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
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