- I did a LOT of studio work. Spent a lot of sleepless nights in my apartment/studio clicking my life away on my computer, but that's the un-romantic reality of the life of an architecture student. As usual, all the work I had to do somehow got completed on time, and I finished my first semester in Spain on a high note!
- I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark in early December. The people there LOVE biking - it's fascinating; and they are very kind and friendly. But the days were short and I only saw the sun once for the three days I was there. The pictures will eventually make their way to my photo page, along with photos from my other travel breaks. I guess I have a lot of work to do on that.
- I applied to Grad School! That was a fun weekend...and now the waiting game begins.
- Last weekend I came back from my 12 day trip through Germany and Belgium. The trip got off to a rough start - lesson learned, never travel without getting sleep the night before - but it was a wonderful experience overall; spent Christmastime in Munich, traveled through Frankfurt and Cologne in Germany and Bruges and Brussels in Belgium before ending the trip in Berlin for New Years Eve. I'll give you a short photo diary of each day of my trip below:
I'm back from the dead! After what looks like two months of hibernation, I'm ready to return to blogging. To save time typing for me and reading for you, I will give a short recap of all the shenanigans I have been up to since my last post: Now it's back to "work." I'm currently back in the studio working in a short two week design charrette before heading off to Budapest for a week-long workshop (and, if all goes according to plan, a quick stop to Italy). The upcoming semester will be full of excitement: traveling, studio, job searching, grad school admission decisions, and *gasp* graduation looming at the end of a not-so-gloomy tunnel. Only four and a half months left in Spain and I've got to make the most of it!
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So I'm finally back from my mini "vacation." Well...I've been back for a week, but making this post has fallen off my radar. Anywho, in lieu of making a long blog post about all the tourist-y things I did in Prague and Wrocław, I figured I would just put up some of the photos I took instead. I think the images will speak for themselves. Now it's time to go back to reality, and sadly my reality check is telling me it's November - WHAT!? The stores are already putting up "Bon Nadal" signs for the Holiday season. I guess that's one thing that isn't quite different from the States. Maybe Santa can help me get all my studio work/grad school applications done? It's worth a shot, right? Somehow the other day I was reminded of the epic American television show/book series "The Magic School Bus." Any REAL 90's kid from the States should know what I'm talking about. To catch those up to speed who have no idea what I'm talking about, the show/books focused on a super awesome teacher named Ms. Frizzle who would take her class on field trips in this anthropomorphic school bus to impossible locations. I highly doubt the kids were ever in the classroom, but it's not like I wanted to be in school either as a kid, so I was very jealous. Seriously, if you haven't seen an episode, you should...and if you have, you should watch it again (my personal favorite is when they explore the human body - brings back so many elementary school memories)! Well, I had my own Magic School Bus experience boarding the bus Thursday for our first class field trip for my Overseas Architectural Studies class. Luckily for us we weren't riding in a dumpy yellow school bus or else I wouldn't have slept as much as I did! Our first stop was Empúries, the site of some fascinating Greek and Roman ruins along the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Being able to see these sites in person after spending so many years observing them from behind a textbook was very surreal for me. There was not much left of the Greek town to see; like many ruins, all that was left to see were the remnants of what were once walls. Your mind was left to imagine what these spaces would have once looked like. On the other hand, the Roman ruins offered more to see, not to mention the former city was much larger. This was the area I spent the most time in, as our sketching assignment asked us to reconstruct one of the ruins using our powers of observation. I'll admit, I somewhat struggled with this. When we do these sketching assignments, I kind of feel like Harry Potter during his first ever spell-casting class when all the young wizards are practicing the "Wingardium Leviosa" spell and epically failing at performing the spell properly (for all of you who've seen the movie, hopefully you will appreciate this reference). This whole concept of "graphically analyzing" architecture through sketches is still new to me - you really have to train your brain to re-interpret what your eyes are seeing! But with anything, I'm sure with more practice, this will become easier to do. After Empúries, we boarded the Magic Tour Bus to Carcassonne, France. The town is an amazingly well-preserved fortified medieval city. We arrived just as the sun was beginning its decent on the horizon...words and pictures can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was. Walking through the streets of the city makes you feel like you're walking through the pages of a storybook. I loved every minute of our stay here. Thankfully we spent most of our time in Carcassonne during our 1.5 day trip, eventually spending the night at the local youth hostel in town. Our sketch assignment here was a little more up my alley - making a graphic record, or journal, of our visit. The picturesque winding streets, the towers of the Chateau, and the ordered geometry of the basilica were just some of the subjects I decided to capture in my sketchbook. Friday morning we took a tour of the Chateau, which is in excellent condition, along with the surrounding city walls, thanks to the restoration efforts of the French architect, Viollet-le-Duc, in the 19th Century. I've come across his name before in my historic preservation classes back at Illinois, so it was interesting to see his work up close (as well as hear his "voice" on the audio tour we got...). Walking along the ramparts offered stunning views of the surrounding towns and countryside bellow. Even more stunning was seeing the Pyrenees in the distance, peaking out behind a layer of low lying clouds. It was hard not stop and take a moment to absorb the beauty that was around me - that's probably why the audio tour took so long for me to finish! After our tour of the Chateau, we made our way to the Basilique Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse de Carcassonne. We weren't able to spend much time inside the Basilica since we popped in right before it was going to close for the afternoon, but we were able to admire the differences between the Romanesque and Gothic portions of the church amidst the sound of the choir in the background. I was sad for our time in Carcassonne to come to an end after grabbing a quick bite for lunch (and my first kebab too! which was muy bueno). I must say, the French countryside has captured my heart, and I know I'll return soon. The final stop on our short-lived trip was la Biblioteca Enric Miralles in Palafolls, Spain. We just HAD to squeeze in one contemporary building, much to my dismay. It is an interesting building upon first glance - the overall footprint is quite small compared to most library spaces and entrenched about 1 meter into the ground. The most interesting feature of the building is the roof, which was designed to resemble the surrounding mountains. After about two minutes of attempting to sketch the building, I got extremely frustrated. It didn't really help that I was attempting to draw the building in perspective when really I should have just simplified the structure into its most defining elements - oh well! You live and you learn as they say. I've never been a fan of curves. The interior spaces were quite impressive, but being the last stop of an already long day, all I wanted to do was pass out and go home - my brain was done analyzing buildings for the day. Overall, I had a wonderful time on our first class trip. The best part about the trip was that I felt like I really got a chance to develop my sketching skills. I'm starting to get a better understanding of what to look for when I'm drawing a building - what is the most important information I want to convey, what is the feeling I want to come across in my drawing, and which view will tell the most about the structure? A travel sketchbook, for an architect, is not just about putting in pretty images of the places you visited; it's a record, a journal, to help convey a deeper level of information about a space than what the average observer would see.
--Jennifer
After visiting the site and talking to locals, my peers and I quickly discovered that the events concerning Can Vies were not the main focus of what was troubling the neighborhood. We turned our attention away from Can Vies and instead towards the train which runs right through Sants. A few years ago, the Barcelona public transport system decided to construct a box around the train to help control noise from the train for those living near the tracks. While it seemed like a logical solution, the concrete box is an eyesore for residents and created many unusable, "residual", spaces. These spaces can best be seen at Can Vies, where there is barely enough room to walk between the building and the box. Other areas along the metro line provide more space between the box and neighboring buildings. Over the next week and a half I'll be doing some investigation into whether or not these residual spaces can offer any sort of potential for my project. Our studio professors have given us small group projects to really get us thinking outside of the box (literally) about the situation at Sants. Our first two projects focused on the impact of Can Vies, with one asking us to make a diagram about the Can Vies "phenomenon" and the other to make a short 3-5 minute video interviewing residents of Sants about the neighborhood. The third project was a food model (not to scale, thank god), which pressed us to describe information about the site in an unconventional way, and the fourth and final assignment was a collage, depicting our future intentions for our proposals. Trust me, when reading through these project prompts, I was very confused myself. I've been asked to do things that I've never done back in Champaign - I have never made a food model of a site, nor had to go out to interview people about social issues, not to mention in another language. However, it's pushing me to REALLY think about my project. Ok, that came out wrong. It's not that I don't already think about my projects, but normally we jump right into designing floor plans and programs without giving much consideration to what's going on at the site. We're typically given a program - build a house; build a library; etc - but for once, I get to decide where my project is going to be and what it is going to be. I'd say it's complete design freedom, but there are enough physical constraints to take into consideration, not to mention envisioning something that the people of Sants need/desire. "Sants on a Plate" - One of our group projects asked us to make a food model of our site. The baguette is the concrete box; the lettuce is the "urban fabric"; the chips are noisy streets; popcorn shows the location of schools; the candy strings show circulation paths; and the glass is Can Vies. We called it the "social lubricant," so I'll let you guess what was in the glass... (Photo courtesy of Maya Krolikowski) I am finally leaving the comfort of my group after presenting our final collage Wednesday, depicting what our intentions and strategies are for our projects going forward. It's exciting to know that the final project is finally starting, but at the same time I have no idea what I am going to do. The number of possibilities for what I can do is overwhelming. Now the challenge is to figure out which solution is the best for the neighborhood, and I have 2 weeks to figure out what awe-inspiring project proposal I'll come up with for my midterm on October 20th. It shouldn't be too hard - I just have to come up with a practical solution that will unite a neighborhood, no big deal. Looks like it's time to pull the trace paper off the shelf and get sketching.
--Jennifer
Our next stop was Parc de la Cituadella. There was so much to do and see here; the whole park was alive with activity! It seemed like everywhere we turned there was something to do and see. I was left speechless, again, finding la Cascada in the dark. We made our way up the sides of the fountain, trying to get different perspectives of the spectacular water show below. The fountain jets, highlighted in colorful lights, were going off in sync with classical music pieces, and it was absolutely beautiful - I just go ga-ga for anything with classical music, being a former violin player myself. Being able to enjoy this magnificent piece of architecture in a new light, literally, was just breathtaking. Elsewhere in the park was an amazing light showed synced with some trippy techno music that we surprisingly spent a lot of time in, marveling at the beams of light rapidly shooting from one point to the next. The evening came to a magical end with a fireworks display on Barceloneta Beach that even Disney would have a hard time competing with. There's just something about having your toes in the sand and listening to the waves crash against the shore watching fireworks shower the ocean in light that's just hard to compete with. What made all of this even better was that I got to experience this with some truly amazing people, all of whom I'm glad are spending this year abroad with me.
All day, my group and I kept telling ourselves how amazing everything we saw was; we truly felt immersed in the culture of the city. Just being in the streets surrounded by masses of people and being able to experience these events so ingrained within their culture is something I never could have gotten from the comfort of my home. I've been in Barcelona for two weeks and it wasn't until today that I felt like I saw the real Barcelona. I have many more adventures to go on and MUCH more of the city to see, but today will be a day I will never forget. --Jennifer
The day I've been anticipating for almost four years is finally here! To be honest, it still hasn't quite hit me just yet. I know this will be one of if not THE best year of my life; that the experiences I'll have will stay with me forever; and that the people I meet will change the way I see the world around me. Aside from this, however, there are a lot of things I don't know - I don't know who I will meet, what kind of experiences I'll have, how homesick I'll be, what my classes will be like - but that sense of "the unknown" is what makes it an adventure! Yet it seems like everyone else I talk to seems to know more about the next nine months that I do: "You'll have a great time," they say, or, "You'll learn so much!" It's the weirdest feeling; like everyone is looking into some kind of crystal ball and here I am at the other end of the table, trying to get a look. I've never felt anything quite like what I've been through today, or the past week or two really. I don't know if I'll kiss the ground first after getting off this godforsaken plane or be in complete shock and awe of my new surroundings! Either way, I'll be at my new home away from home!
Over the next nine months, I'll take you through my many adventures, both at school and on my travels. I'll attempt to give multiple perspectives - that of a student, a tourist, and an architect - so as to make my insights both informative, eye-opening, and entertaining. Hopefully I can give those of you reading a glimpse into my shenanigans at least twice a month, if not more, time permitting. In the meantime, stay classy America and I'll keep counting down the minutes until I arrive in Barcelona! -- Jennifer |
About me...Hi, my name is Jennifer and I am a young Jedi apprentice of architecture, navigating the vast unknown of architecture school and the professional world on my journey to becoming a Master Architect. Archives
June 2016
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