Back at it in Barcelona: Sagrada Familia edition

After a necessary and relaxing weekend in the Costa Brava and a good night's sleep back with their host families in Barcelona last night, we started off today with a trip to the enigmatic Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudí. Although largley still under construction due to years of lack of funding, the basilica is replete with thousands of minute details that you can spend hours observing and analyzing. Today the students would have a guided tour; however, apart from just having a tour guide, they would also be using tablets as a part of their interactive tour and learning experience!

First we entered a room where the students were divided up into groups and given tablets to start learning about the basilica's history. From there, we moved on to start seeing the different parts of the basilica, both the interior and the exterior. While inside, the students learn about the structure, the names of the different parts of the basilica in Spanish, as well as they begin to dissect the details within and ruminate on their symbolic meanings with the help of Pau, our tour guide. At one point, they use the tablets to see how the design of the roof allows for the best entrance of light based on the shape. They are able to trace the sun across the screen to see what shapes provide adequate lighting. Afterwared, as shown in one of the accompanying photos, Pau shows a group of students one of the fachadas of the basilica and explains some of the sculptures that depict nativity scenes. On the other completed fachada (at this point there are only three completed side, but one is not very pretty, according to Pau) the crucifixion is depicted and hidden among the scenes are sculptures of Gaudí and of Subirachs, the primary sculpture during the last half of the 20th century, along with a carved 'S' for his last name. 

The students learned so much today about a piece of architecture that is, perhaps, one of the most famous in the world as well as the most important piece of architecture in Barcelona! We'd like to say muchas gracias to Pau and the team who helped design the interactive tour for providing such great and accesible information for our students. After the tour, we returned for some lunch and then off to Spanish class!

Hasta la próxima aventura!