Yet another Berlin week

Hello,

So this week was spent getting back to business which was hard to do after being in Switzerland but it wasnt all that bad. I spent a few days in studio continuing the work on my project but we also had some nice warm days off to do some more exploring of Berlin. On Thursday after class me and a few friends went to visit the Crematorium in Berlin. Creepy I know but we were told it was something not to be missed in Berlin. Well our approach of the building was very exciting, but the bad news came when we got to the entrance. It was closed....dum dum dummmm. I did however take some interior photos from the outside, and walked around the perrimeter, so the trip was not a total bust. Here are some pics from the Krematorium Berlin.

There's a little glare but its the best I could do 

Interior of the Crematorium

Shadows

Exterior of the Crematorium

Friday in class we went to the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind, a world renowned architect who has recently been commissioned to work on the project at Ground Zero. The museum was incredible, more so the building itself, but the exhibitions were very interesting as well. I have to admit...I was feeling under the weather that day so I sort of "got lost" from the group and got some quick shut eye in the Glass Courtyard seen below. After our roaming time, we got a guided tour...kind of backwards I know, but it was good for me because I was seeing a lot for the first time where as much of the rest of the group was seeing everything for a second time. It payed off in this case to be a slacker I guess.

Glass Courtyard at the Jewish Museum Berlin

Interior view of the Museum

Exterior shot from the gardens

My favorite exhibition here. Very dark and gloomy but also extremely powerful. The point is to walk on these very heavy metal screaming faces. The feeling underneath your feet is extremely uncomfortable and the noise is piercing as the faces clink together. 

So today I spent the day in studio doing work. We have a short week this week, back to classes just Monday and Wednesday. Off to Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo in France on Thursday morning for the weekend! Prague the weekend after! A lot to look forward to so I will keep you posted. Hope everything is going well for everyone back home!

John

Switzerland

Have you ever imagined a place where the city is a short ride to the last known true village. A place where you can go from the lowest running water to the highest mountain and see homes scattered along the landscape. This was Switzerland. This trip was by far the best trip and the most beautiful place I have seen since traveling to Europe. The landscape was truly amazing and the way the residents have adapted is incredible. While in Switzerland we got to spend a night in Vrin, the last remaining village in Switzerland (so the tour guide said) and the next night we were in Zurich, the capital city.

The first day we arrived in Zurich where we were greeted by a bus that stayed with us the entire time. A luxury that we don't normally get but due to the lack of public transportation I guess this was the only option which was fine by everyone. We first traveled to the SwissRe conference center. The SwissRe is a company that insures other insurances. You can imagine the types of numbers this place is dealing with and the new conference building showed it.

After touring the SwissRe we traveled to Bregenz, Austria (right over the border) to see the Art Museum there designed by Peter Zumthor. There were some very odd exhibitions here but extremely interesting. The building is what we were really there to see which was very interesting as well. There is a very complex building envelope system with translucent glass panels and a simple concrete construction interior. The often call this building "the ghost" Here is a picture which will show you why.

Kunsthaus Museum, Bregenz Austria by Peter Zumthor

The first night of our Swiss travels we stayed in Hotel Sportcenter Funf-Dorfer. Our professor called this "industrial and odd, but convenient" which scared us a little but the hotel was actually very nice and comfortable.

8:30am came along so we checked out and headed to Chur to begin day 2. We first made a short stop to see a new addition to a building which was an entrance, appropriate because our project here is an addition to an old building. Our first real tour of the day was the School in Paspels, a small town area with an extremely interesting school building built on the landscape. Not a typical looking school for anything in the Boston area but it works for a small community and is very well known.

Paspels School

Chur, Switzerland

Now on to the highlight of the entire Switzerland trip. We moved on to Vals, home of the thermals Bath designed by Peter Zumthor. We began our experience of the building not actually there, but at the stone quarry where the stone was derived from to construct the very famous baths. The stone from this quarry is pretty well known and very expensive, we were lucky enough to tour the facility where the stone of cut from a block, to a variation of shapes and sizes to be used commercially or residentially. This facility ships they're stone around the world and had been used in many well known projects. Here are some images from the quarry and the Baths. I apologize for the lack of images from the Baths but cameras were prohibited, so I snuck a couple from outside.

Facility at the Vals stone quarry.

View from Vals Thermal Baths

Exterior Thermal Baths by Peter Zumthor

Sneaky shot of the exterior spa at Thermal Baths

Again, Exterior Spa 

From the Baths in Vals we then traveled to Vrin, the village I had mentioned that is said the be the very last in Switzerland. Needless to say this was a VERY small village, extremely rural and self sustainable. We stayed in the Hotel Pez Terri, where the 20 of us stayed in one room. This was well.... interesting. Me and a few other guys went to the Hotel bar, which happened to be the village bar as well I'm sure. This was a funny and relaxing night just hanging out. Much of the group read books, played cards...well im glad I have a few people here who know that they're books aren't going anywhere but the experiences are. Here are some images of the hotel and village by night.

View of Vrin from the hotel porch

Vrin, Switzerland- Hotel Pez Terri

Vrin Home

Village of Vrin

The next day we toured around Vrin  where we studied the designs, buildings, and ideas of Gion Caminda. A low key architect who is native to this town and trying to preserve this culture and economy through his works. The town thrives by keeping its work and materials within the people who call this home. Caminadas works have actually brought a few more members back into the society to further help it flourish. This small village lives off of its own livestock and has recently been benefiting due to this new importance of "organic meat" They have been producing more than they need to eat, therefore can sell the meat at insanely high prices which also helps the economics of the village greatly. Here are some images from the day as we toured around Vrin

Touring

Vrin Chapel

Village View

Me on the left...cliffside!

traditional building style

Mountain Shed

View from the hotel room

From Vrin we went back to where we started in Zurich. We stayed in the Hotel Limmathof which was very centrally located. I spent the night with my camera by the river, eating dinner, and just exploring the city as much as i could in one night. Not too many stories from this night as our professors gave up the rest of the day and night off for personal use. We just pretty much walked around, enjoyed a couple of beers with some friends, and rested up after our long day of walking some pretty mountainous landscapes. Here are some images from Zurich.

Zürich night shot

Zürich night shot

The final day found us checking out early and bussing to our final few sights. We toured another very nice school in Basel called the FH Sihlhof designed by Giuliani Honger.


From the school we continued to our very last tour which was more like a day or even a week packed in one. We actually crossed back into the very southern border of Germany. Here we reached an extremely interesting company campus. Apparently this CEO has a few bucks to throw around. So instead of collecting cars, homes, or other luxury items....he likes to collect architecture. So what he did was to gradually hire the worlds top architecture to each design a building for the campus. Our professor called this campus a "firework display of architecture" and that was actually very accurate. Here we saw the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry, the campus fire station designed by Zaha Hadid, a conference center by Tadao Ando and a building which was just completed by Herzog and de Meuron. Here are some images from the day and the various building among this "collection"

Frank Gehry

Tadao Ando

Zaha Hadid

Bucky Fuller

Herzog & De Meuron

So our trip to Switzerland has come to an end unfortunately. This was like i said before my favorite trip by far so far. Here is a plane view as we depart back to Berlin.

Wing seat on Berlin Air

Im am now looking forward to Nice/Monaco in France next thursday, as well is our grand Italian tour in a few weeks which marks the end of our trip. Im am so excited for these next few weeks and hope that they will be even better than Switzerland. We have finished our designs for our projects and have began the comprehensive design portion which consists of developing drawing that could be handed to a contractor. We will need to consider every little detail of our design as well of functionality of our building addition. This is very new to us but also very interesting and exciting. ( i thought i should add a LITTLE bit of school info in here somewhere haha) Off to do some AutoCad now.

Ciao,

John

Steph's Week in Germany

So John is having me write on his blog this week to reflect my visit here for the past 6 days. I can hardly believe I have already been here for a week and have to return home tomorrow. Berlin has been a lot of fun, VERY tiring and definitely a learning experience in culture, history and different ways of life.

I arrived on Thursday morning - luckily without a glitch - but very jet lagged. John was waiting for me at the airport and we returned to his apartment and proceeded to sleep for the next 4 hours. Once we awoke, we enjoyed a day of shopping, eating and getting to see a little bit of the city that John has been calling home for 5 weeks now. We decided to go grocery shopping and eat dinner at home. And enjoy a beer on the public transportation system - something very different than we are used to at home. On the menu: gerkins (pickles), kaviar & crackers, and wine.

On Friday, I shadowed John to class and a field trip for the day. (Picture below is of John and myself in his studio). His professors were nice enough to let me sit in on some presentations about the Berlin Wall and even attend the "Checkpoint Charlie" Museum with them where we heard all about life in Germany while the Wall was up and how people attempted to escape. Friday night we headed to the airport to pick up my roommate Paige who we convinced to visit from Seville. Friday night we went out for dinner and then got a taste of Berliner clubs which were interesting but perhaps a little "too much" for our worn out selves. The weekend would be for sightseeing, doing touristy things and catching up!

Saturday was a beautiful day in Berlin so we did and saw many things. The three of us went to the Berliner Dom, the famous Brandenburg Gate, walked through local street markets, saw the Holocaust Memorial and still-standing parts of the Berlin Wall. For dinner, we went to KaDeWe, a beautiful six-story mall in a very nice area of Berlin. The top two floors of the mall are exclusively food - raw bars, restaurants, and Teppanyaki-style eateries. We ate at the buffet on the gorgeous top floor. Needless to say, we were all stuffed after this. Later that evening, we went out for a drink near John's apartment in Kreutzberg at a cozy little lounge offering exotic, more "American" drinks.

Sunday was another beautiful day but, unfortunately, was Paige's last day in Germany. After enjoying some Dunkin Donuts' coffee and donuts, we said goodbye to Paige and she headed back to Spain. The rest of the day was spent resting (yet again - I cannot seem to catch up on sleep at all here) and then headed to studio for a bit for John to try and get some work done for Monday. We got Chinese food for dinner that evening - just Lo Mein, but it was very good, perhaps even better than that we get at home.

Lunch every day has typically been doner (standard German calzone-like food); Falafel (which has become my personal favorite, usually served panini-style with lettuce, cucumbers and other fixings); or the favorite around here - the soup lady. Every day she makes a "soup of the day" which today happened to be a DELICIOUS chicken noodle and vegetable. She also serves scrumptious coffee, croissants and other pastries.

Monday was another class day for John - but not until the afternoon which was nice to be able to sleep in a little bit then spend a few hours reading and helping John research the architecture in the village to which he will be traveling this upcoming weekend. Monday evening John had purchased tickets for us to attend the Philharmoniker Berlin! They are a nice orchestra that plays in a huge, gorgeous symphony hall in Potsdamer Platz (also one of my favorite places that I have gone to in Berlin). We enjoyed the first hour but admittedly cut out at intermission - we were already very tired and wanted to do/see more in my remaining time here. The pictures below are the two of us enjoying appetizers (pretzels and champagne) at the bistro right before the show.

From there, we went to Lindenbrau, a three-story pub-style restaurant also located at Potsdamer Platz. We decided to order the "1-meter bier" in true German fashion. This is basically a sampler size (.20 liters) of 4 different kinds of beer. We also dinner which was for me, chicken! (it is almost impossible to find any type of chicken in Berlin) and for John, a much more German dish - sausage and sauerkraut. We ended up both sharing his meal which is pictured below along with me and lots of bier.

From here we walked to a portion of the Wall which is remaining and not being fencing. It is a ritual at this section of the Wall to place of piece of chewing gum on it - so we complied. 

Today is Tuesday and I am enjoying my last hours here in Berlin. While John typically has the day off from class, he is leaving bright and early Thursday morning for Switzerland is trying to get a good deal f things done before then. So we leisurely woke up and got ready, took the scenic route to studio - stopping along the way for art supplies and food, of course! Tonight we will go out with a bang as it is one of John's friend's birthday as well as my last night. I depart at 7am tomorrow for the airport to catch my 9:45am flight back to the states. This is very bittersweet as I am so sad to leave John and the wonderful week that we have had in this great place, but ready to catch up on some much-needed sleep!

My words cannot possibly do justice to the amount that I have learned and respect that I have gained for this place. Berlin has taught me a lot of history and how lucky I am. I have also come to admire John even more for how he has been able to adapt to life here and make it his home for 3 months, but also his readiness to return to home when his time here is through because there is just no other place like it in the world. I'll miss him until he comes home, but glad to have been able to share in the memories of this exciting time for him!

Tschuss Berlin! Take care of John. I hope to return again some day :)

-Steph

STEPH'S HERE!

Hello,
So Steph is finally in Berlin! She said the flight was smooth. We have been relaxing and catching up all day. Went to the shopping plaza, grocery store, got her week pass for the U-Bahn, and most importantly the mini mart so Steph can try some German beer. Dinner soon and just more catching up to come!

Mid Term Review

Mid Term Reviews are over! The presentation went well, my project was well liked and sparked a lot of debate between the professors, this is a good thing for sure. So after a few long days of working hard and being sick, I fell much better and Steph comes tomorrow! I look forward to an easy stretch of warm days, showing Steph everything great about Berlin and celebrating the half way point and a successful mid term.
Well there is on thing I NEED to do....CLEAN THE APARTMENT!
See you at 8:05am Steph!!!

Doctors Visit.

Hello,
So today I had my first (and hopefully last) doctors visit in Germany. I had no idea what to expect before I went but they place was actually very nice. I knew I was in an ok area when I walked up to the office and it was right next to Prada and Louis Vuitton.
Besides the hour and a half wait  the experience was pretty pleasant. The doctor spoke great english for me. Turns out I have a sinus and double ear infection. The doctor found this out by giving me an ultra sound on my face!  which caught me off guard but I guess makes sense. Got meds and ready for my head to clear! Mid-review tomorrow then Steph comes on thursday morning! Ok well back to work. Have a lot to get done before morning.
Until next time...
John

Barcelona

Hello,

So I'm back to the studio in Berlin after a great long weekend in Barcelona, Spain! We saw some really great things, kept ourselves constantly moving. We couldn't have asked for better weather, Friday it rained but we almost had someone get pick pocketed, the airport lost our luggage-found it- then lost it again. So we got off to a rocky start but day 2 on brought nothing but perfect weather, awesome sites, and the beach!

The first building we saw happened to be in window view from our apartment. The famous Sagrada Familia by Gaudi was RIGHT across the street. The exterior is under construction and is not expected to be complete any time soon. It is surrounded by scaffolding and cranes so I dont think we expected the interior to be as amazing as it was. This may have been the best thing we visited in Barcelona. Below is an image from the window of our apartment along with one of the interior.

On Friday we went to Par Quel which is basically at the top of Barcelona where there is a square, homes, and other designs by Gaudi. We visited this on the perfect day, sunny and warm...here are some photos from Par Quel.

After Par Quel we visited the Barcelona Pavilion by Meis van der Rohe.

After the Barcelona Pavilion (seen above) we entered the MNAC museum. Here was saw some Pablo Picaso originals. We sat and had beer on the outside patio overlooking Plaza de Espana. We waited for the Magic Fountain show (you can watch it on my flickr account, follow this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwilldenn/5506165041/ )  and then I got some good night photos of the fountain and MNAC museum. 

That night we went to Carpe Diem Lounge Club (Sara hooked us up with a VIP pass into the club. On Saturday we went to Casa Batillo  by Gaudi, took a tour in Palau de la Musica Catalania and the market. This was the best day of the trip in terms of weather and we mafde it to the beach finally! 

Saturday night we went to dinner at the highly recommended restaurant ( by Steph and Sara) Da Greco and it was very delicious. I got the filet Mignon and it was perfectoooo. At this place they bring each guest their own plate of course, but unlike any other restaurants, the bring another plate of each person dish for the rest of the table to split. 

After dinner we went to "chupitos" which means shots. This place just has a wall as a menu and its all crazy and outrageous shots. All of which are delicious and have some sort of action required. The first one we took was called Harry Potter, the bartender lit it on fire, we also did one called "pop rocks" where you had to eat a hand full of pop rocks candies and then hold the shot in your mouth and jump around haha. We had a long day on sunday so we did not stay here all night which I'm sure was a good choice. 

the Harry Potter

On Sunday we went into the Sagrada Familia, it was also the day of the Marathon in Barcelona so the city was crazy packed. Our flight to Berlin was smooth, we had a layover in Amsterdam so i had time to have a Heineken in Holland, I figured...when in Rome.  So now that I have procrastinated my way into a time crunch, I need to get off of vacation mode and into work mode. Mid semester review in 2 days then STEPH COMES for the week! 

Keep ya posted.

-Juan