This weekend I am taking an architectural trip with three others in the graduate program. I’m going to see the work of one of my favorite architects, Peter Zumthor.
We are going to the Thermal Baths in Vals and his St. Benedict Chapel twenty minutes from Vals. His work is based off of the concept of being completely experiential. A lecture of his is documented in the book, Atmospheres, remember mom? We will stay in the Thermal Baths hotel for one night. I’m excited to drive through the alps, I imagine it will be a sight to see.
The following day we are going to drive to Basel, Switzerland. This city is in Switzerland, but borders Germany and France. At some point we are going to drive to Zaha Hadid’s Fire Station in Vitra, Germany and Ronchamp by LeCorbusier in France. All are within a close distance to each other. Last trip of the semester, when I get back I am going to have to be 100 percent focused on studio and thesis.
Ha allegra Thanksgiving e’ mangiate molto tacchino per me. Sono grato mi famiglia e' amici.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Stockholm
Stockholm was everything I imagined it to be and more. I loved the atmosphere, culture, people, and architecture. It was freezing and it was snowing the second day. It was dark at 4 pm everyday because the sun was so low. Stockholm uses the Kroner’s instead of the Euro so I was excited to be able to use a different type of currency. But, in Stockholm everything is more expensive. The whole weekend I was extremely happy, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I am extremely lucky to be experiencing this.
We flew into Stockholm and took the bus from the airport. I did a reenactment of Neil Armstrong jumping on the moon, except it was me jumping off the steps of the plane. It was 2 in the morning so we just went to bed after traveling all day.
We woke up early and went to the Woodland Cemetery designed by Gunnar Asplund. A professor of mine has written a book on this cemetery so I was pretty familiar with it. It is a beautiful landscape design. I enjoyed looking at all the old tombstones as well. Then we went into town and walked around the Old Town and the Royal Palace. The architecture is again, beautiful. The water is great too. We walked around all day and hit up an architecture exhibit on Swedish architecture which was nice and had an amazing architecture bookstore. That night we walked around and went into a few of the bars and talked to a lot of Swedish people. They all speak English because their education system requires them too. Everyone was so friendly, whereas in Italy, a lot of people are ornery.
Saturday, it snowed and it was beautiful. I separated from the two I went with because I wanted to go experience the land on my own. I went to Djurgarden because it is a huge landscape park. I spent a few hours there walking around and watching people. It was again, absolutely beautiful land. Then I met back up with my friends and ate Swedish pancakes, which were awesome. After that we went to a great little Christmas amusement park which was packed with locals. Then the rest of the day we shopped. That night, we went to a different area of town and met more Swedish people and had a great time.
The Swedish people look like Henrik Zetterberg, Nicholas Lindstrom, and me. The girls, since it was Stockholm, they weren’t all blond and pretty because it is a diverse city. But the amount of blond, tall, blue-eyed girls was the most concentrated amount I have ever seen in a city. So in essence, the guys were all rough and tumble while the girls were all pretty.
A Swedish guy (Peter Lindstrom) who I sat next to on the plane back told me cities, like Smaland (pronounced Schmallend), is completely blond and blue eyes. He said he’s been there and said it was beautiful. I saw a few people from Gavle, which I noticed in the genealogies is where another large portion of my ancestry comes from.
Stockholm is hands-down, the nicest city I have visited so far. It was clean, fresh, and vibrant with life, great shops, beautiful buildings, and an absolutely awesome culture. One night we were walking around we stumbled upon a skate rink which was packed with people having fun and then a great little shopping district where I had reindeer jerky for the first time. I tried hard to find lutefish and potato sausage, but no luck, I even searched through a lot of Swedish cook books.
I describe it as a constant state of ecstatic, overwhelmed, happiness. I still can't believe I am able to travel like this and experience places I never imagined I would actually experience.
By the way, I want more questions and comments or I am not going to tell you how Switzerland is next weekend ;). I'm sick of talking to myself, I want to hear your thoughts! I know I am leaving stuff out that you may have a thought about!
We flew into Stockholm and took the bus from the airport. I did a reenactment of Neil Armstrong jumping on the moon, except it was me jumping off the steps of the plane. It was 2 in the morning so we just went to bed after traveling all day.
We woke up early and went to the Woodland Cemetery designed by Gunnar Asplund. A professor of mine has written a book on this cemetery so I was pretty familiar with it. It is a beautiful landscape design. I enjoyed looking at all the old tombstones as well. Then we went into town and walked around the Old Town and the Royal Palace. The architecture is again, beautiful. The water is great too. We walked around all day and hit up an architecture exhibit on Swedish architecture which was nice and had an amazing architecture bookstore. That night we walked around and went into a few of the bars and talked to a lot of Swedish people. They all speak English because their education system requires them too. Everyone was so friendly, whereas in Italy, a lot of people are ornery.
Saturday, it snowed and it was beautiful. I separated from the two I went with because I wanted to go experience the land on my own. I went to Djurgarden because it is a huge landscape park. I spent a few hours there walking around and watching people. It was again, absolutely beautiful land. Then I met back up with my friends and ate Swedish pancakes, which were awesome. After that we went to a great little Christmas amusement park which was packed with locals. Then the rest of the day we shopped. That night, we went to a different area of town and met more Swedish people and had a great time.
The Swedish people look like Henrik Zetterberg, Nicholas Lindstrom, and me. The girls, since it was Stockholm, they weren’t all blond and pretty because it is a diverse city. But the amount of blond, tall, blue-eyed girls was the most concentrated amount I have ever seen in a city. So in essence, the guys were all rough and tumble while the girls were all pretty.
A Swedish guy (Peter Lindstrom) who I sat next to on the plane back told me cities, like Smaland (pronounced Schmallend), is completely blond and blue eyes. He said he’s been there and said it was beautiful. I saw a few people from Gavle, which I noticed in the genealogies is where another large portion of my ancestry comes from.
Stockholm is hands-down, the nicest city I have visited so far. It was clean, fresh, and vibrant with life, great shops, beautiful buildings, and an absolutely awesome culture. One night we were walking around we stumbled upon a skate rink which was packed with people having fun and then a great little shopping district where I had reindeer jerky for the first time. I tried hard to find lutefish and potato sausage, but no luck, I even searched through a lot of Swedish cook books.
I describe it as a constant state of ecstatic, overwhelmed, happiness. I still can't believe I am able to travel like this and experience places I never imagined I would actually experience.
By the way, I want more questions and comments or I am not going to tell you how Switzerland is next weekend ;). I'm sick of talking to myself, I want to hear your thoughts! I know I am leaving stuff out that you may have a thought about!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sweden!!!
I leave for Stockholm Thursday and return Sunday. I'm pretty excited about this because I have always, alwAYS, ALWAYS wanted to go to Sweden. We'll see if the assumption my 8th grade paper on Sweden is true; that Swedish people are the best looking people in the world. If I remember correctly, I made a pretty good argument.
Traveling with two people, a grad friend and an undergrad friend from Wisconsin who decided to go, should be good, both pretty easy-going people. I have a few architectural things on my list to see, but it is the culture that I anticipate most. I have always been intrigued by the culture, the Socialist structure, and simply my ancestry's homeland.
It's 30 to 40 degrees everyday so I will be wearing my whole suitcase! Also, I plan to tie my thesis into this trip. Possible site??
Traveling with two people, a grad friend and an undergrad friend from Wisconsin who decided to go, should be good, both pretty easy-going people. I have a few architectural things on my list to see, but it is the culture that I anticipate most. I have always been intrigued by the culture, the Socialist structure, and simply my ancestry's homeland.
It's 30 to 40 degrees everyday so I will be wearing my whole suitcase! Also, I plan to tie my thesis into this trip. Possible site??
Monday, November 17, 2008
Rome
Rome was the biggest history lesson I have ever received. Like Venice, Rome will be hard to summarize because there was so much, but I will try my best.
The most amazing part of Rome is its history and the pizza. A lot of the ancient Roman ruins that I saw were from around 700 BC, they were enormous. The pizza was very good too. The best I have had in Europe so far. It was thicker than Northern Italy and with a lot of cheese. The gypsies, as they call them, were all over the place trying to sell stuff to tourists and there were a lot of tourists.
We arrived by bus at about noon on Thursday and it was down-pouring. Our professor’s originally had St. Peters planned as a group tour, but decided to give us a free day and let us roam in Rome. I was happy about that. The closest thing to the hotel was The Pantheon, so I decided to go there. The Pantheon is ancient; I think the largest concrete dome in the world? Since it was raining, the rain was falling through the oculist, circular hole in the roof. This added another level of interest to it because it was pretty cool when it started pouring inside the building. Then the rain slowed down and eventually stopped. We walked around the city and hit some of the major sites; Trevi Fountain, some Piazza’s, the Spanish steps, Tomb of Augustus. A great aspect about Rome compared to Florence is Rome is attempting to bring contemporary architecture inside its city. So, we saw the Ara Pacis by Richard Meier too.
That night, we ate pizza a couple times. They have little shops you walk into and grab a giant piece. Then we went to the Vatican, which was amazing. I was able to take some good photos of it during the night. I walked around Borromini’s Piazza for awhile. Then back to the hotel, where we played some cards and had a few drinks.
In the morning, Friday, we headed straight to the Vatican. Vatican City is a country separate of Italy, which I though was cool. We were able to get right into the St. Peter’s Church. The largest church in the world! It was amazing. Saw a sculpture, Pieta, by Michelangelo. Our tour guide rushed us. I could have spent much more time in there but we left and headed for the Vatican museum, which has ancient works by Raphael and Michelangelo, a LOT of art. The best part of the museum is the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The piece where God nearly touches the finger of Adam, it was incredible to look at.
Then I took off with the architecture group and saw works by Zaha Hadid (under construction), Renzo Piano (three beetle-like auditoriums), a Nervi basketball stadium, and finally the 1960 Olympic Stadium complex. Then ate some pizza and went back to the hotel. That night a group of us went out and experienced the bar scene of Rome which was awesome.
In the morning, an early morning it was, we went to the absolutely amazing Roman Forum, Capitaline Hill, and Palatine Hill area. I love the stories of ancient Rome so the whole time we were there I was captivated by the tour. This is where all the ancient ruins are, the Arch of Titus, Arch of Constantine, and the Coliseum! We spent about half of the day there and then a small group went out to the EUR area of Rome which has a lot of Fascist architecture. It was a designed city, so it was an interesting thing to see.
In the evening the villa went to the Villa Borghese. I had no idea what to expect, but I am glad I went. We saw pretty amazing sculptures by Bernini, Raphael, and Caravaggio. The villa then went back to Florence, but I decided to stay another day. We tried to get into the catacombs, but they were closed by the time we got there.
I went back to the Coliseum to take photo’s at night. After the Coliseum I walked around and saw a lot of the tourist stuff in the city. Just kind of walked and experienced the city. Everywhere I went there was a swat team of police officers because students were protesting something. Had McDonald’s for dinner and headed back to the terrible hostel.
In the morning, Sunday, I went to St. Peters and climbed up to the top of the dome and caught some amazing views of the city. We got there early, so there was not a line for anything. Then went down into St. Peters and spent awhile in there, watching people go to Mass. At 11 we thought the Pope came out of his window and gave the Sunday blessing so we went out to see him. But it was 12, good thing we went out early though because the piazza was packed with people. It was pretty incredible to see the Pope and listen to him deliver his blessings!!
Then we went and walked around the inside of the Coliseum. Then went to a Richard Meier Church of the Year 2000 which was 30 minutes out of town. We couldn’t find a taxi back, extremely worried that I would miss the train I asked a young Roman couple who were taking pictures of the church how they were getting back, they said by car and asked if I need a ride. Absolutely we did so Matt and I jumped in their car and they gave us a ride to the train station. They spoke very little English, but it was an interesting conversation in the tiny car.
Made it back Sunday evening at about 10:30 and found out that I have another nephew! I couldn’t ask for a better surprise!
The most amazing part of Rome is its history and the pizza. A lot of the ancient Roman ruins that I saw were from around 700 BC, they were enormous. The pizza was very good too. The best I have had in Europe so far. It was thicker than Northern Italy and with a lot of cheese. The gypsies, as they call them, were all over the place trying to sell stuff to tourists and there were a lot of tourists.
We arrived by bus at about noon on Thursday and it was down-pouring. Our professor’s originally had St. Peters planned as a group tour, but decided to give us a free day and let us roam in Rome. I was happy about that. The closest thing to the hotel was The Pantheon, so I decided to go there. The Pantheon is ancient; I think the largest concrete dome in the world? Since it was raining, the rain was falling through the oculist, circular hole in the roof. This added another level of interest to it because it was pretty cool when it started pouring inside the building. Then the rain slowed down and eventually stopped. We walked around the city and hit some of the major sites; Trevi Fountain, some Piazza’s, the Spanish steps, Tomb of Augustus. A great aspect about Rome compared to Florence is Rome is attempting to bring contemporary architecture inside its city. So, we saw the Ara Pacis by Richard Meier too.
That night, we ate pizza a couple times. They have little shops you walk into and grab a giant piece. Then we went to the Vatican, which was amazing. I was able to take some good photos of it during the night. I walked around Borromini’s Piazza for awhile. Then back to the hotel, where we played some cards and had a few drinks.
In the morning, Friday, we headed straight to the Vatican. Vatican City is a country separate of Italy, which I though was cool. We were able to get right into the St. Peter’s Church. The largest church in the world! It was amazing. Saw a sculpture, Pieta, by Michelangelo. Our tour guide rushed us. I could have spent much more time in there but we left and headed for the Vatican museum, which has ancient works by Raphael and Michelangelo, a LOT of art. The best part of the museum is the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The piece where God nearly touches the finger of Adam, it was incredible to look at.
Then I took off with the architecture group and saw works by Zaha Hadid (under construction), Renzo Piano (three beetle-like auditoriums), a Nervi basketball stadium, and finally the 1960 Olympic Stadium complex. Then ate some pizza and went back to the hotel. That night a group of us went out and experienced the bar scene of Rome which was awesome.
In the morning, an early morning it was, we went to the absolutely amazing Roman Forum, Capitaline Hill, and Palatine Hill area. I love the stories of ancient Rome so the whole time we were there I was captivated by the tour. This is where all the ancient ruins are, the Arch of Titus, Arch of Constantine, and the Coliseum! We spent about half of the day there and then a small group went out to the EUR area of Rome which has a lot of Fascist architecture. It was a designed city, so it was an interesting thing to see.
In the evening the villa went to the Villa Borghese. I had no idea what to expect, but I am glad I went. We saw pretty amazing sculptures by Bernini, Raphael, and Caravaggio. The villa then went back to Florence, but I decided to stay another day. We tried to get into the catacombs, but they were closed by the time we got there.
I went back to the Coliseum to take photo’s at night. After the Coliseum I walked around and saw a lot of the tourist stuff in the city. Just kind of walked and experienced the city. Everywhere I went there was a swat team of police officers because students were protesting something. Had McDonald’s for dinner and headed back to the terrible hostel.
In the morning, Sunday, I went to St. Peters and climbed up to the top of the dome and caught some amazing views of the city. We got there early, so there was not a line for anything. Then went down into St. Peters and spent awhile in there, watching people go to Mass. At 11 we thought the Pope came out of his window and gave the Sunday blessing so we went out to see him. But it was 12, good thing we went out early though because the piazza was packed with people. It was pretty incredible to see the Pope and listen to him deliver his blessings!!
Then we went and walked around the inside of the Coliseum. Then went to a Richard Meier Church of the Year 2000 which was 30 minutes out of town. We couldn’t find a taxi back, extremely worried that I would miss the train I asked a young Roman couple who were taking pictures of the church how they were getting back, they said by car and asked if I need a ride. Absolutely we did so Matt and I jumped in their car and they gave us a ride to the train station. They spoke very little English, but it was an interesting conversation in the tiny car.
Made it back Sunday evening at about 10:30 and found out that I have another nephew! I couldn’t ask for a better surprise!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Duomo
Since I have been here, I have yet to go inside or to the top of the Duomo. I have walked around it a few times, sat on the front steps, and I've been in the Baptistery, but not the Duomo. Today, I decided I am going. I told Matt I was going and he decided, so long with studio. We took the bus to the downtown and walked to the Duomo. Since it is Wednesday and not many tourists, there was no line and we walked right in and climbed to the top of Brunelleschi's dome. Climbing up through the dome was pretty claustrophobic. It consists of two shelled layers of brick, the stairs were between them. The dome was enormous and incredible. The views of Florence were great and there were only about 10 people up the whole time. I spent maybe an hour to two checking out the views of Florence of where I have been and haven't. The painting on the underside of the dome was very graphic and freaky at moments with their depictions of hell. The church was absolutely enormous. It was hard to actually understand the scale of it.
When we go to St. Peters in Rome this weekend I plan to climb to the top of that dome. That's why I went today, because I want to compare Michelangelo and Brunelleschi. They say the Florence church can fit inside of St. Peters, not the dome though.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
"swashbuckling 15-hour trek"
http://arch.umich.edu/newsandevents/news/?news=8813167923221781526
Copy and paste that link and the school of architecture's website for the Florence studio will pop up. Thought it was interesting, the passage was written by my professor here. It will keep getting updated as time goes on.
One thing I have been wondering since I have been here. Why do Americans call and spell European cities by names that are not what Europeans call and spell them? For example, Florence is Firenze (Fur-enz-eh), Munich is Munchen (Moon-chen), Venice is Venizia (ven-itz-ia)...and the list goes on.
Rome is Roma (type them in a Google search separately and 'Rome' comes up with the English wikipedia version, whereas 'Roma' gives you the Italian wikipedia page)??? It knows our lack of translation.
Going to 'Rome' Thursday through Sunday. I'm pretty excited, considering it is one of the most narrated and historical cities in the world. Pantheon, Colosseum, St. Peter's, the Vatican, Trajan's column, and I have always been fascinated with the catacombs (the underground network of tombs they used to use). Also, the spatial organization of the ancient Roman houses. Rome has a a few contemporary architectural pieces as well.
Copy and paste that link and the school of architecture's website for the Florence studio will pop up. Thought it was interesting, the passage was written by my professor here. It will keep getting updated as time goes on.
One thing I have been wondering since I have been here. Why do Americans call and spell European cities by names that are not what Europeans call and spell them? For example, Florence is Firenze (Fur-enz-eh), Munich is Munchen (Moon-chen), Venice is Venizia (ven-itz-ia)...and the list goes on.
Rome is Roma (type them in a Google search separately and 'Rome' comes up with the English wikipedia version, whereas 'Roma' gives you the Italian wikipedia page)??? It knows our lack of translation.
Going to 'Rome' Thursday through Sunday. I'm pretty excited, considering it is one of the most narrated and historical cities in the world. Pantheon, Colosseum, St. Peter's, the Vatican, Trajan's column, and I have always been fascinated with the catacombs (the underground network of tombs they used to use). Also, the spatial organization of the ancient Roman houses. Rome has a a few contemporary architectural pieces as well.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Carraran Marble
The studio took a field trip to Carrara. It is an area which is known for its marble. We went there because part of our studio investigates ground and architecture. Carrara is near Cinque Terra. It was pretty cool, there are literally mountains that are cut in half and mined. The size of the chunks of marble was enormous, so I won’t be bringing a new kitchen countertop back with me. I never actually thought about where marble came from before this experience and I would have never imagined there would be mountains of marble in this world.
When we first got there, we got out of the bus and the weather was clear and perfect. About ten minutes later, we saw a thick gray cloud charging at us. The rain wasn’t really dropping, rather than just running into us, because it was a cloud. The streets were like the streets you see on a Porsche commercial, hairpin turns and only one lane the whole time. That was pretty nauseating.
When we were viewing one of the quarries from a birds eye view, a friend and I decided to scale the hill down to the quarry and actually get into it. So, I was inside a mountain that used to be pure marble. It was awesome to feel a 1:1 relationship with the quarry, rather than viewing it as an object. Everyone else in the group was pretty jealous. The climb back up the hill was work though.
These mountains have been mined for a very long time, and they will never run out. The area is known for its lard, which I tried and is surprisingly very good. I guess it is suppose to be a delicacy. I had a lard sandwich. I probably should have a few more, I wish I had a scale because I would guess I lost 15 pounds since being here.
These mountains are also where Michelangelo personally went and selected his chunk to carve ‘David’ out of. We hiked up a mountain and had some pretty great views of the area.
When we first got there, we got out of the bus and the weather was clear and perfect. About ten minutes later, we saw a thick gray cloud charging at us. The rain wasn’t really dropping, rather than just running into us, because it was a cloud. The streets were like the streets you see on a Porsche commercial, hairpin turns and only one lane the whole time. That was pretty nauseating.
When we were viewing one of the quarries from a birds eye view, a friend and I decided to scale the hill down to the quarry and actually get into it. So, I was inside a mountain that used to be pure marble. It was awesome to feel a 1:1 relationship with the quarry, rather than viewing it as an object. Everyone else in the group was pretty jealous. The climb back up the hill was work though.
These mountains have been mined for a very long time, and they will never run out. The area is known for its lard, which I tried and is surprisingly very good. I guess it is suppose to be a delicacy. I had a lard sandwich. I probably should have a few more, I wish I had a scale because I would guess I lost 15 pounds since being here.
These mountains are also where Michelangelo personally went and selected his chunk to carve ‘David’ out of. We hiked up a mountain and had some pretty great views of the area.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Friday, October 24th
The Leaning Tower of Pisa!
I intentionally planned my flight to Barcelona late in the day because I wanted to spend some time in Pisa. I liked Pisa a lot. It was a small University town that was full of life and culture. The only relevant site to visit in Pisa is its cathedral, tower, and the baptistery. Nothing else.
The leaning tower was pretty incredible. I like the way that it tries to correct itself as it proceeds to be built. The tacit knowledge of the carpenter is at play here, and I find that interesting. The tourists were ridiculous and looked idiotic trying to capture their perfect pose holding up the tower. But everyone has to look ridiculous for a minute, because that is the iconic image of being there. I suppose I looked like an idiot performing my stunt in front of the tower.
In the photo above, the leaning tower threw off my equilibrium, not really. Credit to Matt for the good timing on the photo. Also, I ate a piece of pizza in pisa and have my photo in front of the leaning tower of pisa eating a piece of pizza. The pizza in pisa was surprisingly not good.
Keep your wallets in your front pockets: October 25th
Picasso Museum
Morales Food Market Structure
Gehry Fish (day)
Agbar Tower: Jean Nouvel
Sagrada Famiglia (night)
Attempted Gehry Fish (night)
The day was great and we were excited about what we have seen all day. We wanted to make one last stop to see the Gehry Fish lit up at night before we headed back to the hostel. To get there you have to travel by metro. Matt, Helen, and I figured out our plan and went down into the metro, not realizing we were being followed from the point we pulled out our wallets to get in the metro. We arrived at the platform and waited. The tram came and I was the first one on, with Helen behind me, and Matt behind her. The group of kids, nicely dressed, 18-22 years old, followed behind us. One wedged himself in front of Matt and proceeded to make a scene, hugging Matt and telling him “welcome to my country.” While there was a kid behind Matt taking his wallet.
By this point I was already seated and wondering what is going on. The kids leave the tram and Matt realizes his wallet was taken, I heard him swear and jump out. The decoy ran and Matt and I followed. We chased the kid through the two metro stops. I am slow. There was not a chance we were catching him, he was around 5'4", 120 pounds. I noticed they literally have a running lane track out of duct tape in one of the main metro stops. I think they actually line each other up to see which one can run the fastest. We ended up getting outside and he was nowhere to be seen. Matt and I were livid. We walked back to get Helen.
We chased the decoy; in our book it says the wallet is never with the one you think has it. So, the other group of kids actually had the wallet. Helen did not follow us, so she jumped out of the tram and saw a group of kids standing; they pointed her in the opposite direction we ran. After she walked a little bit and realized they were all a group, she walked back and saw them on the steps sifting through a wallet. So she grabbed it out of their hands and walked away. They got away with about a 100 euros of Matt’s, but he got everything else back. Helen is Indonesian, around 5'2", and maybe around 100 pounds. I'm still surprised she had no fear to walk up to 3 or 4 kids and grab the wallet out of their hands.
So we were relieved, but if another person touched us it would be a bad move on their part. We decided no more to the Gehry Fish, just go back to the hostel and call it a night. As we were waiting for the other metro in the same station I notice a different group of nicely dressed 20 year olds. We do the same thing, I am on first, Helen next, and Matt last. The same thing happens but more subtle this time, so none of us noticed. Who would think it could happen twice in a row!? These kids just unzipped a zipper on Matt’s bag and luckily there was nothing in there. So they didn’t get away with anything.
Also, Matt looked the most touristy out of all three of us. He had all his travel gear, his North Face gear, a large and very nice camera around his neck, and he is American but of Asian ethnicity. The people in Barcelona seemed to single out the Asians as easy tourist targets everywhere we went. They thought I was Swedish, so I didn't encounter much problem.
From that point on throughout the whole trip, Matt kept his wallet in his front pocket and we watched our back everywhere we went, always making sure we were the last ones on the metro.
Sunday, October 26th
Sagrada Famiglia: Gaudi
Casa Guell: Gaudi
Casa Battlo: Gaudi
Casa Mila: Gaudi
Park Guell: Gaudi
Gaudi’s house in Park Guell
Barcelona Pavilion (night): Mies
Gas Building (night): Morales
Gehry Fish (night)
Seashore Park
I dedicated this day to Gaudi’s work. He was a pretty amazing architect and had his own way of designing. Everything of his is organic and relates to nature. The Sagrada Familglia is a church that was started by him and not going to be done by another 30 or so years. It was started around the 1900’s? I’m pretty sure that it is the most visited church in Spain. The forms Gaudi created were overwhelming and beautiful. The iconography was legible and had amazing depth and detail. The amount of detail he put into all his work is incredible. We waited in line to climb up one of the towers and the tightness of these is claustrophobic but the views were amazing. I was very excited beforehand to see this church.
One of the most interesting pieces that I have been anxious to see in all of my architectural education is Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion. This is another work that is constantly studied in all architecture schools. The plan is simple, but the work is very powerful through its use of materiality and spatial volumes. I spent quite a bit of time here that night experiencing this work.
Monday, October 27th
Morales Park
Herzog de Meuron Forum Building
A Photovoltaic Tower
FOA landscape
Barcelona Pavilion: Mies
Calatrava Communications Tower
Olympic Park
Gas Building: Morales
MACBA: Richard Meier
This was a pretty great day. At some points during the day we were just walking from point to point and would run across something pretty cool. The city is loaded with great contemporary architecture.
At night when we went to the MACBA, there were about a hundred skateboarders flying by, jumping, and crashing. After looking at the building for awhile we sat down and 3 police vans pulled up. Some people dispersed when noticing this. We just sat there. About 30 swat police officer pile out with riot gear on and start yelling at everyone. One yelled at us and told us to go a certain way, then he realized we were tourists, so he did not mind us. But the guy after him started screaming at us and told us to go to this spot where they were pushing everyone. We just kept walking when we got there and then the police had a group surrounded with a drug dog checking everyone. Crazy.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Tuesday, October 28th
Norman Foster Tower
People watched
The one piece of architecture I missed on this trip was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Gehry. A piece we planned a day around and a flight to and from. We missed the airplane, the scale on the metro map for Barcelona was not to scale and we misjudged the time it would take to get to the airport. I have a feeling though if we would have made this flight we would have missed the one to Paris the following day.
So, at 7 in the morning we had to go back into Barcelona and find a hostel. Definitely NOT the one we stayed at the previous nights. We went right for the spot where it would not be to far away from the city center. We found one and it was 30 euros, worth it though. I took quite a long nap once there. Then we went out to the Norman Foster tower and I walked around and watched tourists the rest of the day. That night I went next door to the bar and had some Swedish people start talking to me because they thought I was Swedish. Had a few beers and called it a night, excited for Paris in the morning
People watched
The one piece of architecture I missed on this trip was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Gehry. A piece we planned a day around and a flight to and from. We missed the airplane, the scale on the metro map for Barcelona was not to scale and we misjudged the time it would take to get to the airport. I have a feeling though if we would have made this flight we would have missed the one to Paris the following day.
So, at 7 in the morning we had to go back into Barcelona and find a hostel. Definitely NOT the one we stayed at the previous nights. We went right for the spot where it would not be to far away from the city center. We found one and it was 30 euros, worth it though. I took quite a long nap once there. Then we went out to the Norman Foster tower and I walked around and watched tourists the rest of the day. That night I went next door to the bar and had some Swedish people start talking to me because they thought I was Swedish. Had a few beers and called it a night, excited for Paris in the morning
Wednesday, October 29th
The Louvre: I.M. Pei
The Eiffel Tower: Gustav Eiffel (also designed the structure for the Statue of Liberty)
This was a travel day. We woke up early, excited to get out of our dirty hostel, and rode the hour bus ride to the Ryanair airport and flew to Paris. Ryanair is cheap because they drop you off an hour away from the city. I think this way they don’t have to pay the high parking fees at near-city airports. So from the airport to Paris, we had to jump on another bus for a hefty fee and rode for an hour and a half into Paris. I sat next to a Spanish girl who was studying outside of Paris. I had to speak very slowly and not mumble for her to comprehend my English. It was like having two language barriers, (Spanish to English, and English to my English).
The Barcelona hostel we stayed in was disgusting and the sheets were definitely not clean. The Paris hostel was a ten bed room. This was a lot better and cleaner.
The Eiffel Tower: Gustav Eiffel (also designed the structure for the Statue of Liberty)
This was a travel day. We woke up early, excited to get out of our dirty hostel, and rode the hour bus ride to the Ryanair airport and flew to Paris. Ryanair is cheap because they drop you off an hour away from the city. I think this way they don’t have to pay the high parking fees at near-city airports. So from the airport to Paris, we had to jump on another bus for a hefty fee and rode for an hour and a half into Paris. I sat next to a Spanish girl who was studying outside of Paris. I had to speak very slowly and not mumble for her to comprehend my English. It was like having two language barriers, (Spanish to English, and English to my English).
The Barcelona hostel we stayed in was disgusting and the sheets were definitely not clean. The Paris hostel was a ten bed room. This was a lot better and cleaner.
Thursday, October 30th
Notre Dame Cathedral
Saint Chapelle
Pantheon
Arab Headquarters: Jean Nouvel
Pompidou Center: Renzo Piano and Norman Foster
National Library of France
Frank Gehry Cinematheque
This day was rainy and was very cold. The Pompidou Center was my favorite. It is a brutal Deconstructionist piece of architecture. The idea was to push all the functions of a building to the exterior. This is why the HVAC, egress, and structure are all on the façade. The great thing about this is it frees up the interior space by not needing any interior columns. It is a pretty clever building and I enjoyed staring at it and wondering why a city that hinged tightly to its history would allow an architect to do this. I was glad they did. But every non-architect, I would bet, thinks this is a terrible building.
A French person told us that if we go around the back, we can get in for free. This building is used as a public library (3 floors) and a contemporary art museum (top 2 floors). So, Matt and I went around the back and acted like we were French and got in for free to the library portion. The place was packed with people reading, writing, and using the computers.
Saint Chapelle
Pantheon
Arab Headquarters: Jean Nouvel
Pompidou Center: Renzo Piano and Norman Foster
National Library of France
Frank Gehry Cinematheque
This day was rainy and was very cold. The Pompidou Center was my favorite. It is a brutal Deconstructionist piece of architecture. The idea was to push all the functions of a building to the exterior. This is why the HVAC, egress, and structure are all on the façade. The great thing about this is it frees up the interior space by not needing any interior columns. It is a pretty clever building and I enjoyed staring at it and wondering why a city that hinged tightly to its history would allow an architect to do this. I was glad they did. But every non-architect, I would bet, thinks this is a terrible building.
A French person told us that if we go around the back, we can get in for free. This building is used as a public library (3 floors) and a contemporary art museum (top 2 floors). So, Matt and I went around the back and acted like we were French and got in for free to the library portion. The place was packed with people reading, writing, and using the computers.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Friday, October 31st
Villa Savoye: LeCorbusier
Grande Arch at La Defense
Villa La Roche: Corb
Swiss and Brazilion Pavilion: Corb
University of Paris
Contemporary Art Museum: Jean Nouvel
The Louvre: Mona Lisa/Aphrodite
Moulan Rouge: I have not seen the movie
Arc de Triumph
A busy day makes for a great day. Villa Savoye was a short train ride out of Paris to Poissy. This was a must see because it is the pinnacle of the modern architectural movement. Most people do not like Corb, his stuff is pretty simple. I thought the Villa Savoye was incredible. Corb describes it as an “object in a field.” We spent about half the day here and I could have stayed longer. This house is one of the most architecturally studied houses in architecture. Corb's main theory about architecture was his five points: pilotis, free facade, free plan, roof garden, and the ribbon window.
Skipping to the night. Since it was Friday, people under 25 got in free to the Louvre. So I saw the Mona Lisa for free. It honestly looked like it does in the pictures; there was nothing different about it. I thought about ripping it off the wall to see if there was a secret encryption on the back that would lead me to the Holy Grail for those of you that read the “Davinci Code.”
The Arc de Triumph was enormous. The day was unbelievable. When I see these things I never would have imagined I would be able to walk through them.
Saturday, November 1st
Palace of Versailles: King Louis XIV
Corb Salvation Army
Corb Ozenfant Studio
Top of the Eiffel Tower (day turned into night)
Notre Dame (Night)
Pompidou Centre (Night): Renzo Piano and Norman Foster
Friday and Saturday we had a couple of beers in the bar of the hostel. The hostel in Paris was pretty nice. It was more expensive but worth it, being that we got clean sheets in this one. Everyone who stayed in the hostel could go down and hang out in the bar area.
The Palace of Versailles is a world renowned place and studied in every world history class. All I remember from my history class is that there was no plumbing, so back when the King's lived there, they would use the corners of the rooms. I'm not making that up. It was a short train ride out of Paris and it was an absolutely miserable day. We walked through the Palace and checked out King Louis the XVI bed. This is also the place where the French president takes people like George Bush for international meetings. The gardens were enormous and since it was raining and freezing we left there at about 1:00 and hit up some McDonalds.
The most amazing part of this day was the top of the Eiffel tower. Matt and I waited 40 minutes in line, met a couple from Oregon, and climbed the stairs to the second pier of the tower. We got up there during the daylight and then while we were taking pictures and checking out the incredible views it turned night and the tower lit up blue. This made for some awesome photo’s. I was amazed and freezing, but not wet.
Notre Dame is my second favorite church I have seen, behind the Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona. The Gargoyle's come from this cathedral.
Sunday: November 2nd
Parc de la Villette: Bernard Tschumi
A desolate factory building: Renzo Piano
Communist Party Headquarters: Oscar Niemeyer
Rue de Meaux Housing: Renzo Piano
This was our last day of Fall break. Our flight was at 9:55 pm out of Paris, so we had from 8 am to 4 pm to see what we had left to see.
Parc de la Villette was my favorite part of this day. It was the first thing we saw in the morning and it was worth it. Tschumi, an architect, designed the landscape and the follies that are placed in it. The landscape pushes and pulls the ground. The 30 or so follies are red structures that he places randomly around the park. These structures plop down anywhere, right in front of other buildings. I thought to not care about the existing buildings on the site was interesting. There were images of fake cows. The best part about the park was that it was used to its max. Every field had people playing soccer on it.
Skipping to Piano’s housing. It was locked, so Matt and I could not get in. When we were peeking through the gate a guy that spoke English who lived there asked us if we wanted to go in. Then he gave us a tour and described what it was like to live there. It was literally a forest in the center, surrounded by housing.
At 4 pm, we waited for a half hour for the third person to show up. We took the metro for an hour to the bus to take us to the airport. The bus ride was an hour and a half. Our flight was delayed 40 minutes. Long story short, we landed in Pisa at 12:30 am with no transportation back to Florence. We were told there would be a bus, but that took two hours to arrive. I found a park bench, then the bus came and I stood for an hour and a half because it was packed with other students returning to Florence. I arrived at the villa at 4 am last night, 12 hours for an 1.5 hour Ryanair flight.
Now I want to go to everywhere else in Europe
I remember when I built a 3-D puzzle of the Eiffel Tower without actually thinking that I would ever see it.
I am back at the villa, safe with nothing stolen. The trip was great. There was incredible architecture in both Barcelona and Paris. It was a great experience and it was pretty amazing to see some of the architecture that I have studied so much about. The architecture is completely different when in its context.
A little bit about the week before I write about it. I planned this with Matt, which ended up being a good choice. We saw everything we wanted to see, except for one thing. We researched quite a bit about what we wanted to see and what we did not want to see, so we had an extensive list. Late in the game, another grad architecture student did not have anyone to go with for Fall break, so she asked Matt if she could tag-along. She booked everything with us. This ended up being a pain. Matt and I always knew our next move and didn’t need to explain to each other why or how. She was off-key for most of the trip and it was frustrating having to wait, explain, and re-explain. In a sense, the tag-along tried to become the organizer when we had different agenda’s.
Another thing about this trip is when I traveled, it was to see the architecture, culture, and which city had the best looking girls (Paris). A lot of the other students in the villa had a different experience than I did. They went to cities just to get blown out of their minds, and did. I have talked to a few of them since I have been back and it sounds like they don’t remember a thing.
I met a lot of interesting people, some Swedes, Australians, and other study abroad students. On a bus ride from the airport to Paris I met a Spanish girl named Yolanda who would not stop talking because she is trying to learn English, but doesn’t have English speaking people to talk to. The Australians were pretty irritating. They think they are cool because they are Australian and have an accent, so they play off that and blow it out of proportion.
I am going to just go day by day and cover what I did and what I felt from the places I visited.
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