Case of the Mondays.

Well as is usually the case after long weekends, Monday came far too soon. 8am Monday morning, never a happy time for a college student. The majority of the morning was spent viewing various housing projects in the former West Berlin from the post war period. Not saying these projects aren't significant but they definitely lacked some of the flare of the car museum from last week. Nonetheless, I present the housing projects.

The first complex we viewed was by far the most important. The Unite de Habitation (above) by Le Corbusier. The project is situated overlooking the 1936 Olympic Stadium and is still completely function today.

The next few projects were from a larger scheme to create various housing projects throughout West Berlin by many big name architects to show the progressiveness of the West. The complex above is the entry from Walter Gropius whom you may remember from the Bauhaus.

Above is the entry from Alvar Aalto, the famous Finnish architect.

The last significant entry we saw was that from Oscar Niemeyer (above), who is Brazil National Treasure and is still practicing today at the ripe age of 102. After lunch and a lecture regarding WWII and post WWII Germany, we went down the Kurfurstendam and visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche (below).

The Weekend (In short)

Well we got to have our first 3 day weekend and it was quite enjoyable after the long excursion. It was also very successful in the sense that I did everything I set out to do. But a little less successful in the amount I did. To summarize my weekend, I slept, ate, and slept some more. Friday I went to the KaDeWe which is a giant department store that sells anything and everything. I managed to avoid most of my impulses to swipe the Visa except for a sketchbook and some pencils that were too good to pass up. Saturday I went to an American Restaurant entitled Route 66 with some students and teachers and enjoyed most of the US soccer game (R.I.P.). And Sunday we went to an architecture gallery then a flea market before I cooked myself a good ole buttery grilled cheese for dinner. But let me get to the excitement of the weekend. Saturday I hand to give in to my addiction and traveled halfway across the city to satisfy my fix. That fix, cupcakes.

I luckily found a highly renowned cupcakery through the sight spottedbylocals.com and quickly plotted my route. Some walking and two U Bahn stops later I was standing outside Cupcake Berlin (above). I must say I usually prefer catchy, trendy names to restaurants, bakeries, etc... but in a city where most words are between 8 and 10 syllables, this was quite comforting. The place was run by a man that more closely resembled an American biker than a cupcake chef. His arms were covered in tattoos. His head was bald with an intimidating goatee. Yet the walls were pink and he was asking which cupcake(s) I would like. Weird experience...

After some strenuous efforts, I settled for the Cookies and Cream (left) and The King (right). And I must say these were well worth the trek. I'm saying these were so good I felt a little wrong eating them. It was one of those things that I just wanted to last forever. But like all good things it was over before I knew what happened and I was left with a big chocolaty mess all over my kitchen table and nothing more to show for it. Needless to say, I'll be paying this biker gentleman another visit in the coming week.

Back in Berlin

After a long excursion, it felt good to be back in Berlin a kick our feet back. After sleeping in a bit, I got up and got my routine Dunkin Doughnuts and met up with the group around lunch time to visit the Topographies of Terror and the Jewish Museum.

The Topographies of Terror (above) is the site where the Gestapo Headquarters were located as well as many prisoners were kept prior to the concentration camps. The site is now barren and covered with gravel to prevent the site from simply becoming another park. Also on the sight is a museum commemorating the activities that occurred. It is really quite frightening to imaging to sorts of heinous acts that went on with these grounds.

Next, is the Jewish Museum (above) by the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. Some may be familiar Libeskind through the World Trade Center Competition, the Denver Art Museum or simply the fact that Mr. Caldwell used to work for him. The Museum is based conceptually on the timeline of Jewish history with the scar of the Holocaust creating a scar within. Unlike most projects we have seen within Berlin, the Jewish Museum has no relation to the context around it as its strives to make a statement. It was really interesting to get a tour from someone with some architectural relation to the project rather than an employee who simply memorized facts because it allowed one to really understand what went down to make this project a realization.

Inside the museum, one's eye follows many intersecting lines as nothing seems to be parallel, similar to the nature of the Fire Station at Vitra. Wall treatments inside the museum were also quite important as they were stripped to bare concrete where the scar of the Holocaust intersected the meandering plan.

Possible the most powerful part of the museum was installation called Shalechet (Fallen Leaves,above) within one of the voids. Though the visuals of the crying faces seem disturbing, the true eeriness came from the clanking noises echoing through the shaft as guest walked across the field. The video below does a fair job in showing this, however, one can't truly experience the feeling unless they are actually their. The clanking is both reminiscent of the clanking of a train hauling victims off to concentration camps and more simply the cries of all those murdered.

Porsche, Mercedes and Zaha Hadid.

So the excursion is winding and down and we are getting closer and closer to Berlin. However, we had to make sure the trip ended with a bang. So I give you Stuttgart, home of Porsche and Mercedes.

As one can tell from the pictures, the Porsche Museum (above) was nothing short of incredible. The building, the cars... all just mouthwatering. So before I get entranced by the cars again, I'll give a quick rant on the building. So wipe the drool from your mouth and get ready. Situated across from the factory and dealership, the Porsche Museum was designed by architects Delugan Meissl. The museum is situated on five structural pillars that lift the entire museum off the ground creating an inhabitable "underbelly." The exhibit was quite clear and impressive as everything was arranged chronologically along outside wall. Possibly the coolest part of the exhibit to me was a display made of Corian with embedded LEDs that wrapped up from the floor (above).

If the Porsche Museum did not get your pulse racing, hopefully this one will. The Mercedes Museum was designed by the firm Unstudio and features a double helical layout in which one has two possible experiences within the museum. The exhibit, however, seemed a little scatter brained for my tasted as I prefer the simpler layout from the Porsche Museum. The museum though was still sweet as the concrete twisted around every project Mercedes ever embarked.

Above is the Weissenhof Museum by Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier is one of the fathers of modern architecture so this was a pretty big deal. It was Corbusier's goal to create a modern housing community in Europe, participating with other greats Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, however he was far ahead of his time.

The last day of the excursion was mainly spent driving (10 hours to be exact), however, we did stop in Wolfsburg for the afternoon. Wolfsburg was created created by the Nazis and meant to be ideal industrial city where inhabitants spent 8 hours of their day working, 8 enjoying themselves and 8 sleeping. The entire town was laid out based on this idea as it was divided with the industry on one side of the tracks and the rest on the other. Nowadays, Wolfsburg is a major commerce center as Volkswagen is based here as well as many factory stores, etc... Our main concern here was the Phaeno Science Center (above) by Zaha Hadid. The Phaeno Center is made entirely of self compressive concrete with no expansion joints to speak of. The idea sounds intriguing, but the execution was not. Due to zero tolerance for error, the concrete work was a really patchy and took away from the form. The inside, on the other hand, was a completely different experience. Though the architecture was nice, the main focus was the "toys." It seemed that the second we walked in, the class' maturity level dropped by about 10 years as we couldn't resist pressing button we saw. So needless to say the tour was the least of our concerns... The tour continued past the Phaeno to a library and church by Alvar Aalto but after a science center, a library seemed like a little of a downer.

1 Day, 7 Pritzker Prize Winners and a Castle... Enough Said

After bidding our fair wells to Munich, we boarded the bus and headed to Vitra Campus, Disney World for Architects. Along the way we made a slight pit stop in Austria to see the Kunsthaus by 2009's Pritzker Winner Peter Zumthor. So needless to say that some of the students and a certain teacher wearing a certain color were quite giddy to see the project.

Once everyone composed themselves and boarded the bus again, we headed again towards Vitra but not before stopping in Switzerland at the most expensive truckstop/mall ever. But that was but a minor speed bump. What is really important is VITRA. Composed of a campus of buildings 6 of which by Pritzker Winners, Vitra is truly an architectural candy store. One of the more famous buildings on the campus is Frank Gehry's Vitra Museum (above) which was the first "fetishistic" building on the campus.

Next door is Tadao Ando's Conference Building (above) which was built as a reaction to Gehry's Museum. Rather than trying to compete with Gehry, Ando decided to go with a minimal approach incorporating the building into the field of cherry trees. Just as an interesting side note about the architect, Ando actually began his career as a professional boxer. Talk about an interesting career path.

Next we have a small Buckminster Fuller Dome (above). I was frankly unable to divulge why they have a Buck Dome other than to simply say they have one... But its their money not mine so they can do what they want.

Next door to the Buck Dome was a sweet little retro Petrol Station (above) by Jean Prouve which was actually completely prefabricated and moved to the site.

Other notables on the campus include a bridge/overhang by Alvaro Siza (Pritzker,1992), a factory building by SANAA (Pritzker, 2010), and a Fire Station (above) by Zaha Hadid (Pritzker, 2004). You may remember the BMW Plant by Zaha from a few days ago and this stands as a stark contrast as this is from much earlier in her career.

And lastly for the campus was the reason I was excited to come, the newly completed VitraHaus (above) by Herzog & deMeuron (Pritzker, 2001). Some of you may be familiar with this firm as they were the one who designed the Bird's Nest for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This building was really incredible with views to 3 countries (Germany, Switzerland and France) and tons of Vitra Furniture that I could never afford. A true paradise...

But thats enough architecture. Let me get to the reason most of you are probably reading. The Castle (above and below). Needless to say this thing was waaaaaay up there. If you hate heights then this was not the place for you. The castle was built for the former royal family of Germany and still remains in the family to this day. The Prince, however, would apparently rather stay in his loft in Berlin than here for some reason. I mean seriously if I had a castle I would never leave. But enough ranting. Until next post.

Munich: Home of the 1 Liter Beer

Enter Munich, Germany where beer is not a drink but a lifestyle and pacing oneself is not an option.

We decide to spend our evening in authentic Hofbrauhaus, a cathedral to beer. This beer hall was everything you can imagine: songs filling the air, German cuisine, and BIG beers. Needless to say I went up against Munich and lost... Therefore the following morning and early afternoon were spent in grief and misery.

Early the next morning we visited the Dakau Concentration Camp which, despite my suffering, was a powerful experience. Above is the main building of the camp where prisoners were first brought and gathered every morning and evening.

Above is a reconstruction of a typical inmate barracks where up to 400 people would sleep in a room designed for 50.

Although Dakau was one of the few concentration camps that did not heavily use the gas chamber, they still had on in use (above). Passing through this room was quite unnerving as the air was heavy and the walls seem to be closing in. After a morning this saddening, it was nice to go see some sweet architecture to lighten the mood.

BMW Welt (above) is one of the more famous building of the past 5 or 10 years. It was designed by the firm Coop Himmelblau which happen to be one of my favorites so I was like a kid in a candy store. The use of tectonic elements combined with fluid forms created an incredibly kinetic environment and is definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We were also lucky to see the 1972 Munich Olympic Complex (above) across the street from BMW Welt which is composed of a series of tensile membranes stretched across stadium, tracks, etc...

Nuremburg

After leaving Leipzig and its pleasant, East Germany charm, we headed for Nuremburg. Nuremburg is the former home of the famous Nazi Rallies, and if WWII had gone the other way would have been the permanent location of the Olympics accordingly to Hitler's plans.

Above is the documentation center and museum for the rallying grounds. Very wonderful building by the Austrian architect Günther Domenig which acts as shard piercing through the incomplete gathering hall.

We were privileged to have a great tour guide take us through the grounds and share the area's unique and disturbing history. Above you can see our guide standing in front of the incomplete hall.

Above is the stadium on the site with a picture during the Nazi Regime and picture of it presently. The grounds have largely been transformed into a recreational area and the stadium is still used for concerts, races, etc... The altar above is that which Hitler would have stood on to address the masses and for some reason tourist are fascinated posing there as Hitler had. All in all, the tour and museum were really quite educational as our guide and Dr. Etheridge shined new light on the Nazi Propaganda.

Once leaving Nuremburg, we embarked on our journeys to the city on Munich, home of the one liter beer.

Let the Excursion Begin

We began the day getting up bright and early, packing our things and boarding the bus to Dessau to see the legendary Bauhaus School of Design, which is widely considered the first contemporary school of design.

The Bauhaus School (above) was started by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Weimar before moving to the location above in 1925. The school was very unique in its approach to educating designers as it stressed minimalism, manufacturing, and craft rather that classicism and extravagances. Its goal was not to educate "starchitects," however, but competent designers and craftspeople that were able to interact with one another. Though the school only lasted 13 years, its ideas spread around the world and are still felt today.

Now that we visited something old, it was time to balance our day by visiting something new. The BMW Plant (above) was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid. The building design is originated is drawing connections between programmatic elements. Throughout the central building one can see various aspects of the program at once as there are conveyer belts carrying car bodies over office cubicles and dining spaces. The buildings overall presence seemed a little static which may be due to the architecture or the fact that Germany was playing in the World Cup during our tour. Either way, the true fascination of the tour came from the assembly line which we weren't able to photograph. So instead, I just provided you with a video showing the main entrance of the Plant as well as some classmates and professors who unknowingly knew I was catching them on surveillance.