Hampstead Heath

Really beautiful wild place just outside central London. Went to find fences to photograph for studio, but spent the afternoon wandering over hills in the sunshine. Had a bit of fun with the telephoto lens.

Thursday and another long week

I've lost all sense of time and reality. What day is it? What time is it?
It's already Thursday and that means that I have spent every day for the last 2 weeks working continuously on studio (and at times my HTS paper). 12 hours a day in studio is devastating, even if you were going to be working that long anyways.

Around finals time, strange feelings of disconnect from reality set in. It is freeing, because suddenly you are both deep inside and far outside yourself with a detached, but incredibly lucid, vision of what is happening around you. Money, time, food, sleep.. all the things we find necessary for daily life lessen in importance. What matters is: (1) the next item on the To Do list; (2) how much caffeine you need at that moment.
Actions that pass are in sharp focus, but immediately blur into hindsight, forgotten details of "the past" that jump days and hours. A conversation from 3 hours ago is as distant as lunch 3 days ago.
In moments of sleep-deprived delusion mingled with the giddiness induced by paint fumes and redbull, architecture students find themselves legitimately contemplating all of the things normally condemned: Smoking, drinking, meds that make you focus, that very dodgy looking sandwich that has been sitting out all day...

While other students study a night or two in preparation for exams, we give our bodies, minds, and souls to our work for 2, 3, 4 weeks. Dulled eyesight, lost fingertips, nerve-damaged wrists and arms; is it worth it? And why do we do it?

Because it's fun.



----
Edit on things that actually have happened:
-Currently listening to The Count of Monte Cristo and decided that if / when I have children, they will be snobs and only read classics.
-Got kicked out of the basement room where Mike and I study by a group of mean girls that wanted to watch a movie
-Worked late on drawings and whitebook for morning crit
-Worked furiously on new drawings and did paint tests; realized spray paint is not that easy to work with. Accidentally painted large spot of gold on AA roof.
-Had crit with Monia where she kindly shot down the drawing I'd been working on.
-Went to the longest (and worst) lecture I've ever been to by Venturi + Scott Brown... 3 hours of mumbled tangents on her entire life history, loosely organized in chronological order.
-Had dinner and a pint at the pub
-Checked facebook incessantly for about an hour

love for language

I love the way people write letters; sometimes awkward, sometimes incredibly honest and direct. Written words break a barrier that spoken language rarely does- they are a much fairer representation of our thoughts and personality.

I love receiving handwritten letters, pinning them up on my board and rereading when I feel lonely or lost. Even the most mundane details of another person's life feel special, because they wrote them, and you read them in real time and can feel just a little closer or that you know them slightly better.
Written words are far easier to critique; we pass judgment so quickly on what is 'good' or 'bad' (most often bad) but yet the faults are the same as the person. You can try to put on airs, like with words, but they are far easier to see through in written language. The evidence is tangible.

Lattice Development

To get a brief glimpse of the lattice I'm working on, see below or my picasa album.
The lattice is my architectural tool; it creates small pockets of densely vegetated park space that determines, divides, and connects building zones.

Better images soon.

This Week's Work 11

A few quick modle work-in-progress shots before I head out to the British Library to work on my HTS paper (due Monday... ACK!)


Wondering why my pieces were bursting into flames while cutting


Temporary workspace. Green cutouts (from several more sheets of the same) stack perfectly onto the little hills and valleys of my CNC model (right)


Working very very hard


===
EDIT:
I'd forgotten how painful writing essays can be. I'm struggling to draft an essay on architecture as a symbol of morality, both a historic precedent study of Russian constructivists and its parallels to contemporary society. Basically I'd like the paper to be about how architecture both instigates and absorbs ethical biases.

I can only please one person per day

Today is not your day.
Tomorrow doesn't look good either.




I am finally starting to feel like this... Hooray studio finals!
And I wondered why it is impossible to find famous architects who are also good people?

stress and nice don't go together.

I've not been keeping up

Day 2 of sunless-no-fun-days in studio, and it really hasn't been so bad. Tiring, yes, but we have a nice big room for the week, and I have a table to myself by the window.

Productivity for everyone is high; models are getting cranked out everywhere, people hardly look up from their computers, and Monia flits about helping with projects or giggling as she updates the VSP website.
It's all been pretty good fun, except when Elora nearly cut her thumb off and had to go to the hospital this evening.

I'm really, really sick of doing Curve Boolean. I close my eyes and see the multi-colored lines of my silly lattice getting filled in with yellow or black blocks of color.
This is what I've been doing for the last... 12 hours.
I have a bit more to go before I can laser cut tomorrow, but Mike and I had dinner at the corner pub and my productivity and energy dropped post-pint.

On top of trying to get through the impossibly long TO-DO list I've set out (read: been assigned) for studio, I'm also still trying to set up courses for next semester and finish my paper for history.
However, by the time I make it home and have time to do something other than Rhino, I'm too ready for a break to get much done.

Despite this, I have had a pleasant few days previous:
I went to Borough Market with Mike (had an ostrich sandwich and clotted cream icecream),
had coffee with Iain (got tips on where to stay near Glascow),
went shopping (bought a new UrbanOutfitters sweater for 8 pounds from OxFam),
went jogging (still sore),
finished a few books (Bridget Jones, Perelandra),
and enjoyed an almond croissant from the farmer's market.

you will never again see the light of day!

Newest email from Monia:

I hope you are enjoying this lovely Sunday because you will see the sun only from the window for the next days.


awesome.

calm before the storm

Had tutorial with Monia this morning at Starbucks. She liked what I had done, which was not much.
I have done a lot of more fun things today, instead.
In preparation for the Un-Fun that is to come, I went shopping! I purchased a bright purple top that says "DEADLINE IS OVER if you want it" which I do not plan on removing for the next 3 weeks, a soft black hoodie, and a bright green sweater. I also FINALLY purchased black tights, so I can be part of the IN crowd in London.
The easiest way to stand out as a "foreigner" is by not wearing black leggings every day.

I finished reading Peralandra by CS Lewis, a book Blake sent me a few weeks ago- mostly good, though a bit wordy, especially at the end.

I am now eating spinach from a bag and 2 day old pizza. Mmmm... life.

Paris, city of...

-couples rolling around on each other everywhere
-113 pictures of Justine hating me
-expensive everything [except bread and wine]
-hills, hills, hills
-broken cobbles
-American tourists
-picturesque views
-impossibly thin thighs
-black
-life-changing pan au chocolat



The trip in 5 pictures: [the other 102 can be seen here]


Sweet things


Sandwiches at lunchtime in the sun



Silly pictures and historic places



Beautiful parks and scenic overlooks



French lessons and church visits



I am very glad to be home, and it's nice that London actually feels like home. Paris was wonderful, and beautiful, and warm... but I missed the comfort of familiarity London has for me now, it's 'cheap' food, and it's relative flat-ness. I am so tired of walking.
I think that over the last two weeks I've walked at least 15 miles a day.
Haha, who knows, really... but I wouldn't be surprised. Being a tourist in two cities based on the pedestrian is a workout.
Don't get me wrong, I love being in a place that does not require a car or any sort of vehicular transportation, but it gets old sometimes too. I think bikes are wonderful inventions.

It's finally time to ease back into the real world; I have tutorial on Friday morning, I get a new roommate on April 19th, and I really can't afford to ignore my history/theory paper for any longer.

Independent study

I am considering putting together an independent study for next term in conjunction with Mike (and hopefully a few other VSPers). In reality, I'm ripping off his already-completed and brilliant idea for a class.

There is a strange and disturbing fascination with distopias in conceptual architecture at the moment; a glorification of the "coming apocalypse;" the imagined world post-petroleum, post-financial crisis, post-global warming.

This project sums up a number of the issues nicely.

The view is negative, and the fear level rising, evidenced in the growing number of "ironic" or "clever" projects. No one is certain what will happen, and either craft scenarios about a difficult and distopic future [a la Bartlet unit 15] or hide behind jokes.

So the class would :
-research manifestos from groups like the futurists or constructivists, and their connection to media and form of writing
-research / choose a narrative to direct focus: i.e. an economist's projections for the next 20 years, film like The Day After Tomorrow, etc... and create a fictional society based on the future they project
-write manifesto for this society
-using imagery and propaganda through all forms of media (publications, writing, film, radio, architecture) design and sell the new society

The idea is to incorporate a diverse range of media (I want to play with film! and publications!), focus on a semi-realistic future that is more positive than negative, and potentially suggest meaning or direction for new tech advances.

=)

Trip Highlights

The 9 days in Russia were dense, hectic, and really wild. We walked for -ages- every day, spent more time in the metro than anywhere else, and saw more ornate ceilings than anyone should ever have to. It was strange, and beautiful, and scary, and incredibly fun.

The location of our hotel in Moscow, which lay a fair bit outside of the city center, became a major source of adventure: transportation to and from the hotel sparked some of the more memorable moments.


Most stressful moment

Running to catch our plane through the metro, bags in tow, not knowing where to go, which bus to take, or if we had actually come to the right airport. We made it though, luckily, and were very glad to be back in London.


Funniest moment



I wasn't there, but I heard about it: first day in St. Peteresburg, a peddler comes up a small group trying to sell hats (and more)... his selling line went a little like this:
"Hats! Hats! *hushed* cocaine? hash? *loud* HATS!"


What took us by surprise

No one in Moscow spoke English, at all. This made doing -anything- incredibly difficult. Russian is by no means an easy language to learn, but I picked up the most fundamental basics:
thank you - "spa-see-bah"
please / you're welcome - "pah-zhal-sta"
five - "pee-yet"
excuse me - "eez-veen-it-ye"
Apparently, they don't understand pointing either, because even by just pointing to the menu for what you want, they misinterpret. I realized how crucial common ground in culture OR language is necessary for pantomimes to work.


Something expected

There was little I expected in terms of Russia, but I was not disappointed with the AA-people side of it. It was such a good experience getting to know people better.


Best tourist attraction



The Armory at the Kremlin- no cameras allowed, but it had the crown jewels, ancient gowns, and collection of royal carriages from hundreds of years past. The carriages, each hand carved in gilded wood, were absolutely stunning. The case of original Faberge pieces (eggs, ladles, random toys) put all other jeweled pieces to shame. I have never seen anything glitter as brightly as that. Even the tiniest diamond dust on the smallest toy was an explosion of refracted light.


Worst tourist attraction



The space museum in St. Petersburg, north of the river. We were so bored by then that I started taking funny pictures, putting my fur on statues, etc. The whole complex, church and "palace" included, was awful.


Coolest person we met



[This is a picture of Elena, not Gulsah's friend, at the restaurant]
Gulsah's friend from London (who is originally from Moscow, but is also half German) was visiting the city while we were there an joined up with us for a few days. Her guidance was so helpful; she knew enough about the city's history to give a great guided tour, took Gulsah, Yasmina, Elena, and I to a nice restaurant/bar, and even yelled at the waitresses for us at a coffee shop when they kept messing up our orders!


Best place we ate

On our last day, we crammed into a small cafe and dined for 4 hours over the best food we had all trip. The service was very good, and though it was a little pricier than what we had been paying, it was so worth it. Giant windows faced a quiet street and framed the semi-circle church. I had red pepper bisque, smoked salmon penne, a glass of white wine, and a little Russian-style hot chocolate (basically, a small cup of melted chocolate that you eat with a spoon). So good!


Worst place we ate



After about 8 hours of walking in a cold rain and not having eaten in just as long, we wandered into a small basement cafe for a very late lunch thinking that the service would be quick because there were very few people in it. We waited, and waited, and waited. It took over an hour for the single waitress to bring out drinks. It took nearly 3 hours for everyone to have their food. Half of the tables had to re-order because it took her an hour to realize they were out of chicken.


Best bar

Mike, Shawn, and I stayed out one night in Moscow with a few of the Russian girls we had met at the school we visited. They took us to a dirty little hole-in-the-wall, frequented by college age students, that served food and bev 24 hours. The bar, called FAQ, was broken into several rooms- the entry was the dance club with thumping dancebeats; head up a little stair and duck through a miniature doorway padded with pillows and it's the first seating area, still too loud to talk but lit more tolerably than the neon strobes of the previous room; the second room, through another low door, led into a black-and-white collage space, with a bunk bed in the corner providing a lofted table for two; the third space was a library, with big squashy couches and bookshelves lining the walls. We placed ourselves in the black and white space, underneath the bunk bed, and shared a little vodka with an extraordinarily annoying Jersey-Muscovite girl studying at the same school.
It was cool mostly because it felt like the first piece of Real Moscow we had seen. Otherwise, we left quite quickly and made it back to the hotel in a dodgy cab.


Most eye-opening experience



Leaving the perfectly preserved city center of St. Petersburg and adventuring out to find a supposedly good market, only to discover that the fring of SP looks a lot like the heart of Moscow. Scary housing towers being constructed, already in shambles and ruin. We realized then that this was the reality of Russia, not some fabled storybook city. There are no suburbs as we know them, hardly a middle class. Imagine the Chicago projects stretching for miles. A dense scattering of cranes, at least 10, stood dead still on the horizon. It seemed impossible that they had done work for a long time because at their base stood half ruined shells of more housing. But look to the left and see all the towers are the same: decay constructed into them.
We boarded the first tram that passed (circa 1950) and felt convinced that if there was hell on earth, it might be here.


Best building / space





This is definitely a toss-up between the Church of Spilled Blood, the Moscow metro stations, and the Hermitage. They were all incredibly beautiful.


Worst building / space



Apart from the constructivist architecture (which wasn't exactly BAD, just not that interesting), the worst buildings were the typical decaying housing blocks around Moscow. Luckily we didn't have to experience them apart from looking, so the worst space we spent any time in was:
The night train from Moscow to St Petersburg left at 1 am. We got to the station around 12, 12:30, and found out that we were infact, not in first class after all, with nice safe private rooms, but crammed onto the top bunks of second class. The holes in which we were to lay were about 2'x2.5'x6' open on 2 sides so that you could just slide yourself up onto the little platform and lie, perfectly flat. There was no sitting up, or rolling over (at least for the tall or broad people). Despite this, and the excessive heat, I slept relatively well. Mike, however, who is incredibly HUGE, didn't sleep at all, but was hilarious to see smooshed onto the platform unable to move.


Strangest Thing



The "amusement parks" / markets. We went to two. The first had implanted strange temporary markets into beautiful old soviet structures. Children queued up to get their photo taken with a stuffed (and droopy looking) Shrek or Spiderman placed in front of old landmarks.



The second had small rides, broken and deserted, scattered throughout a snowy forest; 90's pop music floated through the branches from unseen speakers. It was incredibly eerie.

from Russia, with love

Russia was strange. Very strange.

Moscow

Saint Petersburg

So many stories; bars and museums and funny happenings; culture shock and disappointment.
I hope the photos speak for themselves.

We visited a LOT of museums, went to a LOT of bars, ate a LOT of poor meals, and generally had a completely haphazard fun time.

I'll write stories later... and share the tales of crack-selling peddlers, the 3 hour dinner, the amusement park escapade, or the elevator music restaurant.