"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival." -Aristotle
By the time we returned from the independent study trip and went back into normal life style in Sant Cugat, many people had already settled down with their new life routine. The pacing is much slower compare to last month since we are now focusing on school works and graduate school applications. People found themselves missing family, friends, and food from home even more, but mostly just temporary effects. We were planning to go to Morocco this thanksgiving break, but I decided to cancel my trip due to the incident in Paris. I figured it'd be an opportunity to finish up several school assignments before hand so I could have a more flexible schedule later on in the end of the year. Happy Thanksgiving. "Have the courage to be happy." - Pope Francis Last week was the first independent study travel trip. It was one of the most anticipated events in the program. Students get to organize their own trip with the designated locations. Each student has to pick at least two buildings to study. For our group we went to Berlin for 2 days, Amsterdam for 2 days, and Paris for 4.5 days. (below is a chart I made to compare airfares) The highlight of our 2-day visit in Berlin would be the Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. It's a perfect example to demonstrate the possibility of architecture since the building is able to manipulate people's emotions with its space and materiality. In order to enter the new building designed by the architect, you first have to descend down to the basement level and then slowly follow the course of history with three main axes: The axis of Continuity, the axis of Emigration, and the axis of the Holocaust. Each axis leads you to a new destination to conclude the experience. The Museum's Voids refer to "that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: Humanity reduced to ashes." (Daniel Libeskind, 2000) For me the use of voids delivers a very powerful statement. The space echos the deep sorrow of the history, and it establishes the connection between the past and the future. Something very special happened in Paris. I'd even say it's my new favorite moment in life. It was when we visited the Eiffel Tower at midnight during the light show. The past found its way back and haunted me. Once again, I found myself lost in a new country where people don't speak my language. I missed my family, my friends, my love ones in Heaven, and it was such a shame that I could not experience this trip with any of them. But then I suddenly realized that I got these new friends whom are worth traveling the world with. It was a mix of sadness and joy in the tears. I saw the past, the present, and the future. I am extremely grateful to be alive.
"Up there, the Lord is present. Up there, somebody is praying for me." I almost forgot to document this important event since the independent study trip happened right after it. My midterm week was packed with history presentation, structure course exam and studio review. For the first half of the capstone project I focused a lot on the concept since it's one of the goals I wish to achieve for this year (see second blog post for reference). I took my time to develop the concept instead of the facade and materials like many of my classmates did. For my project I wish to create a dialogue between the boutique hotel and the district of Eixample by activating the neighborhood and improving Cerda's original city planning. I have three different strategies from small to big scales: 1. Small scale: parallel space to mimic the space of the street One of the original intends of Cerda's city planning is that when people walking in the neighborhood, the facades of the blocks should serve as the walls of the city, but since the site is fragmented with broken blocks, people cannot experience what Cerda intended to do. My first strategy is to place a street in my hotel to mimic that missing space; thus the project is called "Hotel Callecita" (small alley). 2. Medium scale: connection between the parks Once the relationship between the hotel and the block has been established, I shifted the scale and tried to connect the adjacent parks, which now the scope involves two blocks in the perimeter. This is the rather weaker part of the project since I only used the green wall to connect the parks visually. One of the critiques I received during the midterm review was to improve that connection and the hotel entrance. 3. Large scale: bridge landmark that engages the inner courtyard and nearby zone This is more or less a borderline proposal for the midterm review since it involves all the zoning codes and city planning regulations. After the second strategy I aimed to push the project further by trying to engage with the entire district. I designed this sky bridge that circulates above the entire block in order to gain view points to the courtyard and the whole neighborhood. The idea is to create an unique landmark for Eixample and only Eixample can have it. The juries of the midterm review did approve my idea, but they advised me to focus on the hotel itself more. It's not related to the design of the hotel, but for this project I completely changed the style of the renderings into retro collage. It was my intend to experiment on how different graphic representations can help expressing different projects. In this case since Cerda's plan happened in the 1860s I used retro color palette and oil painting textures on the collages.
Here is a list of things I want to improve for the final review: 1. A more dynamic circulation 2. Better use of the street in the hotel 3. Creative guest room plans 4. Better entrance 5. A more creative use of roof-top garden |
AboutThis blog was launched in August, 2015 during my 8th year of studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. I decided to start this blog and record some of my thoughts and moments. This blog is also dedicate to Richard Fu, a good friend of mine who is now guarding me from above. He inspired me to get out of the comfort zone and be curious about the world. Amig@'s blogs
Check out my brother Will's blog (in Mandarin) to see what he's up to these days (Design, fashion, food, technology, music, film...etc) Check out Kris' website for some high quality photos around the world Archives
September 2023
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