Hello gang, this is unfortunately my last trip of the year.  For those of you that have not heard, I must return to the states because of visa issues.  The state of Switzerland will not allow me to stay here as an intern because I already have my degree (never thought that would cause problems, only open doors), and to stay I would have to be paid wages my boss can’t afford.  So, after my last week of work, I made my way back to Venice to see everything I missed last year, and to actually find the Scarpa projects on my list, particularly the Querini Stampalia Foundation and the Brion Tomb.  The trip was amazing, I’m so glad I could fit in in, and I found all I wanted plus some bonus projects.  Enjoy, and I’ll see everyone sometime in November!

Rialto, the famous shopping bridge, similar to Castelvecchio in Florence, but this looks a lot nicer.

Here I am, looking at the South side of Venice, which opens up to the sea.

Palladio’s Il Rendentore.  Last year I saw this across the water but had absolutely no time to take a water taxi over to see it.  So this year, not only did I get to it, but I got in.  I definitely made up for last year, now my regret of not having enough time is finally gone, whew.

View across the water back to the main island of Venice, looking at Piazza San Marco.

The first day in Venice, I didn’t get to San Marco (which I didn’t even find last year, ha) until the dark, but don’t worry, I came back and got some day pics too.

So many birds in the piazza, it actually wasn’t so hard to get a pic with a bird flying through, but still pretty proud of this one, plus I just love that bell tower, which I’m sure you will see with the umpteen pics I took of it.  I also had the chance to climb the tower and get some amazing aerial shots of Venice, which makes the city seem a lot simpler to navigate through than it actually is.  Talk about a hedge maze, except a hedge maze over water, with only a few bridges connecting you in the direction you actually want to go.

Piazza San Marco below, so many people and so much live music, the entire day every day, even when it was pouring (and when the city and the piazza were flooding).

Me, with my favorite San Giorgio in the background.  I really took a liking to any view towards San Giorgio, just the perfect mix of marble and brick, tower and facade, land and sea, gorgeous.

If you chose to feed the pigeons and/or sea gulls in the Piazza, you got plenty of unwelcomed extras onboard.  But still, fun to watch.

The Arsenale, the huge protective fortress on Venice, no idea it was here, just stumbled across is searching for Scarpa’s Querini Stampalia Foundation, which stands below.

Here’s the famous Scarpa bridge in Venice, also something I didn’t find last year, but sadly this is no longer the entrance to the building, you have to go around and use a typical brick bridge that looks like every other in the area, but still worth the admission.

Because of the frequent flooding, Scarpa actually the designed the whole first floor gallery with a “moat” going around the entire length of the rooms, pretty clever, but then again, he was a master.

And on another part of the building, a newer section, Mario Botta did a renovation.  So yay, my first Botta project, and he actually was a student of Scarpa, although he worked on this after Scarpa had passed, but you can see the connection with their works, and its a cool dialogue between eras.

This was a bonus find:  Scarpa’s Entrance to the University of Venice.

Now, the Main Event:  SCARPA”S BRION TOMB in San Vito d’Altivole

Here are the tombs of the 2 patrons, the wealthy Brion’s.  Scarpa’s resting place is also in this cemetery.

After many language issues and misunderstandings, I got my desired pic of me in the marital rings of Scarpa, the famed image of the late architect.

Also a bonus find, wandering around on one of my rainy days in Venice, this has to be a Scarpa project, just look at it, but it was just behind the Piazza, but sadly closed down, so no going inside, or even lights to see what occurs past the glass entry.

Near the Galleria dell’ Academia

Some more shots from within Piazza San Marco, so beautiful.

Well, I saw a ton of Venice, I saw a lot more Scarpa than I planned on (although I still haven’t found the Olivetti Showroom and I didn’t go to the Possagno Plaster Gallery because of bad weather, but hey, a reason to back again some day, right), so all in all, a beautiful final European trip.  I have about one week left in Switzerland, time to pack up, get some souvenirs for the fam, and have some final farewell parties.  Hopefully I don’t forget all of the German I’ve come to learn since I’ve been here!

Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland.  This huge museum, much larger than I expected, is the second building I’ve got to see by Renzo Piano.  The entire museum is dedicated to the life and works of Paul Klee, famous artist that came about between the two World Wars.  It also featured works of fellow artists of the time and how they influenced/or were influenced by Klee.  All in all, a great building and great exhibits, glad I could fit the trip in.

The most notable thing about the building is how it really is part of the landscape, and part of Piano’s thinking was to develop the rest of the site that the building did not occupy to be used for agricultural purposes, and it became reality!

Below are the few interior shots I was able to get outside of the exhibit.

And crazy enough, Mom, not I, did some wandering and found a whole chunk of the building explaining the building through models and sketches, super cool find, thank you.

The display was the perfect example of the requirements to pass 4th year studio at K-State.  The perfect little conceptual diagrams, some systems development, site models, structural models at various scales, complete interior large-scale model, the whole deal.  Really explained everything well, and not only well-explained, but a well though-out and executed project, go Renzo Piano.

The building form lent itself to some cool logos.

Some Piano sketches, had to get some pics of doodles by the master!

Just off of the site was a large cemetery, where Paul Klee is actually buried.  And also near the grave is an interesting nature-work that is based on a work of Klee, and the experience leads you up a tiny, man-made hill, and at the top is a cool view of the museum and the surroundings.

A few months before this, I made a little day-trip to Basel to see a newer art museum by Renzo Piano, the Beyeler Foundation.  I’m suprised I never blogged this one yet, so I figured here is a fitting place for a few pics.  I actually enjoyed this building even more than the last, but no pics were allowed on the inside, where it had some of the most beautiful natural lighting I’ve seen.  Apparently this museum was the prototype for Piano’s Kemper Museum in Dallas, which all my fellow K-Staters who had their first two years at K-State took a field trip to (Jealous).  Well, here come the pics:

This museum was also based around a single-artist, but only for this particular summer exhibit.  It was about the life and works of Alberto Giocometti (also Swiss, typical, the Swiss are so caught up in themselves it’s a wonder they know anybody that isn’t from their country, just joking, but that is kinda the vibe you get once you’ve been here for awhile), a famous sculptor and painter from roughly the same era as Klee, perhaps a bit later.

Not a mispelling, every poster, and here, the museum itself spells it this way.

This project also served as a case-study for my chapel project from fifth-year.  Thanks Susanne for informing me about this building, and now I actually got to see it in reality, I am one fortunate learner/explorer.  I really am thankful that I’ve had all of these opportunities to see so many amazing places and works all over the world, it truly is a blessing and I know it’s a privelege, and I am very thankful.

Eat up the details my architectural friends.

Alrighty, there you have it, Renzo Piano in der Schweiz!

Welcome to Zermatt, the cozy little village with the most picturesque view of the Matterhorn, Switzerland’s most famous of all the Alps.  Mom and I came here the weekend after Munich (she went to Salzburg, Austria inbetween, doing the Sound of Music tour and also finding it to be her favorite European city, schweet).  Most every picture we took was of this same one mountain, but every time you see it between the buildings or down the street, its a picture perfect moment, so it was unavoidable.  Hope you enjoy.

Some cool cloud action happening at the summit, that same cloud hung around all day.  Below is a closer look.

The super-expensive Ski-lift, takes you to Gornergrat for an even more intimate view of the Matterhorn, but definitely not worth the outrageous price.

Hey, haven’t seen that handsome lad for a few posts.

Doesn’t really show in the pic, but the greens of the forest behind the church were so amazingly beautiful.

Mom and I, outside our hostel, with a view up the street to none other than, you guessed it, the Matterhorn.

One last view of the Matterhorn before stopping in Bern on our way back to Zurich.

Unlke Zurich, the city of Bern was super elevated over the river that curves through the city, but this provided some amazing shots, although I’m sure it’s harder to get down to swim than in Zurich. 

Slaying some demons, just another days work.

Cool sculpture that really caught my attention when we first passed it.

On the main market street, which lead to the grand opening of ‘Bear World’, some huge bear zoo world at the edge of town, so strange, and no bears out!

Bern is the capitol of Switzerland, so here is the Swiss Capitol Building, with two huge wings to either side of course.  Before we saw the city of Bern itself, we actually stopped an art museum by Renzo Piano, but I’ll share those pics in the next post.  Bye for now.

Hey gang, I know it’s been awhile, but updates are coming, probably too many at once, but here’s this one for now.  At the end of September I went to Oktoberfest with a friend from the office.  It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and since it was the last weekend of the Fest for the year, I went last minute.  It was a crazy experience, so many people who had definitely drank too much, lying about the streets, or singing national hymns at the top of their lungs, arm in arm with friends, and the never ending beer gardens and hordes of people, definitely worth seeing.

Although Oktoberfest, or Wiesn, is actually more of a carnival, with rides, food stands, etc., but also the huge beer tents that everyone knows it for.  There were some 10 or 12 huge beer tents, each with hundreds inside, unfortunately, once we got there, entry was denied for the rest of the day, full house til 10:30pm.

Each Brewery had their own tent and rediculously large display.

Here is the Statue of the Bavarian, the protector of this region of Germany.

I climbed the tower of a nearby cathedral and got a real nice arial view of the celebration, look at all the people!

Although it’s for sure Autumn, the streets in the Munich old town were full of beautifully flower-clad buildings like this.

Unfortunately, the Frauenkirche was under construction this time around.

A few weeks after Oktoberfest, my mother made her first European tour.  I decided it was important for her to not only see Switzerland, but also the surrounding areas I’ve come to enjoy.  So our first trip was to Munich, but on her agenda, Mom wanted to see the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp, the camp which served as the model camp for all of the Nazi installments throughout Europe.  It was a sobering experience, with appropriate dreary weather, but I believe it was good for us to see true remnants of the event, and see this memorial which stands to remind the world that this did in fact happen, and should never, ever take place again.

After Dachau, we had a more pleasant traveling experience.  We made a trip to the Olympic Park and were fortunate enough to slip in the doors at the end of the day to see the new BMW World, a huge showcase building for all the new BMW cars and products being produced.

Bye the time mom came to Munich, Oktoberfest was over, but we had a chance to go through the Theresienwiese Park and see the remnants of the party.  Above you can see the inside of just one of many huge beer tents, til festfully clad.

And on this trip it was crucial for mom to see her favorite castle, that she has a huge picture of in the basement, in real life.  So we took a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, the home of the Bavarian King Ludwig II, whose home was a tribute to the works of Wagner, and whose home also inspired the much later Disneyland. 

In the same town is Hohenschwangau, the King’s parents quarters.  We were too late to get an inside tour, but we still got up close and walked around the gardens.  Below are some images from Nymphenberg Palace, just outside of central Munich.  Last year I had a chance to visit here as well, but this year, Mom and I walked the entire, almost neverending gardens, all the way to a huge fountain with yet another amazing view into the countryside.

Well, that about wraps it up for Munich.  Next up will be pics from our trip to Zermatt where we saw the class Swiss Landmark, the Matterhorn.  Until then, hope you enjoy the pics, and feel free to comment.

Hey everybody, it’s about time for another update.  These past two weeks, Jill came to visit me for her break from the projects in Africa.  We had a great time, traveling, eating out, cooking adventures, and also had a pretty architecturally significant visit as well.

Our first trip stayed pretty local, and we saw the Rheinfall.  We went with co-worker Christian and his girlfriend Esther, and took a boat out to the middle of the Waterfall where we climbed this slippery rock formation for an amazing view.

Next trip was to Vals, in the south of Switzerland around the base of the Alps.  Here we saw Peter Zumthor’s Thermal Baths, an amazing experience.  We spent the entire day going from bath to bath, each a different experience, either different temperatures, sounds, smells, or a combination.  All were incredible, except for the ice bath, which was 14 degrees Celsius, and if you don’t know how that feels, lets just say no one went all the way in it and i almost went into shock went i jumped in, so cold.

During the same trip, we went to Sumvitg, which is actually located more in the Alps, and after hours of hiking uphill, thru fog and rain, not ever able to see the tops of what we were climbing, we finally arrived at St. Benedict Chapel, also by Zumthor.  The chapel was interesting, and actually the views from up by the chapel were the real breathtaking moments, especially as the rain stopped and the fog cleared (only until our hike down, of course, when the rain picked up and it got cold).

Our next week in Zurich we visited the final design of famous French architect Le Corbusier, the Heidi Weber House.  I had seen this a few times since I’ve been here, but didn’t pay to get in until Jill came to visit.  It was a really cool place, and the first Corbu experience for either of us. 

Because of the house visit, I believe we were inspired to go to France to see one of Corbu’s most famous projects, the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, only a few hours away by train.

The visit to Ronchamp was one of the nicest weekends I’ve had over here, especially since it was finally warm, clear, and sunny summer weather for a change.  There were no issues with the language, and only one inconvenience during the whole trip, which was being harassed for money by some drunken bike rider.  All in all, it was a wonderful two weeks, and now sadly, Jill has returned to Uganda, and I must return to the grind.  I am still working on the housing competion project for Altwil, St. Gallen, the neighboring Canton, and the deadline for that is August 17.  Hopefully we will fare well in the competition, so that my work over here starts off on the right foot.  Hope you enjoy the pics, and I’ll be sure to get at least one more post up before the summer is over.  Bye for now.

Welcome to my new beginnings as an architect intern here in Zürich, Switzerland!  I am working for the office Kämpfen für Architektur, a firm specializing in zero-energy, sustainable design.  I am mostly working on residential projects for rich clients, which is amazing, but the firm also works on smaller office buildings.  I will be here for at least one year and am expected to start speaking German as quickly as possible, which is proving quite difficult.

The meeting room

The meeting room is full of models and pics of completed projects.

Here are some sample wall constructions.

Master Beat’s (Pronounced Bay-Ott) office, where the magic happens.

The room for the long term employees, the intern room is behind.

Here is the site model for the most recent project I am working on, a housing development about 1 hour away from Zurich for several shared apartments, building codes are very intense and confusing here.

My first view of the office.  We are on the third floor, and share the building with Turbinen Brewery.  The beer garden is right by the loading dock on the lower left, how convenient, and the staff comes here about once a week after work for afew drinks.

FRAUMUNSTER_with stained glass by Marc Chagal

The town is super beautiful, built around a lake and with mountains so close you can see them on a clear day.  The weather is similar to Seattle in that it rains quite often, and I am told the winters get pretty serious here.  So far I have no complaints other than dealing with the difficulty of finding a place to stay in this town.  Beautitful locations, such a grand mix of cultures (Swiss, German, Italian, and French), and a dream job with amazing co-workers.  Thanks to everyone who has supported me and helped me along this journey to get to where I am now.  Enjoy the pics!

GROSSMUNSTER_most famous cathedral in Zurich (Some connection with Charlemagne or “Charles the Great”)

CALATRAVA IN SWITZERLAND

The University of Zurich has a library built by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, here are some pics.  He also has a train station nearby which I found super amazing.

STADELHOFEN BAHNHOF

Here is Calatrava’s train station.  It is so cool because it brilliantly brings together so many levels.  There is an underground shopping area, above that the train tracks, above that a pedestrian walkway, and even further up is a student picnic area and a road connecting to another neighborhood.

MORE PICS OF ZURICH PLEASE . . .

You can see the Swiss Alps from right here in Zurich on the lake, so beautiful!

BUILDING TOUR_MARCHE INTERNATIONAL

This is the building that got my firm famous.  It is made of natural materials, clad with a solar panel roof which allows it to produce more energy than it needs per year, and serves as an excellent model of energy efficient design, solar orientation, natural ventilation, etc.

The ‘Green Wall’ serves to humidify the entire office workspace daily.

MY NEW HOME_Finally, after 3 weeks of expensive hotels and hostels, I have myself an apartment.  It is right near the river and the downtown in a beautiful neighborhood.  It is a shared apartment with 3 other students on my floor.  They are all studying at Zurich University and non-architecture students, which is a change of pace.  It is nice to be finally unpacked.  Sorry that its taken so long for the update.  Hope you enjoy what you see, and until next time, enjoy your summer!

CESKY KRUMLOV – it may be small but it’s second most visited city in the Czech Republic.  I saved this city for the end of the trip, because it was the Czech city I was most excited about while studying Czech Republic, and I didn’t want to have a spoiled trip in the cold of Winter or during the rainy season, and I ended up picking the perfect time of year to go.  I went in the early heat of summer, 2 weeks after my last final, and I actually got to go with my Czech buddy, Honza, with made the trip so much more meaningful and ‘native’.  We went to the castle, climbed to tower, toured the city, and floated the Vltava, summing it all up with a drink or two at the local Eggenberger Brewery before our trip back to Praha for the final farewell party.  This was a very good day, and a great week, and I’ll be home before you know it.  I hope everyone has enjoyed what I’ve shared of my experiences, and I’ll have plenty of stories to share once I return, and I’m looking forward to seeing each and every one of you once again.  Farewell until June 28th!

 Approaching the castle.

‘Bear Pit’ mote in front of the castle, yup, real life bears protecting the castle to this day, crazy.

Views from atop the Castle Tower.

Looking back towards the castle.

Cesky Krumlov’s Sv. VITUS

Castle bridge connecting the castle to the theatre to the gardens.

Heading back to the Old Town from the castle gardens.

Castle Tower from within the old city.

There’s that castle bridge again.  Check out all the stone!

Lots of Czech kids (and tourists) do 4-5 day float trips down the Vltava from Prague thru Cesky Krumlov, unfortunately, Honza and I only had a few hours here, so we did an abbreviated version, but still fun.

The tiny step in the river, but we actually saw 2 or 3 people capsize or fill up with water, too good.

Alright, back to Prague, party Wednesday night, party Thursday night, pack and leave Friday early morning, and I”ll be back in the states on Friday night, until then, Nashledanou!

Hamburg – A city in perfect tune with the sea.  I only wish I would have spent more time here than in little old Hannover.  Hamburg is one of Germany’s largest cities (after Berlin and Munich) and was such a perfect mix of city and sea (like Germany’s Venice) and had, I thought, the nicest blend of old and new architecture, especially with all the inventine brick buildings that lined the canals.  I had a really nice time here, weather was good for the most part, and this was a great conclusion to my German tour (although I did make short stops in both Berlin and Dresden afterwards).  However, by the time this was all over, I was ready to get back to Prague, have a few more get-togethers and parties, say way too many good-byes, and get my life in order to come back home.  So here it is, the conclusion of my amazing 2 weeks in Germany and German-speaking lands.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

St. Georgkirche, the only church I saw that wasn’t one of the 5 famous Hauptkirche (visible from all of town and great at locating yourself in certain districts of town.) 

Hamburg Rathaus – with amazing shop lined and tree lined waterways to the rear.

 See, Venice of Germany, what’d I tell ya.

Such a beautiful outlook.  If I had more time and fundage, I would have taken a small cruise.

Fountain in the Rathaus courtyard (The Hapsburgs had their own room with balcony overlooking this court.

This must have been the window from the court kitchen, I loved the motif.

St. Jakobikirche – the only Hauptkirche that I wasn’t able to enter.

St. Petrikirche

St. Nikolaikirch – My third and final destroyed church of WWII, still powerful, but this one now has a lift to the top of the steeple, and at the top are views of the destroyed city from the steeple just one day after the bombings.  I will show you what I saw.

Check out the harbor with all the fishing boats and rigs in the distance.

Tons of canals and waterways like this.

Sweet housing overhanging the canals.

But wait, there’s more . . .

More harbor pics . . .

St. Michaeliskirche

St. Michaeliskirche Interior – so beautiful.  This church is the perfect setup for a concert and actually, I came in here right as it started to pour, and there was an Irish Voices choir performance right as I came in, so I stayed out of the rain and sat and listened for a good half hour, so perfect, and in the perfect cathedral.

St. Katharinien – the last of the 5 Hauptkirche, with a beautiful maiden statue on the roof.

Interior of St. Katharinien

Chilehaus – in yet another impressive brick district.  Perfect mix of new and old buildings.

Well, aufwiedersehen Deutschland, perhaps I will return someday.  Now back to the Czech Republic for my last week in Europe.  It’s been fun, but I’m finally starting to get a bit homesick, and it’s time to say my final goodbye’s.

BREMEN

Bremen Hauptbahnhof

Beautiful flowers and windmill over the stream on the way to old downtown, so perfekt!

Altstadt, here at last.  This was such a beautiful city, but a city so simple and perfect it’s more like a fairy-tale place that you would like to settle down and have kids at.  So small and ideal, with that tiny and well-aged town feel.  Also, I was here on the weekend, so it was a very light-hearted, fun, and festive time to be here.

Unsere Liebe Fraukirche, Our Dear Lady Church, right in the center of everything, along with all the other historical buildings.

Rathaus from  Unsere Liebe Fraukirche.

Bremen’s famous Stadtmusiker, the ‘city musicians’, depicted everywhere as these stacked characters, this being the most famous and original representation.

Such a beautiful city.

One of the largest statues of ROLAND, a very famous German trader.

Altes Rathaus . . .

Right next to St. Petridom.

St. Petri Dom from across the square.

Interior of St. Petri.

View from one St. Petri tower, down on the Saturday market and festival.  I was so glad to be here on the weekend, it was so lively.  It wouldn’t have been nearly the same experience on a Monday or Tuesday.

Entrance to Schnoorviertel, the famed shopping alleyway.

View of the Saturday Flea Market on the Rhein.

Now off to Hamburg, Leo’s favorite German city, and now -since my travels are over- the city I wish i could have spent one more day in (perhaps not so long in Hannover would have made it work, oh well, that’s what this trip thru Germany was about, seeing as much as possible and finding the places I like the most and really want to return to later in life.)  Tata til then.

Hannover, where I finally slowed down a bit, let my feet heal up, and watched 2 of the most intense football games so far!  I was in Hannover for nearly 3 days.  Every evening I went to an outdoor restaurant and watched the day’s football game, night 1:  Germany vs. Portugal (3-2), so there was much celebrating, and night 2:  Turkei vs. Netherlands, in a Turkish restaurant (there is a very large Turkish population in Germany) so again, much celebrating.  In Hannover, the language was more crystal clear like everyone said it would be, but i was still so exhausted that most of my transactions were in English.  On my second night, I actually met a girl from Singapore who was studying German and music in school in Dusseldorf, (she only studied German for 4 months and was way better than me, that’s encouraging, right?), and she was in Hannover to try out for Music School.  I did actually practice some German with her, mostly because it’s less embarassing messing up in front of a non-native, and I got to know my roomate from Stuttgart pretty well also, he was in Hannover for the photo festival, which I hear was quite the impressive but also way outside of town.  All in all, this place was very nice, but I kind of wish I would have saved my second day for another city, more on that later.  So, enjoy!

Hannover Hauptbahnhof

Marktkirche – right in the center of Old Town, visible from nearly every street in town.

Martin Luther, preaching in front of Marktkirche

Altes Rathaus, right across the square from Marktkirche.

Altes Rathaus from the front.

View down the Altstadt shopping lane.

Hannover’s famed Leibnizhaus, known for its completely restored Renaissance facade.

View down the street of some classic German timber houses, this is what I thought all of Germany would look like.

More beautiful facades.

HANNOVER NEUES RATHAUS – so beautiful, with such a beautiful plaza and also a great pond behind.

HANNOVER (Model of the City in 1939)

Hannover (1939, three years before the war)

Memorial to mark the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon’s forces were held back.

Kreuzkirche – another church whose steeple was clearly visible from everywhere.

The second most powerful church i’ve seen,  St. Aegidienkirche.  Only the bell tower survived the WWII bombings, and also the perimeter walls.  An artist had installed hanging pieces of “stained glass” to show what once had stood here and the damage this church, this town, and this country suffered during the war.  Quite powerful, but the church in Berlin will always be my first and most awe striking.

Christuskirche - found on the way to Herrenhauser Garten.

HERRENHAUSER GARTEN – Some beautiful gardens down the lane from the University at the Northwest end of town.

Some crazy mosaic/tileness in the Grotto near the entrance.

 On the stage of the outdoor theatre.

Some smug babies in the audience seating, yuck.

At the rear of the stage, towards the remaining MILES of garden.

The prestigious and nearly impossible to get into (I mean this as in for students to be accepted, I didn’t actually try to get into campus), HANNOVER UNIVERSITAT.

View inside St. Clemenskirche,  very beautiful domed church near my hostel.

Next stop is the small but precious city of Bremen, which I will visit

 on the way to legendary Hamburg.  Hamburg will be my last ‘new city’ to visit, then I will return to Berlin to re-see what I saw so many many weeks ago in a blur of jet lag and newness, then Dresden to reunite with my ISC friends, and then back to good ole Prague for one last week of hoorahs.