Brrr!

Seaweed Thatched roof

Day 13: Copenhagen

Danish pastries are amazing. If I didn’t have to walk everywhere and have to take the stairs everyday I would come back to the US very very large. Today was another early morning. Only class day 2 and I feel like we are already in full speed. 10 weeks of our quarter system is already very condense, so trying to cram a whole semester in 7 weeks will be...fun... No but so far I have learned soooo much. In 2 days we have already 5 different lectures from 5 different working professionals, studio sessions, team model building and the 2 field study trips. It’s hectic but very worth it. After our 8.30-11.30 lecture we went to the Open Air Museum 20 mins north of CPH. We studied the history of domestic homes brought over and preserved from Denmark and areas of Sweden.
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What I found out this today:
-Materials you will see a lot in older Danish and Swedish homes: Straw or seaweed on their roofs, timber and a lot of brick. Later they used a lot of copper for their roofs and ornaments. Now a lot of people associate Scandinavian architecture to be made of wood, glass and metals.
-It can get warm to very cold in 10 minutes and rain within seconds. Luckily it only got really cold windy and drizzily.

What I Saw & Learned:
-Many different types of homes at the Open Air Museum
It’s free to the public, so go if you are here!
-MIT’s Chapel by Eero Saarinen Case study
At first glance I just thought of it as some sort of Silo, but having a closer look at the sturctural details and interiors, the chapel is inspiring. It is a very radically inward oriented space and like all places of worship the alter is the focal point. Emphasis of the alter by manipulating the light shaft and visually enhancing the light by adding the reflective elements around the light. Google it! or visit it in Boston!
-A family of yellow and black ducks, they were so cute!
-Sheep, horses, rams, pigs, chickens, roosters!
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It was a nice combination day with lectures and the trip. Afterwards though many of us met up with our groups at the studio to discuss our project concepts, execution etc. I also had a nice chat with Professor Heinrich Hermann who is currently a professor at RISD and a private architect. His resume is very impressive and he is a very nice old Austrian man. I asked him about Germany and one of his comments: “Oh they are nice...they are too strict and hardworking...They must think us Austrians dance all the time and that they are better than us because of it. But we do like to dance,”

End of the Day thought: Tomorrow. Tgif...oh wait I mean studio time... woo..