We set out early and headed towards Stuttgart (pronounced stootgart not like Stuttgart, Arkansas). We stopped on the way at the Vitra Campus. Vitra is a furniture company that has set up a campus of different buildings done by super star architects. Its kind of like a Disney World Epcot Center for architects. There was a chair museum done by Frank Gehrey - a turning point project for him going from angular to curvy. Tadao Ando did a conference center that contrasted with the complexity of Gehrey’s project. I loved the craftsmanship of the concrete - so smooth and clean. His site placement was really nice – allowing you to feel like the building was by itself. Herzog and de Meuron just finished the VitraHaus – their new products store/showrooms. The outside of their building looked simple in form, but the inside was rather complex. The outside contrasted again with Gehrey’s white museum with a dark charcoal color. The inside was all white allowing the furniture to be the focal point. They framed views of the surrounding vineyards and buildings. The difference b/w the interior and exterior really allows the interior to glow at night. They are one of my favorite firms b/c they have a reason behind everything that they do. I wish I had had more time to explore the complexities of this project. We were able to see other projects on the campus by Nicholas Grimshaw, Alvaro Siza, and Buckminster Fuller. We also saw the Vitra Fire Station by Zaha Hadid – one of her first realized projects. There were some pros and cons about this building. The coolest thing probably being the staircase…. Each step was cantilevered from the wall. This campus was a really dense experience seeing so many key architects at once all the while trying to admire the awesome furniture!
We hit the road again the next stop being the Hohenzollern Castle. This is the family that held the monarch crowns for so many years throughout German history. (Fredrick the Great, Wilhelm II who was responsible for WWI, etc) This was really fun to see. It was so picturesque with amazing views over the “kingdom”. The castle is actually still private property of the current head of the Holhenzollern family. He lives in Berlin in a rented flat…. Quite a different scene from the mideival/gothic castle! The girls decided we could just fake some papers of aristocracy and go marry into the royal family. J haha. We got to climb to the top of the tower at the top of this mountain. The sun was getting ready to set w/ rays peeking through the clouds – the word majestic was all I could think of.
The drive was also gorgeous. We’d pass by lots of lovely little German villages set into the hills. We also went through the infamous black forest. The trees were pretty dark, so I’m guessing that’s where the name comes from, but not really sure. We finally arrived in Stuttgart. We decided very quickly that this is the Detroit of Germany. Its very industrial and our hotel is in a really random area of town. We had to find food around 10 pm which was a hard task in this area. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant where no one spoke a word of English. We had trouble deciphering the German described Chinese food. That was an interesting task. We’ve learned that pointing and hoping for the best is sometimes the best way to go about the language barrier.
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