lateran library

sweet visit, here are some photos.

Southern Italy

Back from an amazing trip:

Napoli:

Loved the gallery. it was interesting to see such a modern structure embedded deep within the older city fabric. It was right near the crowded Spanish quarter so it sort of popped out on ya. It took me forever to complete the sketch, partially because the building proportions were giving me difficulty but also because there were some guys near me selling the most annoying battery operated horse! I was considering buying it just so I could kick it across the corridor. But the sketch came out pretty sweet so... Oh and there was an open church that I stumbled into with the most amazing trompe l'oeil. I was convinced it was real.

Capri:

Just off the coast of the city was the island of Capri, home to the magnificent Casa Malaparte. Perhaps the most amazing residence I have ever visited (rivaled only by Falling Water), it had an intimate connection with the landscape. The bright orange-red stuck out like a sore thumb (which is generally considered a mark of non conscious environmental design) was perfectly designed for its location. Each of the windows framed a specific picture created by the cliff line and flat ocean plane.

Pompei:

Epic! never have I seen ruins so intact. We were easily to put together the type of urban environment classical inhabitants were living in. My favorite area was probable the House of the Tragic Poet, just because the floor mosaic in the entrance was wonderful. It was a picture of a dog and said "cave canem" - beware of the dog. Another great part of the day trip was seeing the Pompeian strategy for dealing with street sewage and waste. Basically they sunk the street, heightening the curb allowing the waste flow without inhibiting pedestrian traffic. When someone had to cross the street, they placed tall rocks that still allows carts to pass unobstructed.

Sorrento:

relaxing, I enjoyed an excellent cookie there, probable the best since I arrived in Rome. It was definitely a place I could retire to, everyone was really chill. The whole town is built up on cliff, I ended up swimming in the sea when I reached the bottom. It was freezing!

Now that were back in Rome, There was some history studying that happened, took the final today so the only classes left are sketching and studio, and sketching ends tomorrow! Ahhh its all coming to a close way to fast! time to focus on the third project I guess.

Ciao ragazzi

Paris

Geez where do I even start with this city, there is so much to talk about! I guess I will try and hit the high points...

First off, the pastries.... AMAZING best in the world definitely. Croatia is a close second but Paris still trumps (speaking of trump, i have learned an excellent new card game that i will teach my friends back home, its called setback).

Okay on the the architecture...

Notre Dame: better than the pictures. Its so clean! apparently they just took down the scaffolding that had been up during the entire lengthy cleaning process. The yellowish-brown stone glistened in the parisien sunlight. While we were sketching the interior a service began and we got the rare opportunity to experience the organ of the great cathedral.

Place de Vosges: An excellent example of urban planning. I believe the piazza used to serve the royal palace and has now been turned into apartments. We visited in the morning when the sun was out but they weren't many people there. Then by the time we left the park began filling with children and mothers playing in the sandboxes. And FINALLY a city piazza with grass! see Rome it can be done!

Palais Royale: Another nice urban space. This one was larger, with extensive alleys of trees cut very specifically to allow to a slit of sky to be visible from beneath the canopy. Best park of the park, while we were sketching a young french child came up and peed on a tree in front of us hahaha. Oh and then Marina cam e and brought us pastries. So yea it was a good spot!

Louvre: Wonderful! I went first at night with some friends and then we returned the next day to visit the pyramid and the mall beneath. I got some quality pictures and did some sketching. I loved the rainbow of colors that the glass produced on the ground. There was a great spiral stair there too, some cool shots were there for the taking. We successfully built our own human pyramid next to the real one, I think ours was better.

La Grande Arche de la Defense: haha this french pronunciation is so strange, they don't pronounce the last letter of the word, i don't understand why they even put it in if they're not going to use it. Anyway, the arch was awesome! a modern day triumphal arch, perfect to continue the grand axis started by Louis V (or maybe VI... or VIII there were way to many kings named Louis). I really enjoyed La Defense, much more then I thought I would. It seemed to be an example of how skyscrapers can work within a proper urban scheme of corridors and piazzas. We got to visit the top deck by way of an epic glass elevator.

Institute of the Arabic World: Awesome! I never knew a facade treatment like the one used here existed! They basically covered the entire southern facade with a series of camera lenses (sort of). Its a system of panels that each have many diaphragms that open and close depending on the strength and position of the sun and produced shadows and outlines that evoke the traditional geometries of Arabic culture. Excellent project, way to go Architecture Studio (the studio that designed the panels)! Unfortunately the panels are too expensive to operate and maintain so we were not able to see them move, oh well

Cite d' Architecture: this museum was epic, an architecture students dream. This is the kind of museum I could enjoy spending days in! First off, its set on a great piazza that over looks the Eiffel tower. Inside is a huge library, with only architecture books, large casts of sections of famous cathedrals from throughout Europe, and a great exhibit on modern architecture complete with a life size 1:1 model of Le Corbusier's Habitation apartment! wow

Pompidou Center: Okay, I think that Paris has a secret multi billion dollar space program that they are not telling anyone else about, because this "art museum" looks suspiciously like a space port. I was shocked when I found out it was completed in the 70's, it looks more contemporary then the majority of buildings constructed today! I loved the bright red stair bellies and the massive exhaust pipes that came up from the piazza, it looked like there was a submarine parked below the pavement.

Eiffel Tower: amazing, way bigger than I thought it was. Unfortunately we were unable to go up, unless we wanted to wait for hours in line and miss our sushi dinner (which was surprisingly good, the Sapporo however, was disappointing.)

Lest I say, I will most definitely be visiting Paris again soon.

Ara Pacis + Villa Giulia

For sketching class we visited both the Ara Pacis and the Villa Giulia...

The ara pacis is an alter from the time of augustus that was constructed on the Campus Martius to celebrate the reign of peace and prosperity that Augustus had brought to Rome. Today, it is housing in a museum designed by Richard Meier. It was the first modern building constructed from the ground up in the city center since the 30's, and cause a lot of controversy as a result. I loved the design, I thought it was simple, elegant, a nice partii. I sketched an interior 1 pt section perspective which i will upload when i get my sketchbook back (we turn them in tomorrow).

Villa Giulia was a wonderful villa, a nice retreat from the city. It smelled so much fresher in the garden then anywhere else in Rome! The building definitely came secondary to the outdoor space, seen most clearly in the Semicircular arcade enclosing the primary garden space (pictured below). The Nymphaeum was also lovely! I have never seen an outdoor space like it as part of a residence before. One of the students accidentally dropped her sketchbook down onto the platform, so the garden worker let us down there to retrieve it, so we ended up getting a exclusive preview!

Spring Break::

For break I decided to go with hillary steph sarah and dan to Croatia. After some trouble getting there, It ended being one of the best trips I have ever taken...

The first city we visited was Split. I believe it is the second largest city in the country, which seemed surprising because it wasnt all that populated. We we able to visit the palace of Diocletian, the board walk where we got some delicious pastries (best in europe maybe, theyre in the running), hiked all over the Marjan Hill which the city is built next to. That walk lasted a while but it truely was the best way to observe the city. there was actually a small zoo there so I was able to see a tiger, ostrich, and a peacock (all in croatia, who knew??!). That night we had a wonderful family dinner back at the hostel of french toast!

The next day we took the ferry to the island of Brac, where we spent the day hiking and enjoying various cappuccinos. We found one place that will forever be my favorite cafe, the drinks were great, it was out of the wind(which was really bad at times) and covered partially from the sun. I hope to return another day. Below you can see how beautiful the island really was, best hike i have taken!...

Dubrovnik was our next destination, which was just as fantastic! The old city walls provided excellent views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Dan and I climbed to the top of the nearest mountain and found an alter and cross which had been erected near an abandoned armory overlooking the city. On the walk down, we met up with some donkeys and mountain goats! The nightlife wasnt as exciting in dubrovnik as we had hoped but we managed to fill our time with delicious food and city explorati0n. Oh and I gambled for the first time! I ended up losing 6 kune in the slot machine (around 1.20 USD, so dont worry!)

We were all sad to leave but we also did need some rest before our next adventure... Paris

here are the pictures of my first project that I didnt get a chance to upload...

Project 2 and weekend travel

We had our jury for the second project last thursday. It went well, the critics were all very informative and helpful. Our presentation went pretty smoothly, some of the comment we recieved were about trying to make the waters edge area more memorable, possibly through the use of a large stair running down the main access. All in all I was happy with the work we produced.

On friday dan stephanie and i went to go visit the Carravagio exhibit at the Quirinale. It was wonderful! He is definitely one of my favorite painters. In my opinion, the best painting was the one portraying three card players, one of which had to cards behind his back waiting to pull it out and scam the other players.

The following saturday I had the chance to go to Assisi with dan and some other friends from the arts and sciences program. It was by far the most beautiful city I have ever seen in Italy. We got to explore various tunnels, climb half way up a mountain to a franciscan monastery and wander around a castle and some other churches. The train ride home was a bit confusing because we had to transfer in some small town, but we got to sit in the first class car of the train so it was worth it. I very much hope to return and conquer the whole mountain, not just half.

Other than that I have been up to Croatia planning. So far we have booked our first hostel and figured out plans for the first day (roughly). On the docket we had a one hour long bike ride, stroll along the shore line, a bar to try some traditional croatian brandy and seeing an old mousoleum on the penninsula. Oh i forgot to mention the first night will be in Cavtat, then the next day we will travel to Croatia.

Anyway, here are dan and my final boards from project II..