Project 3

The semester's over! Here's my final project:

Program: Art School to be used as a center for a study abroad program

Special Tasks: Work with a partner, design 'figural urban space' before buildings, and design an awesome building within the residual building mass left over from the urban design portion of the project.

All in all, it was a good project.

Capri

Heaven on Earth? Thy name is Capri.

Trip 2: Basel

Basel seems to be the capital for Swiss Minimalist Architecture. Despite its minimalism in terms of architecture it is definitely a fun city, however, we only got an afternoon to explore. Its a shame, but even if we did get to stay for a night or two in Basel its just as expensive as Zurich. Still we saw some great architecture.

Project 2

Project 2 was an interesting one since it didn't have to do with designing a building, but rather designing 'figural urban space'. It was quite a task, but it was still a fun challenge.

Trip 2: Zurich

Zurich, the land of amazing chocolate happens to be extremely expensive. Still, we got to see some work by Calatrava which is always amazing and we also got to see the Rietberg Museum (the glass cube). The featured exhibition was on Japanese wood block prints, which was pretty neat to learn about. We also saw some early work by Le Corbusier, who was born in Switzerland and happens to be printed on the 20 s. frank bill.

Trip 2: Vals

Vals was an amazing place to experience. It's main attraction are the Thermal Baths which were recently (10 to 15 years ago) redesigned by Peter Zumthor. You can't take interior shots unfortunately, but we were fine with that since the surrounding area is gorgeous, being tucked away in the Swiss Alps and all.

Trip 2: Como

Lake Como was a beautiful town. The lake is also a lot bigger than I originally thought. Other than see some more cool architecture, my friends and I climbed up the mountain to the right of the iron cross in the photo. It was a great experience which offered priceless views of the lake.

Trip 2: Torino

Torino, in terms of urban design, is one of my favorite cities in Europe. We saw some cool architecture, but the Shroud of Turin and the presentation that this one scientist gave took the cake away from any of the buildings themselves. Still, there were plenty of beautiful buildings to see.

Trip 2: Milan

We saw some modern architecture in Milan, but there was also some great Medieval and Neo-Classical architecture.

1st Project - Urban Space Analysis

While it may not the prettiest work I have ever produced, it does illustrate that I learned a lot about how to analyze an urban space and how to understand the urban fabric of Rome.

7 Hills Walk

A tour of Rome's seven hills: Janiculum, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline.

History Class

Some pictures from our history class' trip to the Roman Fora. Enjoy!

Amici, Romani, Cives, date mihi aures!

Alright, alright, so I'm not Mark Anthony, but my class did visit the Roman Fora for three hours this past Monday so I felt like starting my academically centered blog with a little Latin (For those who didn't take Latin the quote is better known as "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!" from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar). On this blog readers will find pictures of the places my class visits in Rome, as well as scans of the work I will do over the course of the semester. So, please check back often since we have an intense semester ahead. Ciao a tutti!