Chocolate Scented Cologne

Mandatory Spring Break Day 3: Köln (Cologne)

So day two began with a 9:49 train ride to Cologne or Köln to the Germans. It took about 25 minutes to get there. Cologne is famous for having one of the most visited buildings in the world The Dom. It is a huge cathedral that is strikingly taller than anything else around it. When we got out of the Hauptbahnhof it was right in front of us. It must be 600 hundred feet tall. It is a gigantic Gothic style cathedral with huge spires and an incredible interior. Words can not describe just how massive this thing really was. Its such an incredible structure that it was the only thing to remain standing in Cologne after WWII because the entire city was destroyed. After enjoying the Cathedral for about an hour we went into a contemporary art Museum and enjoyed work by Andy Warhol and other pop and modern artists.

Cologne sits directly on the Rhein River and the shore is dotted with beautiful bridges and shops. The walk down along the river was very nice and we passed by some pretty cool buildings on the way there by some old favorites like Terrani. We were on route to another Sauerbruch and Hutton building when along our side emerges the Cologne Lindt Chocolate Museum. Obviously we petitioned our professors to stop and thy were more than happy to oblige. We decided against the tour and opted to just sit in the café and enjoy some delicious chocolate cake and hot chocolate. Thus after thoroughly enjoying some chocolate we continued on to the S&H building which was very similar to their others; brightly colored and insanely energy efficient. From there we trekked to a local architects firm for a tour of their office. Then dinner and we caught a train home.

The People's Wagon

Mandatory Spring Break Day 1 & 2: Wolfsburg

In Wolfsburg there really is nothing. There is a science museum called the Phaeno Center by Zaha Hadid an Iraqi architect and it is really cool. It looks like a space ship landed on this site in the middle of Wolfsburg. The building is very cool and houses a bunch of neat exhibits which we of course got to play with.

There is the first Volkswagon factory in Germany is there. Its very cool. There is a little city attached to it meant to promote all the VW products called the Autostadt or Car City. There are separate pavilions for some of the VW products. There is a Lamborghini, Audi, VW, and Sezt. The Lamborghini one was incredibly disappointing. Lots of smoke and sounds and one car attached to the wall that did nothing. The Volkswagon pavilion had a weird simulator which was just a big advertisement for VW. The Sezt one was strange and they only have a few cars to show. The Audi one by far was the most incredible one. Got to check out the newest R8 sit in it and cheek out all the features. There was then at the other end of the Autostadt a museum of the history of cars. In it was a replica of the Model T and other original cars. Mostly VW cars there were 1st generation VW's and Audi's, old Bugatti's and even some american cars like an El Dorado. The Autostadt was a little disappointing as it turned out to be just a giant VW advertisement.

The last thing noting in Wolfsburg was the Hostel. The Jungenherbergen. The cost was 3E so that right away is not a good start. The rooms smelled like urine and the bathrooms were not attached to the rooms. Between being small and the place being smelly I was all too excited to get out of there.

The trying to get on the train to Düsseldorf was an adventure in itself. The trains here like to come in two cars and split at one station. So us being near the back of the train we were supposed to be in wagon 22 but the trains went from 35-45 until we realized that there were two trains. So all 27 of us including professors sprinted with seconds to go toward the other train bags in hand. The last of us jumped on just as it started to pull away as a few others ended up in first class and had to come to where we were at the first stop before the train split.

Happy to be out of Wolfsburg and on to Düsseldorf we checked out the bar strip which is what the city is famous for. Obviously not very happening on a Monday it was still pretty cool.

The Outside World, Love and the Beauty of Death

So since about tuesday of last week, when I made my last blog post, I have been essentially trapped in the studio. So I've been feeling very much like I'm back in Boston. But after the whole weekend and the weekend I produced 11 slides for presentation and 2 models. Feeling accomplished I went into the critique confidently. Even though my teacher didn't email me back until the night before the critique about a question I had. So finally Valentine's Day rolls around and I'm ready to present then head home for a romanic Skype date with the beautiful Erica. Well things don't really go as planned. The whole time I'm presenting my professor is scowling at me and she comments that we talked about things that they were critiquing. But that's fine she can scowl because I plan on showing her up. The best part of the day was I got to be the slide guy for everyones presentation. I clicked through all the presentations like a champ. But after 25 people and 8 hours I finally made it home to have my date. Unfortunately Stonybrook had to interrupt but its alright when miss Erica is a successful nurse I'll have someone to take care of me.

So there was an optional trip this morning that turned out to be not so optional. After everyone except for a few of us partied their faces off last night couldn't make it due to hangovers. The "optional" trip was to a crematorium just outside of Berlin. It was a really cool building and the partner of the firm that designed it gave us a guided walk around inside the building. We walked all through the mourning rooms but weren't allowed to go down into the actual crematorium section. But it was an interesting building because a crematorium is a touchy building typology to build in Germany…. they have a reputation. The building deals a lot with the feeling of loss and light and rebirth. But this build was pretty awesome so I'm happy we went. I took plenty of pictures too.

Soggy Burgers and Live Girls

Hamburg & Hafen City

So our stop this week brings us North of Berlin to Hamburg. Possibly the windiest and rainiest city in Germany. So it rained from the moment we stepped off the train until we arrived back in Berlin on Sunday. Hamburg is pretty awesome though. Expensive. But awesome. Hamburg is really cool that in its lower district called Hafen City (Harbor City) is being completely redesigned and an entirely new city is being built there. The whole area is under construction. Its quite cool to see a city actually being built. It makes me think how people felt when New York or Boston was built up. It's going to be finished in 2030 so I'm already planing a return trip. We walked for two and half hours probably more in the pouring rain just to see the proposed sites of all of these buildings and a few that were under construction or already finished. The Elfphilharmonie is probably the most interesting building in the whole design. It's a huge opera house with a hotel apartments and a mall. The design is so sick. I can't even explain it so just google it, it's a masterpiece of engineering.

Now lets get to the real part of this story the nightlife in Hamburg. So finally we completed our search for German food, since apparently Berlin has food from everywhere but Germany. So we walked into this seemingly little stone bar but little couldn't have been more wrong. Probably 100 meters deep this place was just lined with picnic benches filled with people all drinking beer and singing beer songs. Heaven? Maybe. We were seated toward the back where we promptly ordered drinks. They brought us a small 10L keg which was filled with beer brewed in the restaurant. Heaven? Maybe. The guy brought out a steak and a hammer and physically tapped the keg in front of us. Then the waitress comes and the menu has 3 items. A German buffet, a sausage platter, or an assorted German meat dish. Heaven? Yes, yes I think so. The food was delicious and the beer was better and we left quite satisfied.

The next night our exploits got even more local. Hamburg is famous for the Reeperbahn. The Reeperbahn is a famous redlight district in Hamburg. An it lived up to the hype. The establishments on the street are as follows: Casino, Strip Club, Bar, Sex Shop, Nightclub, or any combination of the five for the entirety of the 1/2 KM long block. It was slightly overwhelming and the amount of people there was incredible. It was what I imagine the strip in Las Vegas to be like. Any bar we went to on the strip or down a side street had girls dancing on the bar (fully clothed thank God or I'd have an angry miss Erica). The other crazy thing that happened the night before whilst looking for a bar was getting screamed at by a hooker. Which apparently when a girl just hanging out by herself with an umbrella is a signal for "I'm Working." So she's something to us in German and starts walking towards us so we pick up the pace and start saying "Nein Danke" over and over.

Craziness ensued the whole weekend between kids throwing up in front of me on the train, scary hookers, and pouring rain coming back to normally crazy Berlin seemed like a nice change of pace.

But Hamburg is definitely worth going back to when Hafen City is finished... preferably in August when it's not rainy.

A Free Education, a Concrete Block, and a Terrarium

The past week was fairly uneventful aside from our Wednesday trip to the Free University of Berlin and our Friday trip to Dessau. The Frei Universitat Berlin is famous for being the first library founded in West Germany after the wall went up. The university still free to this day but houses an incredible Library by our friend Lord Norman Foster who's also responsible for the Reichstag (go back a few posts to get that description). The library there is so cool. Its three concrete plates attached by two piers. Encompassing this structure is a bubble like shell that functions to provide and regulate the temperature. Like most of Foster's buildings its extremely eco-friendly. it doesn't require and heating or cooling for 60% of the year

Dessau was one of the first cities in Germany to allow the Nazis to come to power. But more famous than that is the Bauhaus (Bow-House). Built by Walter Gropius it embodies the functionalism in Germany. Some of the most famous architects taught there but oddly enough not one student ever achieved any acclaim. So what is the Bauhaus really. Honestly after learning about now for three semesters in a row I don't know. Its a collection of world famous architects who taught artists and architects that never really amounted to anything. And all these people just designed the ugliest crap from blinding lights to odd shaped chairs. Actually being there was really cool though. Since we've been force fed this building for so long seeing it and walking through it was pretty awesome. But also slightly disappointing because its just like four concrete blocks with relatively no purpose anymore. This influential architectural building that produced no one and achieves nothing spectacular.

The other building we saw was awesome though. By Sauerbruch & Hutton it is called the UBA which is the German acronym for their Environmental Office. You walk into this glass outer shell and you still feel outside because the whole mass of the building is still in front of you. This building is extremely eco-efficient and is better explained through pictures. The building uses recycled glass as soil and incorporates water and other features to give a natural feeling but all with a purpose to serve the ecosystem the building maintains.

Other than that I'm getting by here still adapting to cultural changes and getting accustomed to daily life. And attempting to speak German. I still miss everyone especially miss Erica but at least I get to talk to her almost daily.