Wednesday we spent most of the day driving. We stopped to see a Zaha Hadid project called the Pheano Museum. For all of you from Arkansas think a bigger version of the Discovery Museum, and for all of you in Louisiana think SciPort apparently. Hadid was doing some interesting things from an urban planning standpoint - connecting certain axes within the town, but the building as a whole I did not love. Granted, this project was a huge experiment with self-compacting concrete, but the experiment failed in many ways. The details and craftsmanship of the building were not up to par in my opinion. Formally it resembled a space ship, which I suppose is ok for a science museum, but the form seemed to get in the way of other spatial and tectonic issues. I felt bad for not liking this project, but I realized that it is also important to see things that you don't like and that are not necessarily successful, so that you can learn from others' mistakes.
We also had a chance to see two buildings by Alvaro Alto - a cultural center and church. My favorite thing that I discovered in these buildings was the way he deals with natural light. It seems to flood the spaces he creates. I specifically liked how he let light pour in over entry ways. Thursday we saw the famous Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind. This was different than I expected. The point of the design once you entered the building was to disorient you. - it worked. Being so disoriented within the building made me realize the importance of letting the people who experience your buildings be aware of their surroundings and where they are with in the building. One exhibit within the building ruined the rest of the experience for me. When we got to it, I thought that we were passing through on our way to another part, so I thought that you had to go through it in order to get to the next part. Come to find out it we didn't have to go through, but it was too late. The piece was tucked around a corner in its own room. The floor was covered with pieces of steel cut out in the shape of faces. The emotion on these faces were of despair and deep pain. It was supposed to resemble the Jewish people killed during the war. So, the point was to have people walk on these steel faces. Well, the sound of steel clanking together echoed through the room as you're stepping on these sad faces being reminded of these people who were killed for no reason. It made you feel like you were the one responsible for this. I did not like having to feel that, and was honestly mad afterwards. Mad that I walked through it without knowing I didn't have to; and mad that the "artist" made me feel like I had something to do with all of the death. After dealing w/ the emotions from that exhibit I was ready to leave that building.
CULTURE
We arrived back in Berlin Wednesday to crowds of people heading in one direction. We soon figured out Germany was playing a game in the World Cup, so we decided to follow the crowd. We caught the last bit of the game down from the Brandenburg Gate w/ thousands of crazy German fans! This was SO fun! Everyone chanting, cheering, singing in unison. People dressed in wigs (fro or mohawk), flags, face paint, etc. all red, yellow, and black. We didn't want the fun to end (and neither did the Germans) so we just kept following the crowd. We ended up walking all the way from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz (really far away) just watching the fans be crazy. I wasn't in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl, but I imagine a similar atmosphere. At one point people were jumping on top of buses and rocking them back and forth until they had to speed off - same with taxis. I have several entertaining videos from this night! It was just fun to watch so many people come together for one thing, knowing that the rest of the country was just as excited. We really don't see this type of pride for our country as a whole in the US. We have more pride in our individual teams than for the whole country. I think that has been the neat thing about being here during the world cup and getting to experience this pride for one's country. We all have decided we will probably always hold a special place in our hearts for German soccer.
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