Berlin Trip (2) : Cottbus University Library

The building is the library of Cottbus University. It takes one and holf hour to get there by train from Berlin. You should take a bus from station to the university, it takes almost 10 minutes. It is designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The exterior is very characteristic but fits with the location. The inside is very colourful. It might be still new, so most of the shelf is empty. Almost books were German books, and I can’t read German very well, so I couldn’t tell how good it is as a library. A friend of mine who went there together are interested in colour effect in interior space, so she was excited when she entered the space, but in my opinion vivid colours are not good for quiet spaces like libraries, but the part of the walls was made from steel and reflected the colour of floor and the other part of walls and it was beautiful.

Berlin Trip (1) : Bauhaus in Dessau

送信者 20080908

The picture was taken not in Berlin, but it Dessau.
It takes about one and half hours to get Dessau from Berlin.
We bought the express tickets, so it was more expensive than we had expected... We should have bought local tickets.
Dessau is famous for Bauhaus, but itself is not so big and not so flourished.
We joined the tour of Bauhaus and saw the inside.
It was usual and not special, but that's why it is important historically, because it was the start point of modern style architecture.

Serpentine Pavilion 2008: Frank Ghary

This summer's Pavilion is designed by Frank Ghery.
When a friend of mine saw the drawings of Frank Ghery, she said, "What? He must be an artist..."

The quality is so high that we couldn't believe it was a temporary building.
The wood work is really nice. It has some small spaces which are a little bit higher than other floor.
We could see only the appearance in day time, but we feel it must be beautiful in lighting of night.



This kinds of events should be held more, especially in Japan, because they have to renew buildings for avoiding a tragedy of earthquake, so temporary buildings fit the geography of Japan.

Switzerland Report04: Herzog & de Meuron, Roche Pharma Research Institute

In my opinion, the character of the buildings is double layers.



The inside is not special, but the color lights are characteristic.



The next building covered with glasses is also designed by Herzog & de Meuron.



The curved mirrors on the roof are interesting and it makes a special inpression.

The other reports:
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report03-rheinfall.html
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report02-used-design-shop.html
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report01-freitag.html

UCL Bartlett Exhibition 2008

Some works were really crazy.
I felt as if I saw works of fine art students.






See also AA school Exhibithin Images

AA school Exhibition 2008

Architectural Association School Exhibition 2008.
My impression is that they are really smart. I expected their works were a bit crazy.
Which is better depends on your point of view.

Richard Rogers Exhibition at Design Museum

You can see almost the all his works from early works to works in progress.
I think his great point is that he makes very modernism concepts, which many people had been fed up with, as kind of his identity.
Many architects couldn’t get through, but he did.

The other point I was impressed from this exhibition is that he uses not only robotic structural elements but also color elements for some projects. I just knew very structural works of his.

Shibuya New Station

In Shibuya, one of the biggest stations in Tokyo, new platform was open which was designed by Tadao Ando.
Many media are interested in it.
One of the concenpt of the station is ecology. It is designed to be effiicient ecologically.

http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/shibuya-station-tokyo/2494

AA school and UCL's exhibition 2008

I went to the exhibition of AA school and Bartlett.
My rough impression is that AA is more architectural and Bartlett is more artistic.

I felt many works in AA tried to show beauty in construction, but Bartlett tried it in how to show it. AA looks smarter, but Bartlett looks more passionate.

My prejudice was different from my actual impression. I thought AA was more passionate, but it was wrong. Some works Bartlett’s students are almost crazy, but very powerful.

Bartlett
http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/summer/summer.htm
AA school
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/default.aspx?entryId=1836&section=eventsArchive

Extensions

It has been a long time sice I posted my last entry...
I would like to try to do daily update.
It might make me more sensitive about information of design.

Recently I have focused on my project in my course.
Now, I'm trying to make "sacred" small living space, and I found a good book, which is actually about extinsions of houses, but it has a lot of good ideas for small spaces.



For me, the last chapter "innovative additons" is the most inspiring.
If you are looking for some references about small spaces, small houses and big effects with small gesture, this book might be helpful.

loftcube

This house is famous, so you might already kknow it, but I would like to introduce the video about it.