Down and Dirty in the Studio

So the past week has been stress packed days. Trying to get a design down to be able to present at the midterm critique. The added pressure of only having 5 weeks left makes a suitable design all the more important. Well after emailing my teacher I actually got some positive feedback and proceeded as planned. The weekend of Friday and saturday was filled with full days in the studio modeling and late nights working on drawings and unwinding. Working tirelessly on minimal sleep I finally produced all of the required drawings and models and put together a presentation I was confident in at around 5pm sunday night. This was great it gave me a chance to kick back grab a beer and unwind before Monday morning when I had to present to 4 critics. After enjoying a meal, a beer, and a movie I decided to go to sleep and get some good Z's before the critique. I slept soundly and woke up on Monday morning anxious to see if I had actually produced something worthwhile for my teacher. I nervously watched the first three students and then it was my turn. I got up there and put on a good show. They weren't sold on my design but the idea were there and I was showing promise. No scowls from my professor and no tirades. She smiled, backed me up on somethings, and looked genuinely satisfied. I felt happy and contently watched the rest of my colleagues present, some better than others. So that night we wanted to celebrate but everyone was too tired and I still was not feeling good. We grabbed a few beers and a cigar and relaxed on our balcony until our neighbor across the street told us he was calling the cops. We promptly went inside and watched a movie before settling into bed for the night.

Tuesday morning we had to meet Jan our history professor at 8:20 for a tour of the Kultur Forum which has two buildings by Hans Scharoun and one by Mies Van Der Rohe. We toured the Stadtsbibliotheke (City Library) and the Berlin Philharmonie both by Scharoun and walked around the Neue Naticional Gallerie (New National Gallery) by Mies for the majority of the day. I'm not a huge fan of Mies buildings they are so simple they bore me. But the Scharoun buildings were awesome and I'm definitely excited to go back to the Philharmonie and see the Berlin Philharmonic play. After that we were scheduled for another tour through our "culture" class which was another repeat tour so me and my sickness decided to skip it.

After that tour we were supposed to meet the professors again to go to a presentation at a firm. The firm Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler was incredible. The internationally famous Eike Roswag gave us the presentation on how he and his firm of civil engineers and architects are striving to create sustainable buildings from earth construction. Earth Construction is using natural materials like mud and adobe to create structures that because of the moisture exchange of the material do not require HVAC systems. It was incredible. He goes to under developed countries and takes their historic tribal forms and readapts them into a more modern and sustainable architecture. It was incredible to actually see some one who does all of these projects as a volunteer. So nice to see some one so genuinely committed to bettering the world. The two and half hour presentation and after period had my attention the whole time. It was honestly life changing. I'm inspired now to do amazing things and hopefully use my architecture to change the world someday.

Tomorrow we head of to Prague until Saturday and then Dresden until Sunday on our final program sponsored trip. And then in two weeks the guys and I head to Munich for our last travels of the semester. Time is winding down here and I feel like I have learned so much in these short months than i my entire time at school.

Check back soon for the Prague/Dresden edition

Stay Classy Followers and Thank you for your continued reading

A Slow Week before the Rush

Nothing special in the last two weeks since coming back from Spring Break. Just trying to re-assimilate in the sense of normal life that we have here. Starting to work again on my studio project and actually create something that my teacher likes. I've been struggling with the constraints of our site and it has really been a challenge this far for me. I definitely have a much more optimistic and airy take on architecture then my teacher does. She just wants to pack as much building on the site as possible. I've been forced to conform and try to create something interesting but I feel as if my creativity has been put in a stranglehold. But hopefully I can get past it with at least a mutual respect. With about 6 weeks left the end is in sight. In another 3 weeks we start finals and from there its all a straight shot til then end. We have a few remaining trips including two planned ones to Prague and Dresden. Then one more trip that we planned to Munich for the Starkbierzeit festival. I'm looking forward to all of those things but I'm looking forward to finishing up. I don't think I could stay in Germany to much longer. Its very gray and dreary and the sun doesn't come out enough to argue otherwise. Check back soon for an update on my studio midterm then my trip to Prague.

Sure, Take The Spare iPad To The Alps

Spring Break Destination 4 - Geneva, Switzerland

So we landed in Geneva without a problem to be greeted happily by John. A family friend of Casey's who was gracious enough to allow us to stay with him the two nights we were in town. John does quite well for himself and lives in a gorgeous house about 15 minutes outside of Geneva.

On the way to his house from the airport he showed us around Geneva. We passed the headquarters of almost every world organization and of course the United Nations building. Geneva is a magnificent city. It sits on the Swiss side of lake Geneva directly across from France. Switzerland is a very cool place in general because there is tremendous influence from French, German, and Italian culture being it is bordered by all those countries. We found that most of the people speak those three languages along with English.

So once at his house he introduced us to his wife who was very nice and accommodating to us and even offered us a lunch. He set us up in bedrooms for Casey and Ashley and the downstairs living room for me Kyle and Rob. He gave us a quick history of the house and showed us how to work the TV and even let us use his spare iPad at our leisure. The house was gorgeous inside and out and had an incredible view of France just across the expanse of Lake Geneva. We all settled in and his son Max came home and told us he would take us into Geneva tonight and show us a good time. Being we had a few hours we decided to take a dip in the house's beautiful indoor swimming pool and hot tub. We relaxed and swam for about 2 hours until it was time to get ready. John loaned us 400 Swiss Francs and said we could pay him back in Euros before we left. So off we went with Max into Geneva to his favorite bar. We stopped at Mcdonalds for dinner and had 11 Franc Big Macs. Now everything in Switzerland is really expensive. The Franc is relatively close to the dollar so our 11 Franc meal was about $13. So there's your comparison $13 for a standard Big Mac meal. We went to Max's favorite bar from there and something strange happened. The drinking age in Switzerland like most of Europe is 16 for beer 18 for Liquor, Max is 17, and said they don't really ID anywhere so 14 and 15 year olds are drinking too. But at this bar was all kids from Max's school. The 5 of us all 20 or 21 were the oldest people in the bar! It was a real trip to see high schoolers in a bar ordering drinks and hanging out. There wasn't much happening there since it was the Junior Snow Ball so Max took us on a walking tour through Geneva and showed us some his other hangouts while we asked him questions about Swiss life and he asked us about American life. We went back pretty early because we had decided since we were there to go on an excursion to the Alps the next morning.

So we woke up at 7 to get dressed and get on the 8:50 train to Gstaat. Gstaat is small town way up on the Alps tucked in between a bunch mountains. We paid 80 Francs for a panoramic train to shuttle us fro the 3 hour ride. The trip up was beautiful though. The train slowly spiraled around the lake and up high into the mountains. The sky was a beautiful blue and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. It got clearer and clearer the higher we went and the mountains became bluer and more snowy. Small towns popped up and passed by as we journeyed ever higher into the snowy wonderland. Finally we arrived in Gstaat and were taken aback by the wonder of this place. This small sheltered town tucked away high up in the mountains. Undisturbed nature in harmony with humanity. There was a small and delicious chocolate bakery up there two which we thoroughly enjoyed its contents. We walked around and had lunch for about 3 hours before catching the train back and having beautiful views as the sun set on Lake Geneva. We made it back to John's and he insisted on treating us to pizza. We all ate happily and relaxed in the pool again before getting ready for bed. Our spring break closing we all drifted happily to sleep dreading the 4:30am wake up to make it to the airport for our 7am flight. So as I waxed into dream land I looked back on all the fun we had the past two weeks and how this is a story I will tell over and over again for the rest of my life. Five countries in two weeks is an impressive feat for an experienced traveller but the 4 of us managed to half ass our way around Europe with minimal hiccups like pros.

We groggily stumbled out of the house and got to the airport and were greeted by a hefty line of people waiting to check bags at 6am. We cut our flight pretty close and decided to run to the terminal only to find the people barely beginning the boarding process but hey who minds a 5 minute sprint at 6:45 in the morning. We boarded the plane back to Berlin and kissed our spring break good bye. A week of adventure, fun, and memories coming to close as the plane nosed up and left the runway. Five of slept peacefully on the plane probably wondering what the rest of the time in Berlin would be like and reflecting on the fun we had with each other over the past two weeks.

We arrived back in Berlin with beautiful weather, sunshine, and new hope….

Spanish! What A Relief. Oh Wait You Speak Catalan!?

Spring Break Destination 3 - Barcelona, Spain

We got to Barcelona a little after 11 and were able to get to our hostel without a problem. But when we arrived we encountered another problem. On one of the beds just hanging out was one bed bug. This may be the grossest and worst possible thing to ever find. We promptly went downstairs and told the clerk what we found and she played dumb like she had no clue what a bed bug was. We wouldn't let up and she changed our room for us. So after that near brush with death we thoroughly search the next room and found no traces of infestation. We went and ate since we were again starving and again found out we were in a very expensive part of Europe. The next morning we woke up and decided to bang out all of the architecturally relevant sites we wanted to see in one day. Our first stop after having brunch was the Casa Mila by Antoni Gaudi. It is an apartment complex that he designed in the early 1900s that has this really cool façade and courtyards. It is supposed to look like one of the mountains that surround Barcelona. It was awesome from the outside and we got some cool pictures from the gift shop of the courtyard. We didn't go in because there was no student discount and they wanted €13 just to go in. So we decided to walk to the next Gaudi work the Sagrada Familia. It was such a beautiful day we were all so happy to feel the sun and have airy and happy people around us. We were all sweating in the 60 degree weather while the Barcelonians were all bundled up. The Sagrada is a huge church started by Gaudi in 1892 and is still not finished. It is supposed to have 18 Spires. One for Jesus, one for Mary, 12 for the apostles, and 4 for the evangelical saints. Right now about 10 of the spires are completed. It is still incredible to look at. The whole façade tells the story of the nativity in stone relief carvings that run around the building. There is an awesome public oasis right next to it too. It was a little pond lined with trees and rocks and benches for people to sit. We could not have been happier to sit and look at this building while basking in the warmth of the sunlight. We then decided instead of seeing the last thing we wanted we'd walk down to the beach. THe beach was magnificent. The sand was a chocolate brown color and whole perimeter was lined with palm trees. Me and Casey ran down the water and plopped our feet into the Mediterranean Sea which was freezing cold. We sat on rock jetty just admiring the beach and again soaking up as much sun as possible. We had a beer on the beach and played in the jungle gym before going back to the hotel for siesta. We woke up and went to meet Kyle's friend who is studying there. We got dinner and then we were going to meet her and go out later on to a club on the beach. I unfortunately didn't make it anywhere. Apparently the tap water in Barcelona is not okay to drink because it is salty and I having had 2 water bottles full of tap water had the biggest headache in the entire world. I was in so much pain I blacked out and don't remember the guys leaving. Well after sleeping it off we all woke up the next morning and had to check out of the Hostel since Annie and Ashely were joining us for he last 2 days. So once the girls finally arrived we still couldn't check back in so we went over to the Park Guell, again by Gaudi is a massive public park with live music, vendors, and performers. The park was beautiful it was set well above the actual city and there was a point at the top that offered a view over all the trees in the park and allowed you to look back out over the city and up into the mountains west of Barcelona. Then after you walk down and around a path you come out into this public space were all of the vendor and performers were. They were selling Spanish glass necklaces, magnets, fans, and all other kinds of trinkets. The weather was still nice even though some clouds were starting to roll in we enjoyed a nice walk around the park.

Walking around Barcelona was amazing. Palm trees and beautiful skies but there was one problem. We still couldn't understand anything. The Barcelonians speak a very strange dialect of spanish called Catalan. It is a weird mix of Spanish and French and as I already covered we know just enough French to piss the French off. But fortunately they understand Spanish and will speak it back to you. So I was able to order food, ask for aspirin, and guide the cabby home at night.

So that night we went to a club on the beach next to the one the guys went to the night before when I was dying from drinking salt water the whole day. It was pretty beat. Weird atmosphere and a lot of old dudes. The music was pretty good so it was fun nonetheless. The next day no one wanted to get up and the maids started wailing on the door around noon time for us to get out. The weather was crappy so no one wanted to move. We finally got out and walked back toward the Sagrada Familia so the girls could see it. We also stopped at every single souvenir on the way to try and find shot glasses for Casey and Christmas Ornaments for me. We spent the whole day looking around for that until we finally caught up for drinks and dinner with Kyle's friend. €3.50 Margaritas and Mojitos at a restaurant that finally suited our budget. We enjoyed ourselves till about 12 then decided to pack in since our flight was at 10 and we'd have to be up and out early. I wish we had been able to go out that night because Afrojack, a favorite DJ of mine, was playing at the club Opium on the water. Some of the guys who were staying an extra night went and said it was awesome.

We departed Friday morning in gorgeous weather again toward our final destination, Geneva.

Six for One Euro - The Cheapest Thing in Paris

Spring Break Destination 2 - Paris, France

So we arrived in Paris at around noon and immediately encountered some trouble because we had no idea how to get to our hotel. We hailed a cab and gave him the address and even he had no idea where the street was. After him driven us around and searching through the map while driving we made it there to 1 Rue Jacquard. The address was 1 because its the only building on the street. The man in the Hotel was very nice and he showed us to our room which was like 4 boatel rooms put together but it smelled like something died in there and they painted over it. So once again we got the hell out of the room as fast as we could. Our first stop was food since we were starving. Now there are a lot of rumors that the French are rude. Well they are mostly true. None of the four of us spoke any french other that Parle Vous Anglais? Which really just pisses them off more. But they all understand English and will talk to one another in English but if you talk to them in English first they will answer you in French and only French. So after managing to eat we headed for the river. We walked down Rue de Rivoli which is a major shopping street in Paris all the way to Notre Dame. The place was free to get into and was amazing inside. The whole place was quite dark with only small pockets of colored light emanating from the many stained glass windows dotting the walls. It had a very sanctified feeling and even I felt the need to sit and close my eyes for a minute and think about my grandparents and how much me being here would mean to them and how much I truly miss them everyday. So after exiting the church and coming back out into the sunlight we made our way to the Louvre. It was awesome to see it in person because I never realized that it was set in this old Roman style pavilion. You turn the corner and this big glass pyramid is in your face. We chose not to go in because they were closing exhibits in 15 minutes. So from there we walked in the rain now for 45 minutes over to the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing to see that in person. It is massive and we walked around underneath it try to take pictures in the pouring rain. We were also getting hassled by vendors running up to us with obviously stolen souvenirs and offering them for €1 or €2 which was about €5 less then the souvenir shops. So we went back to the smell hotel to rest and figure out plans for the night. The next day we slept in and woke up and had some crêpes then made a B line to the Louvre. Our German visas got us in for free and we walked around admiring all of the artwork and got to see the Mona Lisa in all of its 11X17 paper glory. After that we walked over to Charles Garnier's Opera House. This opera house is famous for all of the ballet performances and other performing arts pieces it houses. Then we took the Metro back to the Eiffel and went up to the top. The view from the top was magnificent. You could see the whole city and practically all the way past the city limits. The weather was still gorgeous and the sun was just starting to go down so we grabbed some incredible photos of the landscape and the four of us. We went and got some delicious and well over priced French food and walked back to the Eiffel to grab some night shots. From there we went back wiped out and prepared to depart the next day. The last stop on our sightseeing tour was the Arc d'Triumph and to stop by Shearman and Sterling's office to grab some pictures from their conference room thanks to Alan's friends. We got some nice pictures but elected not to stand under the Arc and just take photos from the street because it was €8 to go under the arc. We went to the bus station to purchase our tickets for the airport which was an hour away, another thing we didn't realize when we booked it.

Boatels, Hookers, and Heineken Oh My!

Spring Break Destination 1 - Amsterdam, Holland

We arrived in Amsterdam at night after a long train ride from Düsseldorf and attempted to find our Boatel. Now for those of you who don't know a boatel is it is a Hostel + Boat = Boatel. Meaning its awful. The boat is about 100ft long and the rooms are 6 x 6. So the four of us packed into this box dropped our stuff and got the hell out of there. The woman was really nice though and she gave us a map of Amsterdam and pointed out some areas to go for good nightlife including the red-light district. So obviously being quite intrigued by the red-light district and since it was on the way to the main drag we elected to walk down it. The commercial breakdown of the area is as follows: Coffee shop, Sex shop, Whore house, Strip club and repeat. It was quite overwhelming to walk down these few blocks. The girls are allowed to tap on the glass and get your attention and they make weird faces at you. Its quite disturbing I guess because its something you really aren't ready for. After that journey we found the main square where there are bunches of clubs and bars. It is very touristy there and you can hear people speaking in almost every language. Fortunately for us almost everyone in Amsterdam spoke English. Thank God because Dutch is such an awful language to try and understand. Since we were on trains the whole day after having a few beers in the bar we decided to go back to Boatel and rest. I think every time I hear or say the word Boatel for the rest of my life I may cringe. So day two comes about and we go and check out of Boatel Zebra and on to the next one since we couldn't get two nights in the same boat. They are sooo popular… We decide to go to the train station and get our train tickets for Paris the following day. Well apparently to pick up train tickets for Paris at the station in Amsterdam you have to go to Brussels. Yea that's right to Brussels. So we ended up having to cancel those and buy new tickets for the 8am train the next morning. Well we finally made it out on the town and our first stop was the Heineken Brewery. It wasn't too expensive and you got three free beers with it and you could talk all the pictures you wanted. We had blast in there. We learned about how its made and why it tastes the way it does and all that fun stuff and the Heineken from the brewery was the best I've ever tasted. From there we went over to the I AMsterdam sign and took all the touristic pictures we possibly could. We ate and went back to the boat to grab a little siesta before the night. So that night we made our way back down to Rembrant Square and went to a nice bar to sit and relax instead of clubbing since I don't much care for going to clubs without my girlfriend. We were trying to get home before it got to late but we lost Rob and Kyle and had to wait for them outside and ended up running into a really nice group of British kids who hung out with us while we waited for Kyle and Rob. So finally made it home and woke up 4 hours later to board a train to Paris

Walking around Amsterdam was incredible. The whole city is built around canals. Each building is brick of different colors and they are all so different. But this difference allows them to fit together. Even though we didn't get great weather the city was still awesome. Regardless of all of the "offerings" the city has walking around and in between all the canals was gorgeous especially at night when they are all lit up and full of people. Amsterdam is very cool that it is scaled to the pedestrian. All the streets are very narrow on the interior of the city and the buildings are no more than 5 stories high and most roads are inaccessible by car except for the ring highway outside of the city. But we only had two days there and it was on to Paris.

The Coaled Hard Facts About Biodomes

Mandatory Spring Break Day 4-5: Essen, Herne, Köln P2

So for day 4 an even earlier train awaited us from the hostel. From there we were to journey to Essen to see an old coal mining facility which has been redeveloped since its closure into two museums and the rest of the grounds in being transformed into offices and residences.

It was pretty cool to be there. We got a tour of the Coal Facility and learned how everything worked. The plant itself was extremely modern when it was active and it produced a significant amount of coal for Germany. There are also three architecturally significant building there as well. The main coal plant was turned into a museum of the Ruhr Valley and was designed by Rem Koolhaus. Getting into this building was really cool because there is an escalator that goes up 35m. Then inside the building at the entrance to the museum there is a stair that is all lined with orange neon lights that supposed to represent the molten coal being moved down the shaft. The museum itself is pretty cool too it has a bunch of stuff from historic animals that were there to contemporary photos taken by Ruhr residents. The second museum which we didn't make it to was designed by Norman Foster and was in the former steam plant. It now houses contemporary design projects. The third significant building is a university building by the japanese firm Sanne. It is a four story box with huge windows punched into it. fairly uninteresting and seemingly underused. So after that we decided to head home and on the way back to city center there is a beautiful Philharmonie by Alvar Alto. We attempted to get in by using some classic lines like its our last day in Germany and we are architecture students and all that jazz. But we just walked around and drooled up against the glass an took pictures.

The next day which put us on a 7:45am train was a trip to the small town of Herne where there is essentially a biodome. A climate controlled glass box that has palm trees and a little river running through it. It houses civic functions and even a few buildings for students. It was designed in the late 90s so being as efficient as it is was quite an accomplishment as it paved the way for Germany's green initiative. After having spent half the day there we chose to go back to Köln to see the Peter Zumthor museum that was closed on Tuesday. It was incredible how sculptural this museum was. It was built on the ruins of a 19th century church which was built on the ruins of a Roman Church. There is actually a point where you get to walk through the Ruins and its a really cool experience.

So from there it was off to break. Four of us sitting in the hauptbahnhof in Düsseldorf waiting to board our train to Amsterdam