Monday morning we set out to go see Le Corbusier's Unite de Habitation. We've studied the one he did in France, and this one was very similar. We were able to go inside and see a few of the different apartment styles, including a woman's apartment who had lived there since the building was built. Most people renovate their space, but she had everything left for the most part from how it was in the 50's. I love getting to meet these local people and hear their stories.
We also got to stop by a Nicolas Grimshaw buildi
ng. This space had lots of really nice details. I really enjoy being places that are rich in details. Grimshaw was able to create interesting forms but still have it make sense tectonically - the best of both worlds. There were some images at one spot in the building that showed pictures of some of his models and then an inspiration image of something in nature. It was interesting to see how these structures in natural things were manifested throughout the building.
My favorite thing we did Monday - and now in my top favorite of the trip (I'll have to compile a numbered list for that later) - was the Kaiser Wilheim Kirche. This is an old church that was hit from bombing. They left the remains of the old church and built a new one next to it. This is one of the icons of Berlin, and a testament to the struggles the city has had in wrestling between what to repair, what to tear down, what to mem
orialize, etc. It is probably the prime example of contrasting between new and old. The exterior of the new church on its own is not that attractive, but when sitting next to the old cathedral, it somehow is very fitting. We've been by this church a couple times on the trip so I wasn't just super energized about the building, but then we got to go inside. As I stepped in the door, I caught a glimpse of the alter through the foyer are
a - I think my exact words were "No way" with jaw drop immediately following. The entire inside of this church was stained glass. And not just any stained glass - BLUE stained glass. And not just any blue - MY blue. If you've been around m
e much in the past couple years, you understand my excitement! Not only do I love stained glass, but this blue glass is one of my favorite things in the world. You can't capture this color and luminescence in paint. It was beautiful! This was three days ago, and I still get excited thinking about it. This was definitely an unexpected treasure of Berlin - for me anyway - I don't know if many other people get so excited by seeing the color blue haha. This is just a quick image from the internet to give you an idea.
Tuesday we hopped on the train to Dresden for the day. This town was interesting in that all of its big historic buildings were all together in one area. A sort of Acropolis of Baroque and Neo-Classical architecture. We took a tour of the Opera house to find out none of it was original. Everything has been rebuilt in the past 20-30 years. It was very interesting to find how much trouble the people went to in order to make these buildings look old and authentic. Instead of using real wood paneling, an artist painted wood grain onto clay; instead of using marble for columns and wall panels, they used a material that took way longer to make and was extremely more expensive but still looked like marble. It was hard for us to understand why they would have spent more money for fake materials.
We had a little bit of free time in this area so I went to an art museum that contained a lot of the "old masters" work. This was the first time since my art history class to go see old art. I enjoyed understanding more about this style and being able to appreciate it rather than passing through to more modern work. We saw Raphael's Sistine Madonna in which everyone recognizes the two cupids. We also saw several Rembrandt's, Rubens, Titians, and a couple from Durer (German), among several others. But, this was alot of fun for me, and a nice break from architecture.
We went by the Volks Wagen Factory. One could watch a car being made from start to finish and even have the chance to screw in a couple of bolts on your own new car. The factory is referred to as the Transparent factory. We didn't get a tour, but we've now completed our circle of German made car factories. We were able to get an impromptu tour of a middle/high school by Behnisch, and we stopped by a movie theater done by Coop Himmelbau.
The major building we saw on Wednesday was the Dutch Embassy by Rem Koolhaas. This was a really interesting building that of course has some pro's and con's. Berlin has strict building codes, as I think I've mentioned before, and it was interesting to see how Koolhaas worked with and around these restrictions. Buildings have to be built on all four corners of a lot, but Koolhaas and the clients from the Embassy wanted the Embassy to stand apart from surrounding buildings and be its own entity. So, the end result was to pull the actual Embassy building apart from the rest leaving an interstitial space through the middle of the site - leaving an L shaped building with an offset cube. The disappointing thing to me was that there wasn't much done to this interstitial space. The actual Embassy was pretty interesting. The circulation sort of spiraled up throughout the building with a series of ramps, corridors, and staircases. Each room had some sort of view to the next. Going through the spaces, you could tell the building had an interesting section by how spaces intersected one another.
After the Embassy, the rest of the day was more history based. We got a taste of some Socialist urban planning by going down Karl-Marx-Allee. It was very evident the idea of power that they were trying to achieve through their architecture. Everything was very stark, monolithic, symmetrical, and cold in a way. Our teachers tell us how our work makes (and should make) political statements in a way. Without going into detail, seeing this area made me realize more of what they mean by that.
The last thing we did was go to a Soviet memorial in Treptower Park. This was an impressive and powerful place. It was interesting to see something from their point of view. The monuments here were giant and telling of how much pain the Soviets felt at the time. There are over 5000 buried here. The main statue of the square was a soldier holding a child while crushing a swastika with his feet. This was to symbolize the Soviets coming into Germany to try to save Humanity. Although my knowledge of these issues is limited in comparison to others, as Americans we focus on the Jewish aspects of WWII and learn to feel great sympathy towards the things that happened to them. But, we are not really exposed to this point of view - feeling sympathy for communists. They've always been the "bad guys" in our stories. This memorial just made me realize that at the end of the day we're all people, and when that many people (red, yellow, black, or white) have endured such devastation, its ok to feel sympathy for them even though political agendas throughout history do not line up.
CULTURE
Food: We've had some intersesting food in the last couple days. Monday, we searched for a while to find a doner kebap. This is going to be the thing I miss about Berlin. Its just an amazing mix of greatness all wrapped up in one tortilla. We've decided that if architecture doesn't work out, we could come back to America and open up a Doner stand and make a killing. I'm really surprised that the doner hasn't made it over there yet. If you haven't had one, add it to your bucket list. mmmm so good! For dinner we went to an African restaurant. I was a little nervous, but actually thoroughly enjoyed my meal. The food had different textures, so that was the hard part, but the flavors made up for it. I had some sort of beef dish w/ spinach mixture. It came w/ plantains which were really good.
Tuesday for lunch we stopped at a schnitzle place. Mine came with a pineapple curry sauce... very good.
Wednesday we had some more currywurst for lunch, and then went to a local pizza place for dinner. Our German contact suggested the place, and it was amazing. Everything was so authentic, and we could tell it was a favorite place for the locals. We got there and the place was packed. After we got our pizzas we understood why. It was fun to be in a part of town that wasn't crawling with tourists.
I finally found a watch! I like it because it will always remind me of Berlin. One cultural thing I picked up on while in the watch store was the fact that people are allowed to bring their dogs into stores and restaurants a lot more freely than in America. I've noticed a few times when we're in a retail/food vending space that dogs just randomly pop in. They are with their owners of course, but a lot of the Berliner dogs are not on leashes. This is the kind of thing that when it happens you don't think much about it, but then you realize you just ordered your food w/ a dog running at your feet - that would never fly in America.
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