I woke up at 5:30 this morning and gathered my belongings together. I showered, packed my toiletries, ate a quick snack, threw my computer together and headed out. I made the bus just on time and things were looking good, I paid the fare for the airport (about 8 bucks) and sat back to watch the sun rise, timidly,through the windows of the bus. It was all going perfectly, not a hitch, and it was a good feeling.
I was riding past Tivoli when I see a poster advertising the production of Chess that they are putting on. This was the play in the 1980's written by Murray Head that gave us the classic "One Night in Bangkok." Hmmm, I thought to myself "I remember wanting to see that and I remember it had a two night run, the 30th and 31st. And I also remember....aww hell!"
It was at this point that it occurs to me I do not leave for Russia until the 1st. So here I am, back in my room, now confident, as a result of my dry run today, that I will be able to make it to the airport, on time, tomorrow.
Oops!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Presentation Board
Not the best quality, and I wonder how I will get it into my portfolio...I guess the old fashioned way of photographing it via professional.
Anyway, this should give you an idea.
Tomorrow, Russia!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Well, it's been a while
But I have really good reason. A) there has been no travel and B) I have been busting my hump in studio on our first real project of the semester. I have to admit that I am far morew proud of this presentation than I have been of a board in a long time, if ever. I decided on this project to present solely in analogue. I eschewed all the rendering programs, 3d modeling softwares and layout editors in exchange for doing everything by hand: even down to the french cutting of photographs to splice them into my main page. This has been a wonderful experience, and has really brought me back to the concept of a presentation. At some I became enchanted with the digital age and forgot about the tactile. It yielded some pretty amazing results.
Right now I only have the photographs of the model I did for a lighting study but I will photograph the board right before my presentation so everyone can see how good it looks! Seriously, I am so happy with the board, that I have almost forgotten my indifference to my design. I think from here on out I will put that majority of my presentation emphasis in the analogue and slowly and appropriately reintroduce the digital in an organic way. I think in the long run this will serve me well.
Anyway, photos to come, Russia on saturday, and then St. Louis and Lawrence, before returning to Denmark for the home stretch!
See you soon
TW
Friday, October 9, 2009
Notes from Study tour Y to Germany and the Netherlands--or--What now?
This was far and away one of the worst planned study tours I have ever been on. And I have been on 3! If this had been a tour that I partook in separate from DIS I would have been furious and been asking for my money back. Nothing, absolutely nothing after the first day went as planned. We went well beyond Murphey's Law and into the realm of "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And just for the fun of it, we've thought up some new things that were completely unexpected. You're gonna love it." Let's call it, I dunno, Odysseus' Law.
Let's just start with where I left off (sorry about that, we didn't have internet.) This brings us to the Monday of October 5th. We woke up in our wonderful 3 star hotel room (one less star than the previous night but a good deal more than the hostels) and headed out for Essen, Germany. Essen was a coal mining town that, up until recently, was pretty much something out of western Pennsylvania. However, in recent years it has achieved a bit of status because of the Zeche Zollverein. An old coal processing plant, it recently was put into Unesco's list of protected historic places. This is a huge deal, especially since in Europe, everything is old. So OMA and Rem designed a masterplan that woul serve not only to protect the site but also to make it more pronounced as well. There are a great many pictures from within the coal plant and it was interesting to see. What would have been further interesting, had it not been a monday, would have been to do what we were supposed to do and scheduled to do and seen the museum. But, what's that? Museums are closed monday? Excuse me? You say that that is pretty much a universal norm? Hmmm....now why didn't DIS think of that?
DIS screwup 1: failed to consider that museums are closed on monday
So after killing time there (and I mean killing it since we couldn't go through the museum and had allotted time for it) we headed over to the Norman Foster designed Red Dot Museum. Now then, I want everyone to say it with me: Museum's are closed on Mandays. Yes that's right. You would think after running this tour for ten years plus, that DIS would have known about this little anomaly in museum scheduling. This wasn't a total loss, however, because it so happened that the woman who ran the museum was coming in so after considerable begging we were allowed access to the museum. This was pretty cool. The museum is dedicated to recipients of the Red Dot design award which covers everything from xerox machines to backpacks. There was even lawnmowers and ipods recognized. It was fun to see different elements of design all appreciated.
DIS Screwup 2: Closed museum again, only made better by begging
After the museum, we walked over to a restaurant called Kokerei. It was a good meal but the pleasure came in the surroundings. It was built into a coal mill so it was heavy and dark and industrial. Very cool. And the first thing that day that wasn't screwed up!
The afternoon took us to the Zollverein school of Management and Design. This is a building designed by the Japanese firm SANAA. Frankly I did not think much of it. It was open form, adjustable space, etc...but frankly, it was a white cube with as far as I could tell, arbitrarily placed and sized openings. It was not a building I would go out of my way to see.
After that, because the tour had already screwed the pooch for the day, they decided to make a surprise stop and let us hang out with some Dutch architecture students. We had dinner at the Arch. School cafeteria, we waited, we walked around, we waited...hmmm...well the students didn't show up for the debate or mixer or whatever the hell DIS thought would come from this. So let's go ahead and chalk up
DIS Screwup 3: failed to confirm make up plans
It was good to get to the hotel that night.
October 6th, this was a good one as well. We had 3 items on the itinerary that took place outside of the bus: academic visits, if you will. 66 percent of these failed in one form or another.
Let's start with Van Nelle Factory. This was the first (well, supposed to be first) stop of the day. We arrived and after Kate and Boe (the professor on this debauchal) talked to numerous people it was evident that the two architecture students who were supposed to meet us, not only weren't there, but had no idea what we were talking about. So with the promise of returning in the afternoon, we all stopped sketching and loaded up to go to our next destination.
DIS Screwup 4: had not established plans at all
We left the Van Nelle and went to the NAI (Netherlands Architecture institute.) This went off without a hitch but I cannot say it went off as planned since it was supposed to occur in the afternoon. We just had to change the schedule around.
This was a neat building and museum. And recently it had been retrofitted to accommodate the 2010 Rotterdam Bianalle. After walking around there for a bit, and again, killing time, we headed off the the OMA designed Kunsthall. This is a pretty amazing building, but before we toured it we were going to have lunch in the cafe. This was a total joke. When we arrived, they were not prepared for us. They did not have enough chairs and tables and furthermore, they had not received their shipment of bread for the day and as a result had to give us really old bread that had been heavily toasted to compensate for the degree to which it had staled. They brought no utensils and for every table of six, placed one plate with 4 halved sandwiches. Numerous people walked away from that meal hungry because of either dietary issues or because one half a small sandwich was not enough. This is a trendy, contemporary art museum cafe and they were not ready for us. They did bring out more sandwiches eventually, but unfortunately, only like 4 of us were left in the room.
DIS Screwup 5: Failed to make sure we were going to be accommodated
After the Kunsthall, when we were supposed to return to the Van Nelle, we were informed that we would not be going back at all. This could be connected to the previous failure, but I am going to go ahead and count it as
DIS Screwup 6: failed to follow through on promises
We were then set off on our own for dinner and nightlife in Rotterdam after having a bus tour. Which, frankly, is the worst way to see architecture. I can't draw it fast enough and I can't take a decent photo through the rain smeared glass so...
The morning of the 7th brought with it a feeling of "what now." Everyone was eerily suspicious of every plan and frankly had begun to expect the worst. The first stop at the Hessing Cockpit, which is a high end car showroom, was a nice stop. There wasn't a single problem. Lunch went off well too. The only problem, and this is by no means DIS's fault, but the rain preempted our bike tour of Amsterdam, so while it was not their fault, they also did not spend that money on us.
Afternoon free in Amsterdam.
The morning of the 8th was the drivers day off, so we all (38 of us) had to try to take city transport together...it was a mess.
We got to Ultrecht University and had sketching assignments to do on our own. And periodically, groups would head to see the Schroeder house by Garrett Rietveld. I love this house. I couldn't live there but the machination and adaptability of the place is amazing.
Dinner was fun. We drank a lot. For some, too much. And we boarded the bus to return to Copenhagen where, again not DIS's fault, 3 students got violently ill, vomitting on themselves, others, and the bus. We had to stop 3 times to clean the bus.
This was a nightmare trip and I am thinking of asking DIS to return the money that I spent. I know I would if it was an independent tour group I went with...I just can't figure out why I am cutting them slack.
Anyway, it is good to be home.
Oh, one other thing, the other group, Group X, they got to go to a concert and have a cultural night that we did not. I feel shortchanged.
Let's just start with where I left off (sorry about that, we didn't have internet.) This brings us to the Monday of October 5th. We woke up in our wonderful 3 star hotel room (one less star than the previous night but a good deal more than the hostels) and headed out for Essen, Germany. Essen was a coal mining town that, up until recently, was pretty much something out of western Pennsylvania. However, in recent years it has achieved a bit of status because of the Zeche Zollverein. An old coal processing plant, it recently was put into Unesco's list of protected historic places. This is a huge deal, especially since in Europe, everything is old. So OMA and Rem designed a masterplan that woul serve not only to protect the site but also to make it more pronounced as well. There are a great many pictures from within the coal plant and it was interesting to see. What would have been further interesting, had it not been a monday, would have been to do what we were supposed to do and scheduled to do and seen the museum. But, what's that? Museums are closed monday? Excuse me? You say that that is pretty much a universal norm? Hmmm....now why didn't DIS think of that?
DIS screwup 1: failed to consider that museums are closed on monday
So after killing time there (and I mean killing it since we couldn't go through the museum and had allotted time for it) we headed over to the Norman Foster designed Red Dot Museum. Now then, I want everyone to say it with me: Museum's are closed on Mandays. Yes that's right. You would think after running this tour for ten years plus, that DIS would have known about this little anomaly in museum scheduling. This wasn't a total loss, however, because it so happened that the woman who ran the museum was coming in so after considerable begging we were allowed access to the museum. This was pretty cool. The museum is dedicated to recipients of the Red Dot design award which covers everything from xerox machines to backpacks. There was even lawnmowers and ipods recognized. It was fun to see different elements of design all appreciated.
DIS Screwup 2: Closed museum again, only made better by begging
After the museum, we walked over to a restaurant called Kokerei. It was a good meal but the pleasure came in the surroundings. It was built into a coal mill so it was heavy and dark and industrial. Very cool. And the first thing that day that wasn't screwed up!
The afternoon took us to the Zollverein school of Management and Design. This is a building designed by the Japanese firm SANAA. Frankly I did not think much of it. It was open form, adjustable space, etc...but frankly, it was a white cube with as far as I could tell, arbitrarily placed and sized openings. It was not a building I would go out of my way to see.
After that, because the tour had already screwed the pooch for the day, they decided to make a surprise stop and let us hang out with some Dutch architecture students. We had dinner at the Arch. School cafeteria, we waited, we walked around, we waited...hmmm...well the students didn't show up for the debate or mixer or whatever the hell DIS thought would come from this. So let's go ahead and chalk up
DIS Screwup 3: failed to confirm make up plans
It was good to get to the hotel that night.
October 6th, this was a good one as well. We had 3 items on the itinerary that took place outside of the bus: academic visits, if you will. 66 percent of these failed in one form or another.
Let's start with Van Nelle Factory. This was the first (well, supposed to be first) stop of the day. We arrived and after Kate and Boe (the professor on this debauchal) talked to numerous people it was evident that the two architecture students who were supposed to meet us, not only weren't there, but had no idea what we were talking about. So with the promise of returning in the afternoon, we all stopped sketching and loaded up to go to our next destination.
DIS Screwup 4: had not established plans at all
We left the Van Nelle and went to the NAI (Netherlands Architecture institute.) This went off without a hitch but I cannot say it went off as planned since it was supposed to occur in the afternoon. We just had to change the schedule around.
This was a neat building and museum. And recently it had been retrofitted to accommodate the 2010 Rotterdam Bianalle. After walking around there for a bit, and again, killing time, we headed off the the OMA designed Kunsthall. This is a pretty amazing building, but before we toured it we were going to have lunch in the cafe. This was a total joke. When we arrived, they were not prepared for us. They did not have enough chairs and tables and furthermore, they had not received their shipment of bread for the day and as a result had to give us really old bread that had been heavily toasted to compensate for the degree to which it had staled. They brought no utensils and for every table of six, placed one plate with 4 halved sandwiches. Numerous people walked away from that meal hungry because of either dietary issues or because one half a small sandwich was not enough. This is a trendy, contemporary art museum cafe and they were not ready for us. They did bring out more sandwiches eventually, but unfortunately, only like 4 of us were left in the room.
DIS Screwup 5: Failed to make sure we were going to be accommodated
After the Kunsthall, when we were supposed to return to the Van Nelle, we were informed that we would not be going back at all. This could be connected to the previous failure, but I am going to go ahead and count it as
DIS Screwup 6: failed to follow through on promises
We were then set off on our own for dinner and nightlife in Rotterdam after having a bus tour. Which, frankly, is the worst way to see architecture. I can't draw it fast enough and I can't take a decent photo through the rain smeared glass so...
The morning of the 7th brought with it a feeling of "what now." Everyone was eerily suspicious of every plan and frankly had begun to expect the worst. The first stop at the Hessing Cockpit, which is a high end car showroom, was a nice stop. There wasn't a single problem. Lunch went off well too. The only problem, and this is by no means DIS's fault, but the rain preempted our bike tour of Amsterdam, so while it was not their fault, they also did not spend that money on us.
Afternoon free in Amsterdam.
The morning of the 8th was the drivers day off, so we all (38 of us) had to try to take city transport together...it was a mess.
We got to Ultrecht University and had sketching assignments to do on our own. And periodically, groups would head to see the Schroeder house by Garrett Rietveld. I love this house. I couldn't live there but the machination and adaptability of the place is amazing.
Dinner was fun. We drank a lot. For some, too much. And we boarded the bus to return to Copenhagen where, again not DIS's fault, 3 students got violently ill, vomitting on themselves, others, and the bus. We had to stop 3 times to clean the bus.
This was a nightmare trip and I am thinking of asking DIS to return the money that I spent. I know I would if it was an independent tour group I went with...I just can't figure out why I am cutting them slack.
Anyway, it is good to be home.
Oh, one other thing, the other group, Group X, they got to go to a concert and have a cultural night that we did not. I feel shortchanged.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Cologne Germany,
Today was a great day of site seeing in Deutschland. We got to see some really seminal (is that the semen related adjective or the one meaning important? I want the one meaning important. Or wait, is that the native american from florida? Shit. Well anyway...) works of contemporary architecture by such greats as Tadao Ando (the mad boxer) and Peter Zumpthor (recent Pritzger Prize winner.)
I took abajillion photographs and am uploading them as we speak. It does, unfortunately, take a bit of time for everything to move over the interweb here in the hotel so it may take some time, but it truly was a remarkable day.
The day started interestingly enough when we were missing 4 people at departure time. Apparently some of the students went on quite a tear last night and never quite got to bed before about 7 a.m. We would have left without them, but we were not able to leave ourselves. You see, apparently today was the Koln Marathon. A 26 mile race that literally encircles the hotel. As a result, the bus driver could not get anywhere close to us. We had to walk to the bus which proved problematic because at one point we had no choice but to cut through an active marathon. We tried to impede people as little as possible but 45 students crossing through a marathon, well there was going to be problems.
Soon we found the bus and our first stop was the Langen Foundation by Tadao Ando. Tadao is a wonderful architect who utilizes space and light as well as massing in ways that were never thought of before. The amazing thing about him is that he has had no formal training. His original career was as a professional boxer. What an incredible natural talent.
The next stop was a walk from the foundation. It was entitled Insel Hombroich. This was a sculpture garde/architectural garden wherein a number of architects had designed simple pavillions that generally consisted of only one movement. There were some interesting concepts at play regarding sound and experience. Since most of these places were only one room, the concepts had to have one note and be played as powerful as possible, not forcefully, but powerfully.
We then headed back to Koln and drove to the Kolumba Museum by Zumpthor. What a remarkable place this was. Built on the foundations of an acient and decrepit church, Zumpthor took no less than ten years designing this remarkable museum. Characterized by Zunpthor's trademark use of allowing natural light to cut through space, turning the light into a mass itself, this was truly a joy to walk through (and photograph. I went a little crazy with the lens.)
Last stop, the Dome church. Not really sure why it's called the Dome but there it is.
Anyway, tomorrow more travel and we wind up in Utrecht for the night. Should be interesting.
I took abajillion photographs and am uploading them as we speak. It does, unfortunately, take a bit of time for everything to move over the interweb here in the hotel so it may take some time, but it truly was a remarkable day.
The day started interestingly enough when we were missing 4 people at departure time. Apparently some of the students went on quite a tear last night and never quite got to bed before about 7 a.m. We would have left without them, but we were not able to leave ourselves. You see, apparently today was the Koln Marathon. A 26 mile race that literally encircles the hotel. As a result, the bus driver could not get anywhere close to us. We had to walk to the bus which proved problematic because at one point we had no choice but to cut through an active marathon. We tried to impede people as little as possible but 45 students crossing through a marathon, well there was going to be problems.
Soon we found the bus and our first stop was the Langen Foundation by Tadao Ando. Tadao is a wonderful architect who utilizes space and light as well as massing in ways that were never thought of before. The amazing thing about him is that he has had no formal training. His original career was as a professional boxer. What an incredible natural talent.
The next stop was a walk from the foundation. It was entitled Insel Hombroich. This was a sculpture garde/architectural garden wherein a number of architects had designed simple pavillions that generally consisted of only one movement. There were some interesting concepts at play regarding sound and experience. Since most of these places were only one room, the concepts had to have one note and be played as powerful as possible, not forcefully, but powerfully.
We then headed back to Koln and drove to the Kolumba Museum by Zumpthor. What a remarkable place this was. Built on the foundations of an acient and decrepit church, Zumpthor took no less than ten years designing this remarkable museum. Characterized by Zunpthor's trademark use of allowing natural light to cut through space, turning the light into a mass itself, this was truly a joy to walk through (and photograph. I went a little crazy with the lens.)
Last stop, the Dome church. Not really sure why it's called the Dome but there it is.
Anyway, tomorrow more travel and we wind up in Utrecht for the night. Should be interesting.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Been a while
So yes, it has been a while since my last entry. And for no good reason other than, I didn't feel like it. So without further delay, before my blog gets relegated to the land of lost diaries, I figured I would catch everything and everyone up.
So Megan and I finished up our week together in the most amazing and perfect fashion. We went to tivoli where we discovered how some rides can deceive. We went to a dinner at Paustian v. Bo Bech, where we had a ten course meal complete with wine pairings from the Danish master of Moleculargastronomy Bo Bech. We spent time together, doing nothing. And it was all perfect.
Most recently, I have just been doing school work, designing a row house that is sited in an industrial area of Copenhagen. It is going rather well. It is definitely going better than my last project at KU. But that's another story.
Last night we drove from Copenhagen to Cologne, Germany, stopping once along the way to see a museum that was placed to exhibit the findings of an archaeological dig that has unearthed a battle from 2000 years ago between the Romans and the Germans. It was interesting. There are pictures. But I was feeling less than motivated to do anything academic.
After arriving in Cologne and checking into our 4 star hotel (no shit, sorry Glenda) we all went out to a three course meal on DIS's ticket. I mean, ultimately I suppose it is on my ticket since I pay DIS but it was still nice to not have to dig into my own wallet.
Slept well and today more study tour type stuff.
TW
So Megan and I finished up our week together in the most amazing and perfect fashion. We went to tivoli where we discovered how some rides can deceive. We went to a dinner at Paustian v. Bo Bech, where we had a ten course meal complete with wine pairings from the Danish master of Moleculargastronomy Bo Bech. We spent time together, doing nothing. And it was all perfect.
Most recently, I have just been doing school work, designing a row house that is sited in an industrial area of Copenhagen. It is going rather well. It is definitely going better than my last project at KU. But that's another story.
Last night we drove from Copenhagen to Cologne, Germany, stopping once along the way to see a museum that was placed to exhibit the findings of an archaeological dig that has unearthed a battle from 2000 years ago between the Romans and the Germans. It was interesting. There are pictures. But I was feeling less than motivated to do anything academic.
After arriving in Cologne and checking into our 4 star hotel (no shit, sorry Glenda) we all went out to a three course meal on DIS's ticket. I mean, ultimately I suppose it is on my ticket since I pay DIS but it was still nice to not have to dig into my own wallet.
Slept well and today more study tour type stuff.
TW
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