Larger Than Life

Just a quick update about last Tuesday and Wednesday.

For our Tuesday excursion, Jeri, Sarah, and I chose to visit the Krematorium in Berlin designed by Axel Schultes Architekten. As it was with the Barcelona Pavilion, I had learned about the Krematorium sophomore year as a precedent for my public market. From the exterior, it looks like a big mass of concrete with voids carved out for entry. To enter the Krematorium, there are enormous motion-sensor doors that slide open, and then you're exposed to the interior. I was speechless when I entered. The space is filled with columns as direct sunlight penetrates through the voids in the building. The beautiful aspect of the columns is the top--instead of completely connecting to the roof, there are openings that let sunlight in, so as the column directs your view up, you see this bright light that contrasts with the darkness of the interior.

There are also chapels inside the krematorium for services. It's pretty much three concrete walls and a window with louvers. Very simple yet elegant.




On Wednesday, our Material Studies class did a field trip to the Philharmonic! I have to correct my previous post about the Chamber Music Hall. I had thought the architect was Hans Scharoun, but he only designed the Philharmonie Hall. For the Chamber Music Hall, the architect was Edgar Wisniewski who had referred to drawings that Scharoun had drawn to design the space.
The Philharmonie hall is enormous; if I remember correctly, it fits 2,200 people inside whereas the Chamber Music Hall has a capacity of about 1,200.

It was nice to get a guided tour of the place; we got to see the hidden spaces throughout the building, and it definitely helped me with my studio project (we are designing an extension to a music and dance school).

Got back from Greece last night; that update will come as soon as I finish my mid-crit work...