a [Cricket]'s View of La Sagrada Familia

a [Cricket]'s View of  La Sagrada Familia
Poster presented for 36 Views of Sagrada Familia [after Hokusai]
Metropolis Graduate Program of Architecture and Urban Culture
BCN, May 2011

La Sagrada Familia. A monumental symbol or just a neverending construction site of "ruins"? A landmark in metropolitan landscape - or an illutional appearance out of personal orgasm? A guiding lighthouse in the middle of confusing El Eixample - or a legal alien [as Sting would calls it] in the neighborhood?

Walking or hopping East from Jardins d'Antoni Puigvert through carrer Corsega, maybe seen as normal and as boring as walking in any other part in El Eixample derecha.  Anyhow, even if it seems like a long boring walk in similar blocks, everyday life in the neighborhood is full of tones and colours. The scent of lilies up on the balcony sneaking out to the sidewalks, makes a unique mixture of smells with the polen sent from Parc Guell. On the bench just around the corner, an old lady with a cane keeps sneezing - not aware of the polen that stimulates her allergy. A chirping bird flying from one tree to another, competing with the grumpy mortar mixer sounds beyond the high barks of a chihua-hua. People passes by: various colours in various melodies. 

In some points, a wide open linear area divided the rigid blocks makes a linear sight like an axis; but everything else seems the same. People come and go, while there are also those with particular acts. Some with camera hanging in their chess, or those with smiles posing on the chair outside the cafetaria. A beautiful young lady dressed like gypsy sit on the sidewalk in front of an ice cream kiosk, with novel on her right hand. For three kids there, the avinguda named after a local artist here is their soccer field cover with grey grass. 

The trees lining through Avinguda Gaudi; escorts the wanderer with their branches and leaves hovering above, makes a particular enclosure and completed the landscape with warmth. It's a long walk, as you see - but this tiny little legs can take me anywhere.  From the wooden bench to those brownie skin of the trunk. From the smells of cinnamon ice cream to the rich savoury - tangy pizza with anchovies. I stand on a clump of dirt, watching them passes me by. A boy with a ball, old couple holding arms each other, and groups of teenager laughing along the way. 

From this flattened plank of wood, the world seems smaller. I can hardly hear the roar and screech of machines, as hardly can I see the tourists with their cameras. Yet somehow up on the sky - between the range of the branches and the shilouette of leaves, I can still see the arm of the alien - reaching up through the navy blue canvas.