Together with BFEI teachers Emer and Angie, an excited group of seventeen interior architecture and design students ventured to Madrid for our "Design Week" adventure.

Day 1

Dazed and tired from our 5am rendezvous in Dublin Airport we regained our energy and excitement when we stepped from our Aer Lingus flight into Sterling prize winner, T 4 Barajas Airport, designed by Antonio Lamela, Richard Rogers and Luis Vidal. We were awed by the glass walls, the yellow undulating roof, skylights and the natural light.

We initiated our afternoon guided walking tour by stepping on the “centre point of Spain” (although our guide informed us that the actual centre is in the hills outside Madrid).

A true Madrilenian, our guide imparted Madrid’s history, architecture, beauty and quirks with infectious enthusiasm. We learned about the bear and the strawberry tree, symbol of Madrid; the monarchy of Spain, each with a statue and the architecture including the very Spanish Isabelline style of 15 and 16C.the Plaza Mayor café was the perfect spot for tapas with BFEI friends at the end of the first day.

Day 2

We started at 8am with a get-together breakfast in the Generator Hostel before we stepped out onto the Gran Via, Madrid’s main street, to walk to Museo del Prado. Gran Via was a riot for the senses of architectural styles from 20th-century revival Vienna Secession, Plateresque, Neo-Mudéjar and Art Deco. Our eyes veered upward to the fascinating statues on the roofs. We checked out the blue ceilinged lobby of neo-plateresque Hotel las Letras and peered in the window to see the brilliantly-coloured tile adorned staircase. I had to pinch myself to realize I was entering the Prado. I was going to visit paintings that always fascinated me:

Goya always intrigued me. He painted happy scenes as court painter to the Spanish Royalty in 1786. His evolved to paint The Third of May in 1808, the depiction of the horrors of war which inspired many paintings since. In 1808 it was ground breaking in its style, subject and intention. In 1819 at 72 and deaf, he painted disturbing nightmarish paintings on the walls of his house. Some say he had lead paint poisoning. He did not intend them to be exhibited. They were later hacked from the walls of the house and now are in the Prado.

A quick delicious lunch in a tiny café together, then a dash on foot to the vast Royal Palace. Dating from the eighteenth century, 135,000 square metres, 3,418 rooms, and still used by Royalty for official ceremonies. It was built between 1738 and1755 on the site of a 9th Century Moorish fortress. For me it was a lavish feast of sumptuous baroque neo-classical architecture and interiors.

After a rest, a desert and tea in the café I wondered across the huge square to the Almudena Cathedra which took a hundred years to build, finished in1993. The many styles surprised to me, its Baroque exterior, Neo-Gothic interior and Roman crypt. I loved the modern brightly coloured ceiling.

In the evening, we had a wonderful “golden hour” walk through dark blue sky and bright lights as we headed to a converted cinema restaurant to dine. We sat on steps in the art deco foyer to reconfigure when the attendant told us the restaurant was closed that day. All was not lost because we discovered “Honest Green”, an eco-friendly restaurant chain, I enjoyed a delicious meal with my fellow BFEI design connoisseurs. The responsibly sourced innovative dishes were good. The interior design was really good and inspiring too.

Day 3

We took the metro to the Metadero, a mixed cultural converted slaughterhouse from the nineteenth century. It was interesting and inspiring to observe how it was developed for new uses of exhibitions, artistic endeavours and instillations.

We visited the immersive experience of the “last days of Pompeii” which was an exhibition including various virtual reality experiences. It was my first experience of virtual reality. We virtually walked through the intact lavish Roman houses and streets of Pompeii and lived through the Mount Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 when lava enveloping the city.

Next, we walked along the Madrid Rio, the banks of the river Manzanares to see urban, landscape and bridge design incorporating sport facilities, playgrounds. Some of us had a go on the zipline.

The Reina Sofia Museum is as fascinating for its architecture as it is for the contemporary art inside, including the Spanish greats; Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and its most renowned painting Picasso’s Guernica the “universal symbol of the struggle against oppression and violence”. Situated at the former General Hospital of Madrid built in the eighteenth century, was renovated over the years. The three glass circulation towers, designed by Ian Ritchie, were added in 1989. More recently the 8000 m², expansion designed by French architect Jean Nouvel opened in October 2005. It includes two new exhibition buildings, an auditorium building and a great library of art and humanities. I found it exhilarating to experience the scenography and museography of this contemporary space. The materials used were new and exciting for me. Red coloured fibreglass and polyester, extruded aluminium and lots of glass.

What a thrill to wander around the circulation spaces, to take the transparent lift to the top floor and walk around the inside/outside space under the great of 8000 m² red tapering roof, supported by slender metallic columns.

Day 4

On our last day we had until 3pm to see anything we wanted.

Three of us decided to take the longer metro journey to see the Hotel Puerta America. A hotel where nineteen of the world’s renowned architects, including four Pritzker prize winners Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Jean Nouvel, designed a floor each.

Having been informed that only hotel guests could visit, we set out to observe the Jean Nouvel façade and perhaps have a coffee in the lobby lounge. Our stars line up because after a chat about us being interior architecture students with friendly dapper-uniformed attendant Jorge at the door, he took us on a small tour of a few floors and bedrooms via the exterior glass lift.

It was another BFEI Madrid tour highlight for me. We experienced up-close the true essence of world esteemed interior architecture designers.

We stepped into the stainless-steel plasma floor designed by Eva Castro and Holger Kehne: Norman Foster’s cream leather, translucent glass and backlit onyx bedroom and corridor; Marc Newson’s brilliant red lacquered wood lobby and hallway and Zaha Hadid’s sinuous and fluid spaces of acrylic and embedded halogen lighting.

We had that coffee in the lounge and rejoiced in our heavenly design experiences before the practicality of our journey home.

I’m still reeling!

Thank you to Emer and Angie for being amazing, you guided us through a “chock-a-block” itinerary of inspirational art and design locations in Madrid. Thank you to all fellow students on the tour, you were a great bunch of people to be with in my discovery of Madrid.