Rome today, Barcelona tomorrow..

Roman Pantheon

Rome is pretty serious. Standing in a space such as the one above, you will begin to realize this. This volume is massive. The light in the top comes in through an open ring in the top of the dome. The top is atleast a hundred feet in the air above a circular space with a diameter pushing a hundred feet as well. On top of the structural feats, this building is also ornate to a level which just doesnt seem realistic. It also houses the tomb of the famous renaissance artist and architect, Rafael. It is just a very humbling experience to be inside of this building which is as spectacular as it was when it was born a half millenium ago.

Spain tomorrow afternoon.. i probably should have made more of an effort in spanish class in high school seeing as im the only one in my travelling group with any kind of background. I wont be responsible for our mishaps for such an erroneous fact. I am excited to see the work of Gaudi, Mies Van Der Rohe, and of course Santiago Calatrava. After all, its not everyday you go to spain.. just tomorrow!

Wednesday?

Royal Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark

So this week is passing at the speed of light. I have work to do and theres no time to do it. I just had midterms and somehow im already stressed out again. I should probably just go get gelato.. Seeing as how i pulled in a couple A's and and B so far i think i should be sitting right where i want to be. The only issue is that theres no way i ll be doing any work this weekend in Spain. I will however be doing plenty of relaxing. Im not sure if it will be as beautiful as Denmark, but im pretty sure there is plenty to see. This entire paragraph just made no sense but i think that speaks to my current state of.. disorientation.

Might as well..

So im back now and class has started again but my mind is still in... Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin.. not literally. But yeah i have roughly 1000 photos to sort through and edit so i ll be loading some up here periodically. This is Unite d' Habitation, one of Le Corbusier's more popular designs.

Anyways, this week is not panning out to be too special. Im looking forward to seeing how i did on my exams and packing my bag so i can explore Barcelona and Valencia.. Santiago Calatrava awaits!

And it continues..

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

Making it from Amsterdam to Copenhagen was quite the relief. This meant a new map, new monuments, and a new culture were all at our fingertips.. That is if we could afford to be there. Copenhagen apparently is one of the most expensive european cities and rather than using the Euro, they decided to continue using the Danish Krone. The krone is equivalent to above 20 US cents which means that a meal could cost you 60 or 70 kroner.. if you really find a good deal.

Spray Art

Our second day in Copenhagen, Alice and i were joined by a roommate from our hostel in a trek across the entire city. The image above was painted on the side of a small building in an area called Christiania. This area is recognized as a commune just outside of the city where police have very little influence and art in all its forms is free to take place. Aside from Christiania, we also spent time at the Opera, The Playhouse, and just wandering through housing projects taking photos of whatever caught our eye.

                                       

Our last day in Copenhagen was spent being very cold. Breakfast on the water was very nice and i learned perhaps the only danish phrase i will ever learn.. Roraeg med bacon. It means scrambled eggs with bacon. It is pronounced "war-egg" and implies a heaping pile of steaming hot eggs. After breakfast we explored the Botanical Gardens and made our way back to the airport. Having almost missed previous flights, we decided to give ourselves extra time which proved futile in that our flight to Berlin was delayed for a good hour. Berlin was very promising right from the beginning. Leaving the terminal we met a bus driver who, along with a worker at the airport, explained the finer points of the Berlin Metro. Arriving at our hostel a little before midnight, our only real option was to enjoy an ice cold Erdinger and call it a night.

Olympia Stadion

I would gladly trade an arm and a leg for another day Berlin. In a single day i visited Unite d' Habitation which is by a pretty famous architect, Le Corbusier. I guess you could say hes pretty influential, being the father of the modern architecture movement and all. After exploring the premises like a kid in a candy shop, i dragged alice across the street to the olympia stadion which we could not enter because they were preparing for a soccer match later that day. Feeling a bit discouraged we made our way back into the city to visit The Berlin Jewish Museum, a Daniel Libeskind design. As Alice wept her way from exhibit to exhibit i ran around taking countless pictures of the angles and gashes which give this building its distinct character and undeniable power. Leaving the museum, we spoke with a security guard who informed us that the Soccer match later in the day was unlikely to be sold out and we made it our mission to attend. So there i am, in Berlin, Germany eating bratwursts, drinking my pitcher of Carlsberg, and taking in all of the sights and sounds ( angry men yelling in german ) when i realize that this was the first professional soccer match i had ever attended. 

The last day of this amazing trip was spent monkey-ing around with these Orangutan's at the Berlin Zoo. I can't say enough about how impressed i was with these creatures. It was next to impossible to take a quality picture of these guys because of how agile and quick they are. I couldnt help but feel overwhelmingly jealous of their physical capabilites but then again being a Human has its advantages. For example, it is unlikely that these fellas ever venture past the confines of their enclosed jungle gym where as i had the chance to explore three seperate countries in a week and had the comfort of returning to a fourth country which i currently call home. Thinking about home makes me sad because i know i wont be going back for another month and a half but i ll be back never the less. In the meantime i ll be continue to explore my new home as well as make trips to some of the other wonderful places Europe has to offer.

While i have some time..

Friday morning was pretty hectic. Alice and i barely caught the train from Santa Maria Novella to Rome.  We did however meet a very friendly as well as proud Italian businessman. Once in Rome we took another train to make our way to the airport.. which got us there 20 minutes before our gate was to close. So we sprinted.. no really we hauled ass through the entire airport only for alice to find out that her luggage needed to be put below deck before she could make her way through the secuity gate.. naturally i made my way through hoping that she would be able to join me but getting ready to enjoy the rest of the trip on my own. She FINALLY made it through and we continued our run to our gate only to find a line awaiting us and a plane ready to be boarded.

Arriving in Amsterdam, we were greeted by rain. We were also greeted by our friends from school Davide, Christina, Jamie and Mike. This day was spent mostly getting lost (which isn't always so bad) and gawking at the windows in the Red Light District (which can yield some odd surprises). Night was spent taking in the sites and finding a warm place to have a nice beer.

Saturday was spent exploring the city in the sunlight for the first time.. sort of. We began our day by making our way through the Heineken Brewery learning all we could about Amsterdams infamous beer. We then made our way over to the I AMsterdam sign located in the southern end of the city. The picture above shows my participation in the act of climbing all over these enormous letters which were mobbed by tourists. As everyone else posed with the letters of their name (i.e alice on the A and dave on the D) i made my way to the S and T for my brother Scott and dad Tom, because theres no B in amsterdam.

Sunday blew my mind. This little guy right here was in some small park we found on the way to the Aquarium with Dan and Phil. We did not however enter the aquarium because we decided we could spend less money and more time seeing windmills and Java Eiland. The windmill was satisfying in the fact that i would expect to see atleast one vintage windmill here but was not especially remarkable. From there we made our way towards Java Eiland, THE place where modern architecture is happening.

Today was spent in the way Amsterdam is meant to be experienced.. by bike. On bikes, Alice and i made our way to Silodam, by MVRDV, which was awesome. From here we trekked to the Amsterdam Bibliotheek.. which is by far the coolest library i have ever set foot in. From there we sped through the neighborhoods on Java Eiland once more and found other buildings which Alice referred to as the "whale" and "the cobra?". This day was by far the easiest day travelling around the city which caters to bikers by providing their own lanes, traffic lights, and street signage. It is truly remarkable how well a city can work if you provide the people with a functional environment.

I'm bummed that tonight is my last night here but i ve made a decision.. im coming back. Maybe not anytime soon, but i will be back. For now that is all. I have to return my bike and enjoy my last hours in this wonderful city. 

Almost there..

24** hours from now i'll be doing a dance on a plane for HOLLAND.

io lavoro tutti settimana..

This photo is from the architecture biennale in Venice this past weekend. I think im probably going to continue posting material from that trip because im still not over the fact that i actually went there or saw half of what i did. I am intrigued by the choice of material and the sculptural qualities they have instilled within it. In this case light plays a crucial role in the exhibit not only in the reflections off the gold surface but also in the creation of shadows. I wonder just what the Egyptian creator was trying to suggest,

This week however i have to focus entirely on midterm exams and projects. I just presented my 6:40 duration project for Architecture in Context and i feel as though it went well but who really knows. Wednesday i have an exam for Villa and the Garden which im not too stoked about but such is life. Thursday morning i will be subconsciously participating in my Italian midterm exam and then sleepwalking over to present my yet-to-be-designed studio project. This is what has come to be known among scholars as "hell week".

This hell however will eventually yield to what i am starting to envision as the single best week of my entire life. Spending eight days traveling through Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin makes Christmas sound like a joke. This can also be said about the financial comparison but then again Christmas comes once a year rather than once a lifetime... 4 daysssss

Venezia, Va Bene!

Venice

We lost in soccer. That's that.

I went to Boboli Gardens in Florence with my Villa and the Garden class. That was thrilling.

Let's talk about Venice. I'm pretty sure this city is not part of the same planet that ive been living on for the past 21 years of my life. The "streets" and "alleys", strangely, might be the most beautiful part of this city.. Well that, the panoramic views, and the experience of traveling down the Grand Canal. I'm getting so excited even trying to put this into words that im not sure if im even forming sentences. The "taxi cabs" were all boats and yes, gondolas were everywhere. The city itself was one of the most confusing labyrinths i have ever experienced and luckily i was not alone. Dinner with Carlo, Stefano, and the group included endless bread, a diverse plate of italian meats, a main course of four cheese pasta, and of course an ice cold birra!

Now for the best part, the Venice Architecture Biennale. i would try to explain it but you should probably just take a quick look for yourself..

Add caption

Yeah, that's what i said.

This is what i have been waiting for my entire time abroad, CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE. That's probably why i took approximately 460 pictures. One week until all hell breaks loose!

Wednesday

Palazzo Pitti

This is a panoramic image of the palace fronting the Boboli Gardens.. not a bad place to spend a Wednesday afternoon. I will upload the rest of the photos from my visit when i have less work on my plate.  For now, drag this image to your desktop and zoom in to see some of the detailed stonework of this massive facade.

A Real Fixer-Upper

Going Somewhere?

This image is typical of the mindset of the part of Firenze we are re-designing for Design Studio. If you don't keep a close eye on your possessions, they will slowly begin to evaporate. This describes not only what once was a bike, but also a space where the city has pushed aside for other priorities. That is where we come in. Our job is to intervene at a point where this particular neighborhood has little remaining potential. Or atleast it can seem that way to the less optimistic eye. I like to believe that the area, just like this bike, is only a few parts shy of having some real direction.

Last night our soccer team finished off the pre-tournament play with a landslide victory and a 4-2 loss. This brings our cumulative record to 3-2-1 which proved strong enough to put us in the playoffs (im not sure if any teams didnt qualify). Anyway, our quarter final match is tonight at 7:30 versus Syracuse who i believe we tied in our season opener. If we make it to the semis, we will play tomorrow night against the victor of Palazzo Rucellai B's game tonight.. VAI VAI RUCELLAI!

On a final note, we received our first Italian tests back today and my professor want to speak with me after class. She was concerned that i had not spent the time to study and was disappointed with my 89% performance. I agreed that i should have gotten an A and promised to do better next time. Mi dispiace!

This did not happen by accident..

Pienza

This town, which we visited Friday, displayed a characteristic which is quite common throughout europe. That little charm where things seem as though they just happened in a really nice way and left us with views like this, did not happen by pure chance. Sometimes people look around them and decide to take advantage of the beauty which nature has already provided. The large stone mass on the left side of the photo is the base of a church oriented towards a mountain some twenty miles in the distance. For half millenium since its creation, it has been slowly falling down the hillside.

Later in the day, our class spent approximately two hours wining and dining with our professor in a ristorante in Montalcino. The meal consisted of endless dishes of pasta, boar, mushroom pasta, and more wine than you should ever drink during lunch.

I bought a jacket. You will see it in pictures. Its awesome.

I have two soccer games later. You will read about those once they happen.

I have a lot of work to do and i am the most stressed i have been in a while.