Weeks 9 & 10

For the past couple of weeks, I have not been able to access my blog due to some technical issues but I am now back on the Blogger world.  We have been very busy for the past couple weeks and have visited several different buildings and also a construction site!

Stanley Hallet, a former dean of CUArch, visited us for a week and he conducted a week-long photography exercise. For the project, we were given a site, our group's site was Piazza Farnese (next to Campo di Fiori), and we were to document, using photographs, the architecture, as well as, the experiences of the people that were within our site.  Once I find out the link to our presentation I will post it below.  At the end of the week with Stanley, we took a group trip to MAXXI Museum and had a group dinner with the Provost of Catholic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GFkcWqi5-Y

This past week, we visited the Jubilee Church designed by Richard Meier and the Calatrava Sports Complex which was located outside of the city center.  I have been anxiously waiting to visit Meier's church ever since it was presented to us in one of our past history classes and once I found out about the Sports Complex, I became even more excited that we were going to visit them on the same day.  The Calatrava Complex is two stadiums, one for swimming and the other for various sports, that are next to one another; they are then a part of a larger complex that are several buildings that will be used for the local university.  These stadiums may be hosting the 2020 Olympics if the Olympic Committee decides to place the games in Rome.


We will be taking our final group trip on Monday; we will be traveling to Southern Italy with Dave Shove-Brown, who will be visiting us for the week.  Also, we will all be attending a soccer game on Saturday. Can't wait!

Week 8

The day after we arrived home from Istanbul, I flew out the following day to Amsterdam for our week off.  The city is known for it's loose boundaries but the architecture was anything but; the city is composed of different styles of architecture meshed into a giant urban fabric.  The canals provide a spatial break between different areas of the city which help dilute the rowdiness of the Red Light district.  The Nemo Museum by Renzo Piano was one of the highlights of the trip.  We ventured on top of the roof of the museum and we were able to get a good view of the water and the city.  Also, I explored the Amsterdam school architecture style and the other notable architecture pieces that are present in the city.  We also took a day trip to Rotterdam which is composed of fairly new buildings since the city was bombed during WWII.  In Rotterdam, we were able to walk around the cubist house complex, each home is a cube rotated to a diamond form.

Week 7

This week, we traveled to Istanbul for a week and explored the mosques and the other important architecture that is present in the city.  I have never experienced a culture like Turkey's before; the food and people was nothing like I expected.  Spending a week in "New Rome" was a nice transition and connection to Rome.  The highlights from the week were our extensive visits to Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque - the two that were right outside of my hotel room window!  I am very fortunate that I was able to explore Istanbul and, thankfully, our professor was able to show us around with no problems.