Wednesday/Thursday - return to Berlin

ARCHITECTURE

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.

Tuesday - Stuttgart

Stuttgart is famous for the Porsche. We started off our day drooling over the Porsche Museum. I didn’t personally care for the aesthetic of the building, but I did find it impressive. Basically the whole museum was lifted off the ground and supported by three “legs”. The cantilevering proved to be a structural feat. I think we all enjoyed getting to look at porsches all morning. They took you through the history of Porsche starting with the first models and ending with the latest and most impressive. I really enjoyed looking at the old ones. It was here, mom and dad, that I picked out your newest toys! Ha!

If seeing all the BMW’s and Porsche’s this trip hasn’t been enough car shopping, we went on over to the Mercedes Benz Museum next. This was definitely my favorite building of the day, and maybe in my top favorites for the trip. It was designed by UN Studio. They focused a lot on circulation. They set up the circulation in a double helix ramping system. Without seeing any diagrams, I was kind of confused about how it all worked, but it was definitely a unique museum experience. I hate going in museums that you have to back track through things to get to something else. They were able to prevent this from happening. They too started with the old(horse and buggy) and ended w/ the new. We didn’t hear as much about the cars on this tour as we did about the architecture. So, there are lots of things about the building I could comment on and that I liked, but I’ll keep it short. As you wound down throughout the helix, they allowed you to preview the next room you would enter. You kept winding down the ramp around the cars on show and then you were able to mingle amongst the cars once you hit the floor. This building has a unique smoke removal system that won them a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Basically the entire museum circles around a central atrium and has doors that open up to the space in the event of a fire. There is a vent at the top center of the atrium that along with other mechanisms sucks all of the smoke out of the exhibition spaces into the center and creates a “tornado” in order to get the smoke out of the building. Pretty ingenious if you ask me.

The last thing we saw was a double house by Le Corbusier – the Father of Modernism. I’ve seen one of his houses while in France (Villa Savoye for those of you that are architecturally savvy), so I was able to compare this house to that. It is so apparent in his designs and how one would live in these spaces his ideal of a house being a “machine for living”. From the way you open the doors, to the way you sleep, everything makes you feel as if you are operating a machine in order to do daily things. Its not about waking up in your bedroom and moving from one programmed room to the next to do what you need to do in a day. Its about changing the one room to perform each different function. One of the major comparisons I noticed, was that this house was much more compact than Villa Savoye. I don’t know if this has to do with the area in which it is built (this house being in a denser area) or what. Another aspect I thought was interesting were the colors he used. A brown color was on the main wall with a deep red door, and a recessed part of the wall was painted a sky-ish blue. After taking art history and knowing Corbu was an artist himself, this color pallete makes a lot of sense. When painting, warm colors are supposed to be in the foreground while cool colors are to be in the background and fade away. He allows the walls to become not just pretty colors, but a livable piece of art.

CULTURE

Just a couple random things:

During the excursion this week, I’ve realized that not only does our apartment in Berlin do this, but so does every other hotel in Germany. I don’t remember it being like this in Paris/France, so I’m wondering if its just a German thing. Anyway, German linens are different. Instead of sleeping with a fitted sheet, a normal sheet, and then a comforter, they sleep on top of a normal sheet that is tucked in to function as a fitted sheet and then just cover up with a down feather duvet. So, its really like sleeping w/ no sheets. Their pillows aren’t as firm. They are a little bigger but the foam is much looser. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing … just different. And I’m definitely a fan of down feathers!

Also, Europeans, I think by necessity, are much more efficient with their use of space. Its always a surprise how the bathroom is going to be laid out. The weirdest one was in Stuttgart. They had a square shower with a tub that you had to step up and over into. The problem was that the toilet was on one free side of the square and the sink on the other (the other two being in the wall). So their solution was to have two small doors open from the corner. Sometimes the efficiency of space works out better than others. One thing I’ve noticed on the drive is that all these little villages that we pass are still very dense. In America we would have probably taken up 4 times as much land for the same amount of buildings. We just use our space and land differently. I could go into issues of suburban sprawl, but I’ll spare you that.

Monday - from Munich to Stuttgart

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.

Sunday - Munich

Dachau concentration camp- We started our day by going to one of the first concentration camps. This was, as expected, incredibly moving and sobering. Just to be in the presence of where all of these awful things took place made my heart ache for these people. Since Dachau was one of the first concentration camps, it was referenced in everyday conversation…. “Shut up or you’ll go to Dachau” was a common phrase of the day among Jewish people or a-social groups. I don’t really want to go into detail about everything they did there, but I’ll share some things I didn’t realize beforehand. I didn’t realize that this particular camp was for mostly men. I guess I hadn’t thought about people being separated by groups for any particular camp from another. We learned how incredibly hard life was for the prisoners at the camp. They had to make their straw beds every morning. They were in bunk beds that were all connected, and if one bed was so much as a millimeter taller than another they would be punished. If a speck of dirt was found on the floor – punished. Their punishment was often to have their arms tied behind their back and then hung from their wrists for an hour. I also didn’t know that there was a difference b/w a concentration camp and extermination camp. Dachau did have a gas chamber and crematorium but it was said to not have been used for mass murder like you think of. We were able to go in the gas chamber. This was a pretty chilling experience that just brought tears to my eyes, but its something that is good for people to see. Like one of our professors was saying, we learn so much about this and see so many pictures in history books, museums, movies, etc. that we are almost desensitized to it, but once you are there seeing images taken from where you are standing, it really hits home.

We also were able to see a Coop Himmelblau project - the BMW Welt. This is a well known project in the architectural world mainly known for a “whirlwind” cone in the front of the building. Inside was basically a really fancy dealership. There was a restaurant and snack bar, and a parts and souvenir shop. It also contained a interactive museum of sorts that let people understand the different technologies that bmw uses. It was a fun little area, and kids were climbing all over the place. We got to go behind scenes for a bit and see the storage area for the cars. The was an interesting space. You don’t think about how places like this store hundreds of cars. This was basically a huge scale technological version of cubby holes. There were mechanical pieces that lifted cars and turned them to get them in and out of the right hole.

Across from BMW Welt was the 1972 Olympic Park. Being built in the 70’s, it is a little dated now, as far as wear and tear, but still very modern and really quite timeless stylistically. You’ve all seen tent/canvas like structures that are held up by tension. This was a glass/plastic version of one of those tents. The structure of these buildings was pretty incredible and very complicated. It was neat to see a different material used as a fabric connecting these different areas together. The structure that was brought to the ground was massive and acted as a play area for kids (and adults for that matter) to climb or sit on. This enabled the building to become very interactive, and that is something we all strive for as architects (or we should in my opinion). Another thing I was impressed with was how many people were still using the space. It was drizzling and honestly yucky outside, yet there were still lots of people riding bikes, running, swimming in the pool, and just hanging out. I think that is a really important thing to think about not only in terms of Olympic parks for later use, but what our projects can do In the future and how they can be adapted to serve another function. I think the fact that there are so many people still using the space speaks a lot about the successfulness of this project.

Later a group of us went to a architecturally significant church for a Bach concert – Herz-Jesu Kirche by ASW Architects. I don’t care if you like modern architecture or not, this church is beautiful. The exterior is a glass cube. Once you enter the space there is a wooden cube within the glass cube offset enough for circulation in between. The wooden cube is made of louvers. Inside the chapel light gets filtered through the translucent glass and then through the louvers. It was so nice. I was also excited about the Bach concert. Hearing classical music in the heart of its birthplace was one of my goals for this trip…. Check! The concert was on the organ and quite impressive. I was glad I got to experience that.

MUNICH CULTURE: We got to eat at a local Bavarian restaurant. I had a dish that had potatoes with chicken on top sprinkled with cheese, bacon, mushrooms, and lots of really good and tasty spices. That has been my favorite dish so far! Yummmm Munich strangely reminded me of Dallas. We didn’t get to experience a lot of the town life, but just driving around it looked like a nice place to live. It’s a decent size city, but with the city feel of Dallas instead of the hustle and bustle of New York.

Saturday - Nurnburg

We got up early Saturday morning and drove to Nurnberg. We went specifically to see the oldest biggest cookoo clock on a church and the Nazi Rally parade grounds, but when we got there we discovered even more. We got into town early so we got to do a little exploring before noon when the clock had its big “show”. This church was built in a plaza where the town had set up a market of fresh foods. We turned the corner and found a really old castle. So, we went up to it and stumbled across a panoramic view of the town. It was really pretty. Nurnberg was such a quaint little town (at least the historic part). When you think of German cottages and towns, this is what you think of. (Mom and Dad – I’m adding this town to your “must see” list!) There were tons of tourists. Everyone was just walking through the streets and when a car came through they just stopped and waited till people were out of their way. We made sure we made it back to the plaza to watch the clock, and while you’re watching it, it seems rather anti-climatic. But, you have to realize that it was a rather big feat for the 1500’s. We ate lunch at a little place next to the plaza and another big old church. I had some sausages w/ sauerkraut…which actually was not too bad I might add. Trey beat me for the most adventurous eater award… he ate cow tongue for lunch. We couldn’t decide if that or the head cheese that I ate last week was worse, but the fact that I didn’t know what I was ordering when I ate the head cheese kicked me out of the running. After lunch we went inside the church and admired the honest gothic architecture.

Next, we went to the Nazi Parade Grounds. This was a strange experience. Hitler had huge plans for this place but they lost the war before much of it was realized. So, it was kind of like seeing Roman ruins in a way only the “ruins” parts were because they hadn’t finished constructing not because they had been around so long. The chilling part was to think that every brick that was laid was done so by Jewish prisoners. The first building was an arena like structure that wasn’t completed. Everything about it was massive and brutal – provoking the idea of power. We also walked down the stone road that the Nazi’s marched down and then stood where Hitler stood to make his speeches. That was kind of a numbing experience. Seeing all of this let me realize what the Nazis were thinking and how they got more people to join along in their thought. Our guide talked about how people reacted to Hitler in his rise of power. He said people including Hitler himself treated him like a god – pictures hanging in the living room of people’s homes, his face being in the wrapper of chocolate candy, when kids acted up parents would tell them that the Furher was watching them. We went through a museum that explained kind of the rise and fall of the Nazi party. They had lots of pictures and videos of rallies happening in the plaza of Nurnberg where we stood earlier that day.

After touring the grounds, we headed to Munich in time walk around town before dark. We’re spending a lot of time on the bus, but everything we’re seeing this week is fairly significant and worth the drive. We have a pretty awesome bus driver too. We’ve got a big charter bus that she just weaves in and out of these tiny European roads like driving a mini-cooper or something. We’ve all been amazed at her turning capabilities. We have been within centimeters of bikes, cars, light poles, street signs, buildings, and not had a single scratch. Now, there’s a cultural thing for you! I guess if you grow up driving over here you learn how to maneuver cars really well.

South Germany Excursion - Friday - Leipzig

So we just got back from our excursion to South Germany! Berlin, now more than ever, feels a little like home. Although I didn't get to post due to expensive internet fees, I've kept up w/ my blogging and will just post all at once. Sorry that this will be alot to take in at one time, but we got to see a lot of good things this week, and I hope you'll take the time to read about it! Here it goes....

Bauhaus

This building is in Dessau. It was originally a design school started and designed by Walter Gropius. This building is THE seminal building to launch the International style and thought. This school was unique in many ways for its time: they allowed women to learn in the same environment as men; a dormitory was attached to the school - the first where students could work and live in the same structure; and an entire façade of glass with no columns. One of my favorite parts of this building was the window details with how they opened.

BMW Plant

The central part of the plant was designed by Zaha Hadid. The factory is set up in a way that production is optimized w/ a central space (offices, cafeteria, business, etc) with the factories and production shops stemming from it. Throughout the central space, conveyer belts are running overhead with shells of partially made cars passing by. We got to go into the factory and watch cars go down the assembly lines. At some points robots are the only things putting pieces together. That was really fun to watch. They were huge machines but had human-like motions. We weren’t allowed to take pictures back there, but I probably could have watched those things work for hours. The tour guide said they complete 740 cars a day each car taking a total of 37 hours each. It was interesting to see how the design of the building helped make the production and function of the business run more efficiently.

Leipzig

This town we found not to be as inviting as Berlin and “Sassy Town”. We were too far away from the town center to experience any nightlife. There were lots of boarded up windows, graffiti, etc. that made us feel like we didn’t need to go exploring at night. We ended up watching a soccer game in the lobby. Germany lost their game that day, and we think that put a damper on the people’s attitudes. Even though we didn’t understand a word that was said, you could tell everyone that was interviewed on tv was really sad and upset about the loss.

Today may have been one of my favorite days! We went to see some more of the embassies, a design museum, and the Berlin Dome. We've been here for a week now, and a lot of the traveling we did today made me realize we've covered alot of ground in that week! I didn't know much about Berlin at all a week ago, but now I feel like I can get around fairly well, and know way more about what things are where in relation to others. We got some good advice today from Sigrun, the woman that has been our Berlin contact, for some local restaurants and places where people our age hang out. Our apartments are in a touristy area, and we've been eating close by just for convenience and b/c we didn't know anywhere else to go. So, now that we know our way around a little better and know a little more, we can start branching out of our circle.

ARCHITECTURE

I really enjoyed the Bauhaus museum today. The first room you could enter was full of lamps. They were so fun! I tried to take some mental notes on how they were made so i could come up w/ my own renditions. There was one that used gold leaf on plexi, but as the light shines through, it gives an iridescent look. One of my favorite artists - yves klein - that i like purely for color usage, uses this gold color with his invention of blue. i'm hoping i can combine his colors w/ the lamp idea using my blue glass (if you know me, you know how exciting this sounds to me). So, anyway, the rest of the museum showcased the work and theories of the people of the Bauhaus - a school of design established in the 1920's. The tour was really interesting in that the guide was able to explain the thoughts and reasonings behind their designs. My favorite part was looking at the chairs. What we see today as simple clean lines, industrial design, etc was designed for ultimate comfort. The designer understood that its not a fluffy cushion that makes things comfortable but the lines that your body must form to. We also got to see original models of really famous buildings that these guys did - including the actual Bauhaus school in Dessau that we'll be seeing tomorrow, and the Barcelona pavilion by Meis van de Rohe.

Another favorite today was the Berliner Dom. This dome sat atop the biggest church in Berlin. The church was built to be viewed as the Protestant version of the Vatican. It is very extravagant for that reason. Its almost entertaining b/c the king has his initials all over the church as if bringing attention to himself rather than God. It was designed in a Roman Baroque style. I think I liked this tour so much because of the grandiose scale of the whole thing. Every surface of this building was decorated with gold designs, expensive materials, or detailed paintings/mosaics. When looking up at the dome from the floor you see two rows of windows, some columns, and at the oculus a stained glass dove. When standing there, these pieces obviously look big, but not as big as they really are. The columns/windows were 10meters tall (over 30 ft) the mural mosaics were over 40 square meters, and one dove wing was around 3 meters (over 9 ft.) Hearing those numbers in that space made you feel so small. After the tour of the main space, we got a tour of the crypts. One sarcophagus in particular was interesting: The dome was destroyed and fell in and through the floors of the church during the war. This tomb was placed directing under the dome in the crypt and was damaged from the fallen debris. It was further damaged from soldiers trying to break into it for treasure of some sort. After the crypts we were able to climb to the top of the dome and see out over Berlin. This was a better view (in my opinion) than on top of the Reichstag. I got some fun pictures up there. The climb to the top was tiresome, but not quite as tall as Notre Dame or Sacre Coeur in Paris, and the view was definitely worth it.

Tonight a group of us went to an graduate exhibit for architecture students at the Academy of Art in Berlin. I wanted to compare our class' work to theirs. And, Dad, you didn't waste your money.... our work was just as good if not better ... (I think better). It was most interesting to see the differences in how they make models. Some of their material choices were some that we hadn't seen before. They had some nice projects. Most were fairly simple with a lot of emphasis on diagrammatic stages. Our class at Tech got into the details and function of the building/project alot more. - which I think is important. Its good to see other schools' work and see where you as an individual stand in comparison as well as your school as a whole.

CULTURE

Food: Yesterday, i ate some currywurst. this is basically a hot dog w/ crispy exterior covered in ketchup and sprinkled w/ curry. But don't think hillshire farm or oscar meyer. ... its better than that. they serve these at little street stands all over the city and serve them w/ fries. pretty good. today, we ate at the Nordic Embassy. I had a stuffed bell pepper. ... nothing too exciting German wise.

I've just used the washer for the first time in our apartment. Luckily I wasn't the first one to have to figure it out, but its still an entertaining venture. We're currently sitting in the living room hearing it roar. it sounds like a space ship is landing in the bathroom ... quite strange. Everyone has been comparing the barrel size to our deep fryers back in the states. Its kind of a funny comparison if you think about it - we dunk our meat in a barrel full of grease the same size that they wash their clothes in.

Another cultural thing I've heard discussed this week is German education. Apparently children must take a test by the 8th grade. If they score high enough, they are sent to more school, college, etc. but if not, they are sent to technical school and learn a trade ... whatever they happen to be good at. So, basically your career is determined for you by the age of 14! I heard too that once you are in something it is hard to get out of it or switch professions later on. I don't know what college kids would do in America if they couldn't change majors! ha! It made me realize how nice it is to be able to have the freedom to choose what you want to do and what makes you happy. Maybe they don't focus on "doing what makes you happy" like we do in America. Maybe that's why we've become "work-aholics" b/c that's what we enjoy doing (supposedly). Maybe they work to work and find what makes them happy in other venues. is one way better than the other? Not entirely sure - just something to think about.

tomorrow we leave for our South Germany excursion. We'll hit dessau, munich, stuttgart, leipzig, and some others. We may not have full access to internet in some places, so i'll update when i can! And sorry for lack of pictures right now.... it is rather tedious to upload them. i'm thinking about putting them on a flickr account or something of the sorts so you can just click on a link. i'll let you know! goodbye for now....