Best Days

So much has happened in the past couple of days! Unfortunately it's hard for me to update my blog or Facebook photo albums from my apartment. Speaking of which, I've been so caught up in talking about architecture that I completely forgot to talk about living in Berlin itself! Bear with me as I give you a quick rundown. We have internet in studio but not in the apartments, so a bunch of us bought these internet USB sticks and pay for the use of a SIM card (think cellphones) but the limit per month is 5GB, so rather than using up all of the data by uploading a million pictures, I wait until I get to studio to do that.
Shopping for food has been an experience. It's difficult to find a lot of things, but it's also because I don't know where to look. Eggs and some cheese aren't refrigerated which was a total shock for me. Grocery stores also don't give free bags; you have to buy them. Beer here is ridiculously cheap. Half a liter of beer is as cheap as 0.65€ ($0.91) and can be as "expensive" as 1.80€ which means that I have been drinking quite a few beers throughout the week... But I doubt I will get a beer belly because I've been walking around so much! Berlin is completely walkable, but their public transportation is a fantastic alternative. They have the U-Bahn (underground subway), S-Bahn (above ground), trains, and buses. It is the best public transportation I have ever experienced; the stations tell you when the next train is arriving, they're super clean, easy to figure out, and they run pretty much 24/7.
Dogs are everywhere here, probably more than I saw in LA. The best part is that they're unleashed. They're so well behaved that they just walk on the sidewalks with pedestrians.
Berlin is proactive about recycling, and it is awesome. A lot of places have separate cans for garbage, paper, plastic, and glass. Also, if you recycle your plastic and glass bottles, you get a lot of money back. One plastic bottle got me 0.25€.
Stores close fairly early here and some aren't even open on Sundays. It's so different because in America, stores try to stay open as late as they can to get more customers.
Letters and pronunciations are very interesting here. In Germany, they pronounce every letter and the emphasis is almost always on the first syllable. It also took me a few days to realize that "ß" is equivalent to writing "ss."
That's all the observations I can remember right now. On to my explorations!


Thursday was a half day so after my German language class, I went over to the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind. I was fortunate enough to experience his Contemporary Jewish Museum when I was in San Fran, so I was able to compare the two. When I was reading his book Breaking Ground, Daniel actually talked a lot about fighting to get the Jewish Museum built in Berlin, and after being able to see and experience it in person, I am much more impressed with his work. From the outside, you can't really understand the form of the museum, but in an aerial view, it almost looks like a lightning bolt (there's actually an explanation for the form but I can't remember it right now). Admission was only 2.50€ with my student ID. The museum starts off by going down to the lower level where there are three axes. The first is the Axis of the Holocaust which leads to the Holocaust Tower, a 24m tower that is only lit by natural light. When I was there, it was about sunset, so the tower was almost pitch black and you could hear every little sound reverberate around you but you couldn't see a thing. Very scary feeling but definitely serves its purpose.
The second axis is the Axis of Exile that leads to the Garden of Exile, an exterior "garden" comprised of 49 concrete squares extruded at different angles as the floor plane shifts (very similar to Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial). As you walk around, the varying angles start to make you dizzy and disoriented, just as Daniel intended.
The last axis is the Axis of Continuity, which the other two axes branch off of. It's pretty much just a hallway lined with Berlin history that leads to the staircase up to the permanent exhibitions.

The ground floor (which is referred to as first floor in America... it gets confusing) is where the Memory Void is. Currently the installation Shalekhet by Menashe Kadishman is in the void. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of steel faces just laid out on the ground. When I first entered, I was the only one there, so I just photographed the installation. The next thing I knew, a girl was walking across. I didn't know that was allowed, so then I started to walk across. It's a very strange feeling to be walking on all these unknown faces that represent Holocaust victims. With every footstep, you hear the clanking of steel reverberate in the void. I was actually uncomfortable.
Level 1 and 2 were the permanent exhibits. Lots of interesting facts, history, stories, etc. I was very glad that I got to experience the museum. Here's another quote from Breaking Ground:


"There's a magic to a great building. Maybe it has to do with the way light falls on it; maybe it has to do with the acoustics, the sound of footsteps in its hallways. Some buildings take a long time to get to know, but still they make you want to make the effort."

 After the museum, I walked over to the Tempodrom designed by gmp. It's an event venue, and I was hoping it would be open when I went, but sadly it was closed. It was still interesting to look at from the exterior.

On my way back to the U-Bahn, I came across the Museum of Technology, so I walked over and took a few pictures. It was aesthetically pleasing with its glass, steel, and blue lights. There's also a spiral staircase that is enclosed by glass blocks.


Friday was our field trip to Dessau to visit two buildings. The first was the Bauhaus, the birthplace of modern architecture, designed by Walter Gropius! We were given a tour by one of the guides, and she proceeded to show us spaces and explain the ideas behind the designs. For some reason, after hearing about the Bauhaus year after year, I was expecting so much more from the school. Don't get me wrong; I love the Bauhaus and what it represented and did for architecture, but I wanted it to blow me away. I do admit that it's amazing that it looks like it could have been built a few years ago, even though it was built in the late 1910s. 

Our second stop for the day was Umweltbundesamt (UBA), the Federal Environmental Agency, designed by Sauerbruch Hutton. This building was amazing. Fantastic interior atrium, super environmentally friendly, beautiful use of wood, and a nice use of color. I loved it.

Saturday was a gorgeous and very cold day. I decided to explore the Tiergarten, but I started off at Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point along the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin. Today it's just a tourist attraction, fully equipped with a guy dressed in uniform. 

Around the corner I could spy a pink/red building which I recognized as the GSW building, also designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, so I had to walk over and check it out. It was actually an extension to one of the old office towers. It was an interesting design, but it felt very disconnected. It was like volumes were just places on top of/next to each other.

Across the street from the GSW complex was a building that I do not know but thought was interesting. When I find out the name/architect, I'll update this post... But it was two intersecting volumes with different materials.

Next stop: Staatsbibliothek by Hans Scharoun. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to get into the library stacks without a card or the supervision of a guide, so I have to return at some point. The library itself is directly across from Scharoun's Philharmonie (where I will be attending a concert tomorrow night!) and Sharoun used similar materials for both buildings, creating a nice connection. 

And because I was walking by Mie's gallery, I had to photograph it on a sunny day. 

I walked along the river, passing a handful of nice architecture, until I reached the Shell-Haus by Emil Fahrenkamp. This was very much an early modern work of architecture. The corners are all curved (and there are a lot of them) and they create this wave of ins and outs along one of the street-sides. 

I walked towards the Tiergarten and arrived at my next stop, the Nordische Botschaften (Nordic Embassies) by Alfred Berger and Tiina Parkkinen. A very surprising building to see in person. At first, I thought the "green" panels were glass but they I believe they were actually copper. On the other side there is a great wood facade and a courtyard area (unfortunately it was closed)

 

 

I proceeded towards the Tiergarten and checked out the Siegessäule (a Victory column) monument in the center of the garden. On top is the goddess of Victory, who is also on top of the Brandenburg Gate.

I walked around the Tiergarten as I waited for sunset to go to the top of the Siegessäule. I headed over to the Schloss Bellevue, which was/is the palace where the president of Berlin resided. The place is massive and exactly what you would expect for a president. Even the grass was green! I tried looking for the Akademie der Kunst (not the one by Behnisch) but I got lost in the woods, and I was freezing in the cold, so I gave up and headed back to the Siegessäule. Unfortunately, I learned that it was closed! I was so so sad because the sunset would have been amazing from that point.

I walked along Strasse des 17 Juni and stopped by the Soviet War Memorial as I made my way towards the Brandenburg Gate and Pariser Platz. I took a potty break at the Behnisch building and warmed up a bit (I was outdoors the entire day). Since the sky was finally blue, I had to do another panoramic of the plaza (and without a person in a chicken suit, although she was there again).

After that, I walked over to the Reichstag to watch the sun set. Like the Siegessäule, the dome is currently closed for visits. Seems like everything here in Berlin is closed for some reason. So I hung around the area and photographed everything, including the Paul-Lobe-Haus and the Bundeskanzleramt (office of the federal chancellor). All the buildings in the area are wonderful works of architecture. I particularly liked the Kongresshalle. It was a nice form and I loved the concrete structure. There was something for the Berlinale going on there--probably a screening or something--so I didn't go in.

Finally, I headed back to the Brandenburg Gate to get a night time shot, and I'm very glad I did. It's beautiful when it's lit up by lights with the blue night sky behind it. I made my way to the nearest U-Bahn stop to defrost and some one point I ended up in Hauptbahnhof station, designed by Alfred Lent, Bertold Scholz, and Gottlieb Henri Lapierre. The photograph I took was very underexposed (I was carrying two unopened beers) so I played around with it in Photoshop a bit. I rarely Photoshop my pictures unless they're panoramics.

Yesterday I took it easy and watched two movies that were in the Berlinale (the international film festival here in Berlin). Sadly, I woke up early at 8:30am so I could get tickets with Erblin, but looking back, I probably still would have gotten tickets if I went to buy them later in the day. Better safe than sorry though.

The first film I watched was We Were Here which is a documentary about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco during the 80s. It was a powerful, touching, sad film. I highly recommend it. After the screening, the director David Weissman, his editor (I think his name was Bill?) and Ed, one of the guys interviewed, came up and did a Q&A session. I also got the chance to meet Ed and talk to him briefly. Such a sweet guy.
I went back to studio briefly to pick up my stuff, but on the way back, I stopped by Potsdamer Platz to pick up a Berlinale bag. I was excited, and it was only 15€!
The second movie I saw was Anistia (Amnesty). It was an Albanian film (Erblin convinced me to go) about something or other and it was really boring. Really disappointing. Again, the director and actors were invited to come up afterwards, but it was midnight at that point so we left.


Ahhh! Longest post ever! Until next time! Tschüss!

The Other Side

On Tuesdays, we don't have classes, so obviously I was out and about discovering Berlin yesterday. It was the first sunny day since we've been in Europe and I definitely took advantage of it. Sarah, Jeri, Erblin, Kemal, and I decided to head west to the Charlottenburg district of Berlin to check out the Olympic Stadium. It was constructed for the 1936 Olympic games, where Hitler famously walked out as Jesse Owens won four gold medals. In 2004, the stadium was renovated to what it looks like today. Let me tell you; it was pretty amazing to walk into this enormous (and empty) stadium. The tectonics of the roof structure was also incredible. We spent about an hour or two just walking around the stands, around the stadium's exterior, and around the top. We froze our ears and hands in the cold (but sunny) weather. Completely worth 3 Euros to enter. Sadly, the bell tower was closed for winter so we couldn't get a bird's eye view of the stadium.

Nearby were the Unite d'Habitation apartments by Le Corbusier. Every architecture student should know these apartments since they've been drilled into our minds since freshmen year. I've attached an image that we know so well.  These are the interlocking L-shaped apartments that are two stories.  We entered the apartment building, checked out the lobby, took the elevator to the top floor and explored the stairwell, but sadly, we didn't get to experience an actual apartment. I can't judge the building until I see the interior! But from the look of the hallways, it felt very cramped; Kemal was too tall for the doors (he's about 6'4").

When we finished with the apartments, the rest of the group decided to go to studio, so I ended up flying solo to Schlossgarten. I walked by the Schloss Charlottenburg (apparently a museum?) which is a huuuuuge palace that was built for Sophie Charlotte, wife of King Friedrich I of Prussia.

Behind the palace is an enormous park with fantastic landscaping that was similar to Andre Le Notre's work. I tried going to the Neue Pavillon by Karl Schinkel, but it was closed for restoration. I walked as far as the carp pond, which was filled with all species of ducks, and then walked back to the U-Bahn along Schlosstrasse.

My last stop of the day was the Ludwig Erhard Haus by Nicholas Grimshaw, which I believe is a stock exchange building. It's a pretty impressive building with its arched form and steel and glass construction. I only walked through the lobby, but I could peek an atrium through a side exterior window.

Today I had the opportunity to visit Norman Foster's Philological Library on the Freie Universitat campus. It was an addition placed in the middle of one of the existing courtyards. It's an interesting exterior, but I loved the interior much more. Sadly, the librarians wouldn't let me enter with my camera (they were mean librarians) but luckily Jeri had a pocket-sized camera, so I snapped a couple shots with that. On the inside, the floor slabs are shaped symmetrically with its edges forming waves. As you go up the floors, the slabs are offset a few feet so there's a tiered effect. Very cool library; I would actually study here.

That's all for now. Until next time...

These Streets

Yesterday was a gloomy day in Berlin. The weather was windy, the clouds were gray, and the sky was constantly spitting rain. Regardless, I seized the day with Erblin and Kemal and went around Mitte, specifically Unter den Linden, which translates to "under the linden trees." The whole boulevard is lined with linden trees as it leads you to Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate.

Our first destination was... wait for it... a Behnisch building! Designed by the Stuttgart office, the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) is a fantastic addition to Pariser Platz, which is surrounded by mostly embassies. The exterior wasn't too significant, but I feel like that has more to do with the neighboring buildings than anything because all the facades are flush. However, once you enter, you know you're in a Behnisch building. To the left, there's a grand staircase that invites you to walk up to the second level (look at the handrail too!) and to the right is the gift shop/book store and mirror walls that we're so fond of. As you walk past the ceiling, the space just soars. We tried to get as high as we could, but eventually we reached a sign that said "No Entrance," but you know how architecture students like to explore... but as soon as we walked past the roped area, a woman ran out of nowhere and started yelling in German. After seeing confused looks on our faces, she yelled in English. Too bad I don't have a Behnisch badge or something that I could flash and get admittance to the rest of the building. So we walked back down, and on top of the glass roof, there were the words "OFF LIMITS FOR GOOGLE." I found that amusing. We exited through the other entrance because I wanted to see what it looked like (and it was very much a Behnisch color scheme), and to our surprise, we stumbled upon Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial.


We walked around and got lost in the memorial for a while. It's pretty much rows and rows of rectangular blocks extruded upwards at different elevations, and as you walk through, the ground raises or lowers and you get engulfed by these structures. It would be a great place to play tag if it weren't a Holocaust memorial. I would love to go back on a sunny day or at night just to see what it looks and feels like at those times. 

We walked back through the Behnisch building and finished exploring the rest of the space. We tried to go next door to the Frank Gehry building, but when Erblin opened the door, some angry German man came screaming at us, saying "geschlossen" which means "closed," so that didn't happen. I managed to sneak a shot of the interior through the glass doors though.

We spent the rest of our time just wandering around Pariser Platz and photographing the area.  After getting tired of the rain, we called it a day and headed to studio. More exploring tomorrow since we don't have classes! And I actually saw the sun today!

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!