water wall that leads down to the fountain

Sevilla, Spain

Sevilla was our final stop on our trip to southern spain. This was the first time I got to see a Calatrava bridge and it was amazing. The picture belows is take from the center looking towards the huge tower that connects all the cabels to the other side. In Sevilla there was bridge after bridge, but the above one was def. the most interesting. On the way to this bridge, we walked along the water. The pavement along the water was not as nice as the other cities. Throughout the city yes, but at this particular area not at all. It was just plane squares rotated to look like a diamond, but there was no significance to them. There was no hidden path in the center or on the sides, like there are in Barcelona. It was just plain and boring. If there was no bridges to get to, then this walk would of been never ending and very boring. We were along the water, so that made it very enjoyable, but the pavement itself was not enjoyable or interesting, just bland. That is seen below.

Granada, Spain

The third stop on our trip to southern spain was Granada, Spain. Here we got to visit the Alhambra. We were able to see it from afar and from up close. Not only did the interior of the Palace have gardens and courtyards, but there were actually exterior gardens. That was one of the things that I really enjoyed because it was somthing that we really have seen much of. Going through all the different courtyards in the exterior garden I noticed many different pavements, water features, trees and hedges.

This pavement that I saw inside of the courtyard was one that I have seen a lot on this trip. It is a lot different then the pavements in Barcelona. Barcelona pavements were more like tiles and 4in. by 4in. while at the Alhambra they were more of stones places strategically with mortar surrounding them. This is seen in the picture below.This pavement that I saw inside of the courtyard was one that I have seen a lot on this trip. It is a lot different then the pavements in Barcelona. Barcelona pavements were more like tiles and 4in. by 4in. while at the Alhambra they were more of stones places strategically with mortar surrounding them. This is seen in the picture above.

The pavement above I saw around the city of Granada and yet again it was nothing like Barcelona, but in fact just like inside of the Alhambra. It was a different pattern, but was constructed in the saw way by having stones with mortar around them.