Pin-ups and Peanut Butter

Today we had a pin-up of sorts of our nearly complete boards/ next iteration of our boards for the competition. It was a little unexpected, so when Frank told us yesterday that we would be pinning them up today, we were all a little stressed; while we knew they would have to be in their final stages before the Italy tour we leave for on Friday, everyone was expecting another work day to finish up some drawings and scan them in to organize them in various rendering programs on their computer. I am doing mine all by hand, so I had luckily started a little earlier with them. I wanted to be able to take my time to make appropriate decisions, as there is only enough time to do them once and little room for mistakes. Unfortunately, there is not a scanner large enough here to scan in the whole board, so I will have to go to Lugano when we get back from Italy to pay to have it scanned in and saved to a CD there (it will take them two days- another reason I needed to begin a little earlier). At this point we all just need to make some of the final decisions for its presentation on the sheets; It is easier said than done, but in a way much less stressful because we are not changing the design at this point, only producing something to best represent it. Once I have my work scanned and saved, I will try to place them in the blog as well.

Meanwhile, I feel that I must mention the "phenomenon" (I can't think of another appropriate word) of peanut butter here in the Villa, or, I suppose, Europe in general. It seems to be the one thing everyone universally misses, as it can't be found anywhere here. Because of this, most packages people have received recently, including me (from David), have included a jar of peanut butter or peanut butter to go packs in my case. There is no sharing of the peanut butter, but people will bring their personal jars with them to breakfast to put on some of the fresh bread or with a banana, or even, on some occasions, just by itself. I find it interesting that it has become such a novelty.

Day Trip to Vigevano and Varese

Vigevano Photos: Slight overview of the city from the castle path, the main piazza and many of the group sketching at the statue in the piazza.



Yesterday we took a day trip into Italy to see the town of Vigevano and a museum in Varese. The main attraction in Vigevano is the piazza with its unusual church at one end that doesn't follow the axis of the piazza except in its facade. The piazza is very perspectival with the surrounding arcades and in the slightly splayed shape of the piazza itself. The nearby castle, which has a path that connects to the piazza, was also very interesting; there was an open green space for the castle, though it wasn't well kept. We spent about 4 hours in Vigevano, sketching, eating our usual bagged lunches and looking around a bit.

In Varese we went to a museum that was once a villa where a lot of very modern art was displayed. It was interesting to see the contrast between the very old villa and the artwork collected by the people who once lived there as well as the installed art. Both the villa, with its beautiful rooms and gardens, as well as the art, much of which was very architectural, made it quite a fun and unusual experience. There were many works which tried to create an atmosphere or spatial condition through the use of a variety of colors of lights, as well as very carefully places windows. For example, one room, called "Sky, Space, I" was a small square room completely painted in white with a window in the ceiling that took up almost the whole ceiling. I couldn't call it a skylight, because it was so much about the view of the sky, not bringing in light. It was a very beautiful experience. I think we all enjoyed the museum and the whole day trip very much!



Photos at Varese: Villa, Flowers in Green House, Rows of trees, and a small pagoda with what looked like a baptismal font in the center.

A Page in My Sketchbook

I thought it might be nice to have an entry that is simply the notes taken exactly as written on one page of my sketchbook. It may not be incredibly coherent, as many of the notes are short phrases, but I hope it gives some insight into some of the things we discuss here:


-weaving in terms of community --> origins of weaving, Daedalus... --> study of weaving' labyrinth
-color ribbons as weave... take photos get inside...
-Density & Light, "Breathing Space"
-HOW DO YOU MAKE A LINE INTO A THING? (We usually do the opposite... what is the transition?)
-nature has no lines --> try sketching a palm tree (try drawing with dotted line)
-what is the potency of a line to Architecture...
-DYNAMIC SEPARATION OF PARTS W?IN A WHOLE!
-continuous line; dotted line, shows action!, transparency vs. dashed line (?) more spatial, more directional
-density; atmospheric qualities
-"God invented the spark plug"-Frank to reference the internet
-undevelop the progress? undevelop or go backwards to find out where you are going?--> find "origin" of the project... what if I'm done? beginning is the end?
-Rothko artist staring at paintings
-Found Idea- need to 'get to know it'- understand what you have...
-STUDY THE SYSTEM- DERIVE FORM FROM FORCES... How can different things influence the city block...
-thought on what is "heavy traffic" on one street... leads to solving problem of garden and garage... square--> city (design surroundings?)
-HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A PROJECT THAT HAS NO SITE?
-think about what all sites have in common? light, access, etc...
-is context overrated?
-squares as th site... inside frame? architecture is the site... square... represents architecture
-slow down to work fast
-implications of the stairs... intention behind stairs "watercolor model"
-"Materials, Structures, Standards" -Julia Mc...
-coffee break-
-IS ARCHITECTURE 2-D or 3-D?--> flat or attached to something
-sculpture is in the "round"; round building to be unfolded onto one plane...
-->ARCHITECTURE IS EFFECTS FROM INSIDE THE BUILDING OR THE ENVIRONMENT ONTO A PLANE... context?
-relation to the condition of reliefs--> art deco? Miami Beach?
-Gestalt Principles--> connection of planes or lines even though unconnected... (difficult to see diff way once a certain way...)
-see in "perceptual wholes"; ink blots; ordered chaos
-What does symmetry mean?
-"cookie cutter"=universal?
-architectural specificity?
-How do you make each one individual for the location?
-Mies Van Der Rohe --> Hugo Herring? --> "universals" in architecture

Studio, More Studio, and Midnight Dancing in Studio

The past few days have been pretty much devoted to work. The business students went to Venice for a few days and returned last night. We are all getting anxious about the project and for our trip; I think everyone is a little homesick too. Things can get a little interesting in Studio with later nights; After some people took a break to watch "The Notebook" on a computer, they played some of the songs from the movie, like "I'll be Seeing You," for everyone to hear... of course it inevitably led to dancing...

Megan and Rachel slow dancing in studio.

Travel Group and "Pin-Ups"

On Monday, the 38 architecture students in the Europe travel program came to visit us here in Riva. They began their two month semester of constant travel on the first of September, so they actually only have a few weeks left. While it is a shorter semester, it is an exhausting one for them, as they have no home base; They're having an amazing time, but are ready to go home and recover. It was really nice to see all of them; having them here meant that over half of our year of Architecture students were at the villa at the same time. I think we all missed seeing each other around studio in Blacksburg quite a bit. They spent most of the afternoon here and some stayed until later in the evening, catching a later train back to Como, Italy, where they were staying for a few days. It was a little taste of home for everyone; something I think we all needed.

Right now we are all trying to virtually finish up our projects before our 16 day Italian tour in less than two weeks. We have mini "pin-ups" to discuss our work with Frank. We are in groups of four; four went today and then Friday, Monday and Tuesday we will do the other three groups of four. It will be a pretty intense few weeks, but it will be nice to be pretty much done before we leave. We will still have a bit of work when we return and our seminar project too, though I think it will be a little less intense then. I know the rest of the semester is just going to fly by!

Around Riva

On Friday our studio took a little walk to a park to have a brief discussion as it was a beautiful day and Frank didn't want to waste the day indoors. We sat on a concrete picnic table while listening to Frank share a few thoughts on our tour and the Italy tour we have coming up. After, we all played on the playground in the park for a little while; I thought it might be fun just to share a few pictures of our park adventure!

Day Trip to Locarno and Mogno

Photo of Locarno.


Thursday morning we left around 8:15 am to go to Locarno then to Mogno Chapel, by Mario Botta. In Locarno, we went to a very small museum with an exhibit on Max Bill. It was a nice change having a smaller less overwhelming museum to go to after our long tour. We then spent some time wandering around the city and eating the bagged lunches provided for us by the Villa. There was a market going on in the Piazza Grande, where we saw everything from antiques and used items to handmade turned wood and silver jewelry. It was a perfect cool and sunny fall day!

We continued to Mogno with a bus driver who was definitely no Paolo. We were going a little fast up some steep roads with a lot of turns and switch backs; I lost track of the number of cars we passed. Obviously we all made it safely, so there is nothing to worry about now.

The chapel is a beautiful monument to the town that once existed in its location in the valley. There was an avalanche there, in 1986 I think, that destroyed the town; the town had to be rebuilt and the chapel built in its honor. If it had been a little sunnier we would have been able to see more of the amazing shadows it creates, but it was still one of my favorites we've visited.


Photos of Mogno Chapel.

Just a Little More About the Tour...

Bus Interior Shot.


For the tour of Switzerland, we rented a coach bus for the 16 students, Frank, his wife, and Lucy Ferrari, as well as all the souvenirs we acquired and luggage. Paolo was our driver; We felt quite safe in his hands. He has been driving for ten years and it shows. He backed up down a very narrow street several blocks in the giant bus, parallel parked quite nicely and on the first try, squeezed through some very tight spots and braved some extremely curvy roads up, down and around the Alps. I think he enjoyed the trip as well because he does not normally get to drive for a whole tour or trip, as people usually can't afford to do that; he seemed to like the sights just as much as we did and was excited to get to join us on some of our tours or visits (including the baths at Vals) and our meals. He didn't speak much English, but we did find out that whenever he wasn't with us he tried to find a place to go work out, run, or swim to stay healthy. He was a good sport.

Lucy Ferrari was amazing to have on the trip with us as well. Whenever she wanted to tell us something while we drove along she would get the bus microphone and begin her story with "O-OK People...". We feel like she has become everyones' grandmother; she has the best stories, all the experience in the world and is adorable. It seems like she knows everything.

Photo of Lucy on a tour. It is difficult to get photos of her, she doesn't want us to take them often.


Meanwhile, 14 of the 16 students in our group are knitting! I'm very proud and excited. Several people have already finished scarves! I think I may start having "lessons" of a sort in the fireplace room as people progress... I just can't wait until we get that fireplace going too!

September 29: Foundation Beyeler

On the morning of the 29th, while in Basel, Switzerland, we went to the Foundation Beyeler, a museum by Renzo Piano. The museum is well integrated into the landscape and had a beautiful exhibit on Venice by a variety of artists. Some of the gallery spaces having completely glass walls that allow the interior floor to lead out to a reflection pool outside; this extended the view to the mountains making the landscape art as well. The exhibit currently on display on Venice was a large collection of sketches, oil paintings, photographs, watercolors, and other art mediums done by artists such as Whistler, Turner, Monet, Cezanne, and many more. It made me miss Venice and look foreword to our Italian tour in a few weeks; we are to spend a few days in Venice during the two weeks of travel. A photo of the museum is above.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, seeing a large portion of "old town" Basel and some interesting architectural works. On the left below is a bank designed by Mario Botta; On the right is a photo of the mill at the paper making and printing museum in old town. Unfortunately we could not go into the museum as it was closed on Mondays.

September 28: Solothurn to Basel

I will be back tracking a bit to some of the days on our trip that I didn't have the opportunity to blog about.

On September 28th, we left Solothurn around 10:30 in the morning, a later than normal departure, to travel to Basel, Switzerland. One of Frank Weiner's old architect friends, Emile, who has a small firm in Basel met us there to show us a few buildings around the city. One of the most interesting things we saw was actually a rehab facility by Herzog and DeMeuron in the outskirts of the city. It is a place for people with serious injuries that resulted in serious mental disorders and physical trauma to go through therapy. We were allowed only to walk around the building for the privacy of those being treated there. It was a really well done facility made mostly of wood; it follows their idea of a "skin" that wraps the building that is seen in most of their work. You can see fromthe outside the glass "bubbles" that create a skylight in each of the private rooms.


Photos of Herzog and DeMeuron's rehab facility and concrete building.



If we walked literally a few hundred yards away, we crossed the border into France to see another building by Herzog and DeMeuron. (Basel is right where Germany, France, and Switzerland all meet.) It was a concrete building screen printed with acid to create texture.

We then traveled to a Frank Gehry building still under construction and a pharmaceutical building with many different colored panes of glass covering the building. Basel is a home base for a number of pharmaceutical companies and also has a museum on the history of pharmaceuticals. (I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to go... Sorry Mom!)

Photo of pharmaceutical building.



We spent the rest of the day wandering on our own and sketching after a full morning and early afternoon. After dinner at our hotel, we went to a cafe recommended by Lucy and Frank that has several layers of cellars created by the original city wall that you can go down into. It was like a mini museum with some of the history of the old city. There was also a wine cellar where they have tastings once a month. Upstairs, on the ground floor, a few of us had some coffee with one of the students studying architecture in Texas that were also staying in our hotel at the time. They are on a travel program for several months like the other group of students from Tech that are traveling around. It was nice to get to know them and hear about their architecture school and travels.

Photos from the cafe cellar.

Back In Riva

Photos of museum in Bregenz, Austria and a chapel on the way back to Riva by P. Zumthor.



I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep as updated as I would've liked during my travels; we had difficulty getting internet and if we did we either had to pay or it was generally awful. I will try to write a little about the trip in future blogs, but there is too much to do all at once.

Yesterday and today we spent at the thermal baths designed by Peter Zumthor in Vals, Switzerland. (We left Zurich in the morning and stopped in Bregenz, Austria to see a museum and also went through Liechtenstein.) It was incredible. It is right in the Swiss Alps, so obviously the views were incredible. The baths are so relaxing. There are quite a few, separated, but all in one room (sort of?). There is a average temperature pool that is more like a swimming pool, a ridiculously cold 50 something degree bath, a "fire bath" at 108 degrees (where I spent most of my time), an "isolation" room that has a bar you can hold on to and just let yourself float with jets on the bottom for your feet and periodic soft music playing, a bath with flower petals, an outdoor bath, saunas at varying temperatures, and all kinds of spa treatment areas. It was an amazing experience and I can't imagine Zumthor designing it better! If you want to see the website to see some photos (as we couldn't take any inside) here it is...

http://www.therme-vals.ch/?__locale=en

In addition to the amazing facilities, the dinner and breakfast were incredible, especially the breakfast. They have a huge spread of local organic products (grains, fruits, cheese, breads, meats, etc...) It was a great relaxing way to end out trip!



Photos at Vals (the bath house and one of the views).

Travel, Travel, Travel and No Internet

I have unfortunately had a lot of difficulty getting internet while traveling. We've done so much the past few days, I don't even know where to begin. I'll just give a few brief highlights...

Yesterday we went to Ronchamps in France; it is a beautiful chapel by Le Corbusier. It was a rainy cold day, but I think we needed that dramatic weather to really see it. That was pretty much the entire day... which was nice. We all spent a lot of time on the bus knitting and napping.

Today we went to see IWC, a watch company with beautifully made and incredibly precise watches. They range in price from 3,300 Swiss francs to a little over 370,000 Swiss francs. I do understand after seeing the process why they are so expensive.
We then went to an incredible waterfall; I have never seen anything like that before.
We also went to a very interesting museum that had very spatial beautiful art.
Later tonight a few of us went to wander around the city some and see how it looks at night all lit up.
Unfortunately that is about all I have time for as I had to pay for about a half hour of internet.
I will update again as soon as possible!