Moving Mountains

This past long weekend was incredible. I don't know how we managed to fit so many sites and activities into four days because it felt like an entire week. It was an amazing experience with so much beautiful landscape and views.

Last Thursday, our entire class flew to Zurich and were chauffeured around by a private bus. Our first destination was the Swiss Re addition designed by Meili & Peter. From the exterior, I wasn't very impressed. I loved the materials and textures (especially the glass rocks in the concrete) but the form was very basic. However, the interior redeemed itself. We were lucky enough to get a guided tour by the lead architect of the project. You could definitely see the attention to detail on the inside. Everything was mostly flush, the concrete structure met the floor slab at a very specific point, the use of materials was just perfect... I loved the wood beams as well. I drew a quick section sketch to describe how it works. On the inside, there is a wire cable in the shape of a parabola that works in tension to support the cantilever.
We also toured the old part of the building and saw how the building was integrated with the site. Rolf, our professor, was explaining how Swiss architecture likes to hide certain moments from first glances. You have to dig a little deeper to find out these moments. I love that approach.

Our next stop was in Bregenz, Austria, so we were on the bus for a few hours before arriving at Peter Zumthor's Kunsthaus. Simply amazing. We've studied this building a couple times now but as with every work of architecture, you can't understand it completely until you experience it yourself. Most of the time, we focus on the museum building and forget about the administrative building, but the admin building is essential to the urban design. The two buildings create a nice exterior public space (unfortunately it was raining when we were there) that opens up toward the city. On the other side of the museum is a body of water, so the museum is definitely visible in the skyline. Because of the rain, we were able to experience the "ghost" aspect of the museum; the color of the glass facade blended in perfectly with the gray skies. The interior is simple but amazing. There are three concrete bearing walls which support the building, and the other main material is glass. If you look at a section of the building, the glass ceilings are dropped about a meter from the bottom of the floor slab which allows natural light to enter the glass facade and filter down into the exhibition spaces. I loved the building enough to buy a book about it.

The rest of our night was spent on the bus and at our hotel in Switzerland. Luckily the hotel provided us with entertainment in the form of ping pong, darts, billiards, and squash. In the morning, we were up and out by 8:30.

Our first stop of the day was in Chur to see an entrance to the Graubünden Parliament building designed by Valerio Olgiati. My initial reaction was indifferent; I actually didn't even know what building we were looking at. However, as time passed on, I found myself appreciating the structure more and more. Like I mentioned, Swiss architecture takes some time to discover little moments. The entrance itself isn't actually touching the existing building, which makes you think about how it is being supported. From far away, it looks like the column on the right side is connected to the old building, but it isn't. Somehow the cantilever is in balance even though it looks like it shouldn't be. I also like the fact that the entrance follows the line of the building, but then Olgiati takes it a step further and extends the footprint to follow the line of the sidewalk, relating it back to the city block.

From Chur, we took the bus to Scharans to see another building by Olgiati: a studio for Atelier Bardill. The only restriction was that Olgiati had to keep the form of the building that existed previously. It's a great building that respects the village around it but also brings in new ideas. We spent a while photographing the exterior, and at one point we saw a woman park her car outside the studio and unload groceries. Next thing you know, she unlocks the door, and Dan and I make eye contact, both of us wondering, "can we go in...?" and bolt for the door. We only saw the courtyard but it was still enough to appreciate the space. It was the first time that a Wentworth group has seen the interior!

 

Next town was Paspels to visit a school designed by Olgiati. I loved it. Very simple but also very elegant. In plan, it's essentially a square with four classrooms in each corner. The classroom walls are slanted at a very small angle (five degrees or less) so it's almost not noticeable when you're walking through. From the exterior, you notice how the building just mimics the mountains in the background. Inside, the circulation space is all concrete, and when you reach the classroom, it turns into all wood. There are also large windows that provide amazing views of the landscape. If only my school were this awesome.

From Paspels, we drove to Vals to visit the stone quarry where the stones from the thermal baths came from. We got a tour of the area including the factory where they cut and polish and finish the stones. There were plenty of scrap piles so everybody was looting for souvenirs.

Finally, we made it to Peter Zumthor's thermal baths. Hands down, the best architectural experience ever, and it was all paid for by Wentworth (well, technically, I guess we paid for it...). From the moment we entered, it was just incredible. I could not believe it. I've studied the building year after year, and to finally be inside, to experience the baths and just relax... it was perfect. There are several different rooms with different highlights. My personal favorite was the bath that was filled with lavender petals; it smelt fantastic inside, and it was so so relaxing. We made up names for the other rooms like the hot tub, the cold room, the echo room, the music room, the main pool, and the exterior bath. Of course, I couldn't not take pictures, so after a little while, I went back into the locker room to grab my crappy point and shoot to sneak in some shots. I got a few pictures of the corridor, the locker room, and the entrance to the exterior bath. I made the mistake of showing a classmate that I had my camera, because she proceeded to ask me to photograph her with the baths, and I reluctantly did it. Of course, some bitch of a woman came up behind me afterwards and said "lady, give me your camera" and that was that. I had to pick it up afterwards at the reception desk where the receptionist gave me attitude and said "I told you no cameras." Come on. You can't tell an architect not to take pictures of architecture. After spending about three hours at the baths, I went around the exterior and photographed the exterior baths. It's amazing how Zumthor set it into the landscape. From behind, it blends in to the mountains in the distance.

We ended our night at our hotel in Vrin and had a wonderful four-course dinner that was paid for by Wentworth. At the end of dinner, I walked around outside for a little bit and photographed the mountains with the full moon. Then the clouds moved in...

Next morning, I woke up to snow falling outside my window, and I smiled. Because I was in LA for most of winter, I only had one snow storm when I was briefly back in Boston. I was happy to have my second snowfall of the year.
We spent most of the day looking at architecture in Vrin, specifically architecture by Gion Caminada. We had a guide (Timone) with us who had worked with Caminada previously and had lived in Vrin for seven years.
In the morning, we started off with a lecture, where we all struggled to stay awake (not that it was boring, but when I stop moving, I just want to sleep). Afterwards, Timone brought us into the gymnasium addition that Caminada had designed for the school in Vrin. It was made entirely of local wood and built by local carpenters. The tectonics were just plain sexy. You could see and understand how the whole structure works. We also had our fun inside; we had to take our shoes off when we entered, and we quickly realized how slippery the floors were, so of course, we had some sliding races.

Afterwards, we walked over to a phone booth designed by Caminada. The town had requested a phone line to be installed, and instead of placing a generic phone booth, Caminada decided to design one that related more to the village. Another beautiful wood structure, but the wood is having problems because of the rain.

On our way to visit Caminada's slaughterhouse, we stopped by and discussed one of his single-family houses. He follows a lot of the same principles--lots of wood with a stone foundation. When we got to the slaughterhouse, we couldn't enter because it was closed on Saturdays. It was a great building though (with lots of little hidden teases), and it's even better to learn how the slaughterhouse has helped the village. Before, they had to transport their livestock to other towns/villages to have them slaughtered and whatnot, but now, they can do it all locally and generate money within the town. With just a few buildings and ideas, Caminada managed to save this village and help them keep their traditions.

Our last Caminada building was the town mortuary that was located next to the church. The structure was constructed from wood, and unlike his other buildings, this one was painted in white chalk on the exterior to mimic the white church next to it. On the inside, he brings it back to the natural wood color to make the space more intimate and warm. The mortuary is used for people to grieve the deceased. The body is normally placed downstairs where people can say goodbye, while the upstairs there are two rooms (like a dining room and a living room) where friends and family can reminisce about the deceased. The process can last for a few days.

After lunch, we took the bus back into Zurich but made a pit stop in a town to see another Olgiati building. It was called the Yellow House and it was actually designed by Olgiati's father. Olgiati's father was some sort of collector, and before he died, he promised to donate his collection to the town if they promised to keep the Yellow House and renovate it. We didn't enter to see the exhibits but had a brief discussion outside.
When we arrived in Zurich and settled in, Jeri, Sarah, Kemal, and I walked around the city, both exploring the old part as well as looking for souvenir shops. Unfortunately, almost all of the stores were closed by 6pm, so we ended up just walking around and photographing. Eventually we got hungry so we wandered, looking for something affordable. Switzerland is ridiculously expensive compared to all the other cities I have been to. We finally found a decently priced restaurant, and I'm glad that we went to a sit-down restaurant rather than a take-out/fast food place.
When we finished dinner, I wanted to pick up a beer at the grocery store, and luckily it was open until 10pm, so while we were there, we ended up finding a souvenir aisle and buying all of our chocolate there. I also bought a Swiss army knife to replace the one that the airport had taken from me four years ago when I came back from Hawaii. All in all, a good night in Zurich.

Sunday morning, we visited one building in Zurich by Giuliani Honger. The Sihlhof building is a building for two schools that are part of a university. It wasn't spectacularly special in my opinion, but Rolf loves it for some reason. We were fortunate to get a tour by the architect himself so he explained the concept of the building and the process.

The highlight of Sunday was visiting Vitra in Basel, Germany. I can't believe that I had never heard of Vitra beforehand because it is awesome. The company designs home furniture (think IKEA but better) and collects famous designs like Eames, Mies, Gehry, etc. chairs. They cost thousands of dollars!! Needless to say, this company is ballin'. We visited the campus which consists of all Pritzker Prize winning architects except for a few. We saw Herzog and de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Nicholas Grimshaw, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Bucky Fuller, and a few others.
First structure we saw was Bucky Fuller's dome. There's currently nothing inside, but our tour guide was telling us about awesome events that are hosted there.

Next, we got to enter into Zaha Hadid's Fire Station which is a very strange, intriguing building. Not sure how I feel about her work, but when we were in the women's restroom, I felt like I was falling over because none of the walls were at 90 degree angles. Definitely different.

We also went into Tadao Ando's Conference Pavilion. I believe this was my first Ando building (it's hard to keep track these days) and it was very much Ando. I was a bit disappointed though because I was expecting more moments where light slips into little cracks and openings, but nonetheless, it's still a great structure.

Lastly, we toured the VitraHaus by Herzog and de Meuron, which serves as the welcome center, the gift shop, the cafe, as well as the "museum"/display area. It was very much like IKEA where you look and test out the furniture. I liked the interior of this building much more than all the other Herzog and de Meuron buildings, but the place is like an oven! There's a lot of southern exposure, and it doesn't help that the roofs are painted black and bounce all the heat back into the windows.

Sadly, our long weekend trip had to come to an end. It's been nonstop architecture and studio and all sorts of other annoyances like IDP and FAFSA and grad school decisions and scholarships when I'm back in Berlin. I need a break.