The British Library, London

The British Museum, The British Library, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral, Westminster underground station, Big Ben, House of Parliament, Swiss Re Tower, Saint Paul's Cathedral, London information center, One New Change, Lloyd's of London, LSE Student Center, Tate Modern, London City Hall, Evelyn Grace Academy, and National History Museum, all in 3.5 days. Traveling alone this time made it an extremely pleasant experience. It was my trip, my schedule, and my own pace. 

Thanks to the previous school field trip, I was eager to explore London with an architectural perspective. I was inspired to examine buildings in various ways: how we approach the site and the building, what is the relationship between the structure and the space, what are the details in the structures, how does the lighting come into play as materiality...etc. London has a lot to offer with its rich history and diverse architecture. It is one of the cities that I will come back and visit!    
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​Lloyd's of London is my favorite building throughout this trip. This 'sci-fi' building is designed by Richard Rogers, the man who brought Centre Pompidou alive. Similar to the Pompidou Centre, this is also an "inside-out" high tech building with pipes and elevators at the exterior to maximize the interior space for offices. I was impressed with the verticality of the building and the inspiration from Archigram.    

Evelyn Grace Academy is designed by 'starchitect' Zaha Hadid in Brixton, a little distance away from the London center. I decided to visit the building even though it took quite some time to reach since I had heard so many things about the architect and yet never seen her work on site. She stacked four schools on top of each other to create the general form of the building. The overlapping spaces are double height atrium. A very interesting touch of the project is the 100 m running track that goes through the building. I think it is a very creative way to place the program and it adds a signature landscape to the project.   

The British Library

As one of the best British public buildings in the 20th century, the British Library surprised me in many different ways. Right from the start, the library's V shape orientation invites people to the site and encourage social interactions at the courtyard. After the entrance lobby is the multi-floor height atrium (see the picture on the left) with fantastic skylight. As you proceed the library, the space are organized around the landmark bookshelf as if it's the core of knowledge. The design of different levels with visibility really enlarges the space and set an example for public architecture.

LSE Student Center

This project is relatively recent compare to other buildings I visited. The project is carried out by O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects in 2013. The school needed a new student center since the old one did not have sufficient space. The project did an excellent job on its relationship with the site. It has three different ways to approach and they managed to create a hierarchy between the entrances. The use of materials is also site-specific and innovative. The interior space is centered around the core circulation with great lighting from the perforated brick facade.  
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​The main staircase in the LSE student center. Instead of stacking the stairs, the architects shifted each stair in different angles to liberate the space. 
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​Shoutout to friends who helped me through the dark times. God bless y'all.

​Our class went on a six-day epic journey to France to learn from the master Le Corbusier and many other masterpieces. Simply put, this school field trip is the 'ultimate architecture lesson'. It is combining all the architecture courses together with history, designing, structure, and theory - all taught by our very special guest Professor William J. R. Curtis, who is an architectural historian that focuses on 20th century architecture. 

​We jump-started the trip by going to one of Le Corbusier's most famous works, the ​Unité d'habitation in Marseille. The post-war opportunity allowed Le Corbusier to fulfill his ideal theory of Cité radieuse (Radiant City). In this project, we get to see Le Corbusier's five elements of modern architecture along with the modulor human-scale method.  One of the most influential gestures he made was the roof-top terrace that embraces the horizon and the sky. Instead of having functional programs at the bottom of the building, he carefully placed them on the roof.
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​The next Le Corbusier's masterpiece we visited was the Notre Dame Du Haut, which brought inspirations to many international known architects such as Tadao Ando. We could see how Le Corbusier played with light and texture on the church along with the sculptural form. 
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​The last Le Corbusier's building we visited was Sainte Marie de La Tourette.  Many aspects of Corbusier's developed architectural elements are visible in this project: the vertical brise-soleils (sun shadings) used with effect in India, light-cannons piercing solid masonry walls, and window-openings separated by Modulor-controlled vertical divisions. In contrast with Ronchamp, the building does not complement the site, but instead dominates the landscape composition.
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​Special shoutout to Jason Buss and Kalin Ngo for the awesome pictures!

Once upon a time, a great nation from the mountains and the sea dared to set sail to the unknown with ambition and curiosity. Portugal is a country with long history, diverse culture, and unique cuisine. Surprisingly, it was not on my travel list in the first place (which it totally should). We changed our destination from Greece to the city of Seven Hills after finding out some flight conflicts. We spent 3 days in Lisbon and one day in Sintra so we could experience the diverse landscape of Portugal.

Age of Discovery

This trip for me is like picking up the traces from their past and piecing them together to see the Gold Age of the Portuguese Kingdom. 

Back in the 15th century, the Kingdom of Portugal was one of the first European pioneers to begin establishing a colonial empire. During the Portuguese Renaissance, they colonized the African coast, discovered an eastern route to India and Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, and sent the first direct trade and diplomatic missions to Empire Ming in China and to Japan.

Belém
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Belém district consists of three epic sites: the tower of Belém, the Jerónimos Monastery, and the Monument to the Discoveries. Both the tower of Belém and the Jerónimos Monastery are UNESCO World Heritage Sites because of their significance to the Kingdom. Aside from the history, Belém is also a great area to try out the famous Portuguese pastry, ​Pasteis de Nata!
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Off to the mountains! Sintra is a sub-region of Lisbon where it contains several 19th century monuments including the national palace, Pena Palace, and the medieval Castle of Moors. A noticeable one is the Pena National Palace, which is not only a World Heritage Site, but is also one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal! The change of scenery from the coast to the forest was very refreshing. I'd recommend people to spend a decent day or two in Sintra to appreciate the mountain.

Couple announcements! My friend Astha updated her blog recently so feel free to click on the side bar and get some positive energy! Also, video section had been updated recently as well! I'm interested to do any sort of collaboration within this blog so if you have interesting ideas please let me know! Weekly shoutout to Laura, Kevin, Omar, and Howard for supporting my blog!