The Next Episode

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I know everybody (and by everybody, I mean about five people) has been waiting for me to update from Berlin. It’s been a nonstop pace since I’ve gotten here, but I will start with last week.

I forgot to blog earlier, but when I was in Boston, I shot my one and only air rifle match for my senior year and ended up winning the gold medal with a score of 568 out of 600. Anyways, Monday, January 31^st, about 40 students (20 going to Berlin, 20 going to France) met at Logan Airport and checked in four hours before our flight. I was up until 3am the previous night to finish packing and ended up getting sick (of course) but I didn’t let that ruin my fun. The plane ride to Frankfurt took about 7 hours or so, and we got free drinks (meaning alcoholic as well), snacks, and a meal. I spent most of the time watching shows on my laptop and attempting to sleep. We landed in Frankfurt at about 5:30am and the groups split up. Initially our flight to Berlin was supposed to be at 7am, but when we looked at the departure monitor, it said that our flight was canceled. There we were, a group of 20 students, trying to figure out how to get to Berlin. We kept going back and forth from terminals and help desks until we finally got new tickets for an 8:30am flight. We didn’t get to Berlin until 11am or so, and by then, all of us were just dead.

We met up with our study abroad coordinator Rolf and he took us to our studio space first and then to our apartments. After everyone took a nap, a group of us ventured out to explore Berlin a bit. Our first day we stayed fairly close to home and walked to Alexanderplatz.  So far the weather here has been gray and cold and sometimes rainy and windy, but the city is amazing. There is so much modern architecture around yet it’s filled with such history.


On Wednesday, we officially started classes. We only have about four classes while we’re over here: studio, German, humanities, and material studies. It’s a very light load compared to my usual semesters, and we have Tuesdays off, so I will be doing lots of exploring.

Friday, our humanities professor Ruth took us to a museum called The Story of Berlin which gave a brief history of Berlin by having theme “rooms.” Very interesting and enlightening museum. We also got to tour an underground bunker.
Friday night I had my first European clubbing experience. We went to a nearby club called Tresor, and they charged a 13 Euro cover (13 Euros!! That’s like $18! Ugh). It is completely different than the US. Everyone’s dressed pretty grunge and it’s all about dancing to some crazy house beats. In the basement, the bass was so loud that I could feel it pulsing through my heart. It was insane and definitely not my scene. I left around 3am with a few others, but the other half of the group apparently stayed until 5:30am.

Everyone who knows me knows how much I hate to waste time, so all my free moments in Berlin are being spent exploring the city. My stay here is limited so I’m trying to pack in as much sightseeing and photographing as I can. I’ve left a few weekends for Berlin, but for March and half of April, I will be going to Greece, Copenhagen, Prague, Madrid (with school), Switzerland (with school), Amsterdam, and one other destination that I haven’t decided on for February 26-27 (contemplating between Barcelona, Lisbon, and Dublin, or somewhere else… input is MUCH NEEDED ASAP!!).

On Saturday, my roommates (Jeri and Sarah), Erblin, and I ventured out to Potsdamer Platz to check out the architecture of the area. Twenty years ago after the wall came down, there was nothing in the area. Now it’s filled with several office, commercial, and residential towers; it feels a bit like Manhattan. We went specifically in search of buildings that were listed in an architecture book that Erblin had bought, and for the most part we saw most of the ones in that area.



The first building we went in to was by an unknown architect. It felt very Behnisch to me. The building is made mainly of steel and glass, and when you enter, there’s a fantastic atrium space with green space inside (which makes me think it’s a Behnisch-esque building). Being architecture students, we felt the need to explore all that we could, so we took the escalator to the second floor, and then the elevator to the 8th/top floor. When we got to the top, it looked as if they were completing construction, so there were rooms just filled with ceiling panels, radiant floor panels, lights, etc. We walked all the way around before heading back down. Great building, very tectonic.

We walked down a few blocks and found a building by Richard Rogers but didn't go in (I don't know why). I believe it was a residential building, with a very distinct shape of a triangle.

Next we walked over to the Debis Building by Renzo Piano which I believe is an office building. As I mentioned before, I love everything by Renzo, so of course I loved this building. There's even a water feature around it (I don't know what you'd call it--a reflection pool, a moat?).

We found another building next to it (another unknown architect) and it had this courtyard area (I guess that's what you could call it) that framed views. It's hard to describe what I'm talking about so here's a picture.  




Next we walked a little bit to Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie, which is very very much a Mies building. Simple steel and glass in an open space, and the program is underground. We walked around and inside but didn't pay for the exhibits. I love how simple it looks.
 
Across the street was the Berliner Philharmonie, designed by Hans Scharoun. Very interesting building and not sure how I feel about it. We tried to get it but it was closed. It also started to rain harder so we weren't feeling too adventurous to walk around it. Instead we headed over to the Sony Center where the outdoor area is covered by a large "umbrella"-like structure. It's definitely a landmark in Potsdamer Platz with its unique shape. 
We made a quick stop to grab lunch then proceeded to see the Parkside Apartments by David Chipperfield. I wasn't impressed; it looked and felt like a prison to me, but I didn't go inside, so I can't say what the inside looks or feels like. After that, we were all architecture-ed out, so we called it a day and headed home to relax.
On our way back, we passed the Science Center Medizintechnik, and I just thought it was an interesting form. It managed to be organic yet orthogonal at the same time.

Today I did more adventuring, but that update will have to wait until the morning. Now it's time to work on studio stuff... Tschüss!