Best Day Trip Ever

Today was IMMENSELY better than yesterday! Today, we had a day trip to Camogli and Portofino, two beautiful cities right on the Mediterranean. The day started out with the stress of not having a developed project, but I prayed that God would open my eyes throughout the day and allow me to see the aspects of design that are around me – and that’s just what He did! I’ve kind of gotten the reputation of designing with “natural elements.” How I did that, I have no freaking idea. Nothing that I’ve ever done for class follows this rule, but I have the reputation nonetheless. The more I think about it though, the more I think that it suits me. That’s what I was focused on during today’s adventure – how to utilize nature in designs in an expressive and interesting way.

We started out with a train ride to Camogli – a small ocean-front town that was an old fishing village that sprouted into a town. From there, we took a boat to a small monastery village. The boat ride was amazing! It was the first time that I’d seen this part of the country – mountains so close to the water. Buildings all along the mountainside. Quite beautiful. We made a stop before getting off at a small dock that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. As we pulled up, we were faced with the giant of the mountain – a massive rock face that had rockslide preventive fencing stretched over it. The fencing made it seem like the mountain was a giant ready to burst out of its bond at any moment, but the strength of a woven steel net hindered his escape. As we circled the mountain, the major thing that I noticed was that a lot of the structures built on the mountain were made of the same material of the mountain – a stone tower set perched atop one of the rock outcroppings. I thought that this was really cool – architecture that spring forth from the land. Really powerful statement.

When we got to the monastery, the first thing that we noticed was how clear and blue the water was. I’ve never seen water like that –you could see the smooth, rocky bottom well out from the shoreline. The beach around the area was defined with the same smooth, dark rocks instead of sand. There was just something about the waves coming in and making that clear division between the dry rocks and shiny wet rocks that I thought was amazing.

 

 

One of the main things that I focused on during our surprisingly non-architectural day trip was the usage of and joinery between different materials, notably between the cool, dark color of the rocks and the warm, soft color of wood (chairs, boardwalks, etc.) When I started looking for things like this, they seemed to crowd around me, each vying for a chance to be seen. We were in an area that natural materials were virtually the only form of construction and design, so I found almost every aspect of the trip to be rejuvenating to both the Boy Scout and the “natural architect” within me.
I also noticed that the treatment of pathways and plants seemed to coincide easily – the pathways were largely defined with some form of rock paving (flagstone, cobblestone, etc), but plants were also generally a part of the equation. At one point, I spied a stairwell leading down beside an old defensive wall of the city with plants reaching up from the ground and sprouting out of the wall to create a natural tunnel that served to diffuse the light and provide a natural form of shade for those who would need it.

Our last leg of the trip was by foot – a hike over the mountain from the monastery to Portofino. This was my favorite part of the day (and probably my favorite part of the semester so far)! We started out at sea level, literally, and climbed up about 1,500 feet; all the while with the ocean in full view and serving as a map of our altitude progress. Our end destination was the town of Portofino, a harbor town that exists in a small, protective cove created by the mountains. Back to sea level we go. I’ve always loved hiking through the woods. There is just something about being out in the wilderness that I love. None of the worries from studio, or work, or life in general can filter through the mass of trees to find me there. Nothing matters anymore – nothing except enjoying the stunning landscape that God has given us.

All in all, this trip was EXACTLY what I needed after yesterday’s review, especially our hike, which I had been looking forward to the entire week. It gave me a chance to back up and look at what I was doing; to see what went wrong and focus on how to fix them; to look at the usage of materials and how people had formed the natural landscape to fit their individual use. By the end of the day, I had already sketched out a MUCH better rendition of our project in my head that uses our basic ideas, but focuses on natural materials and concepts. I think that this is my thing, my element; where I can go to clear my head after a long week of worries. Can’t wait to get back home to the old familiar trails with my friends – and maybe a few new routes with a few new faces.

 

A presto,

 

-Tyler

The First Review is a Doozy

Today’s review. How can I express my disappointment about today’s review?

 

This afternoon, we had our first “pin up,” which is a time that all of the professors come and every student “pins up” their work on the wall and presents their ideas to the class + professors. In a traditional sense, these are designed to make sure that we are progressing like we should – checkpoints along the way of the project, if you will. I went into today’s pin up with mixed emotions – I had all of my work done, as my partner and I had decided upon, and most of my ideas were engrained within my memory well enough for me to explain them to people who didn’t understand as well as I did. My partner had stayed up late the night before, with the majority of the class who were putting together last minute things, but I went to bed early. #1 because I’d been working virtually all day on my part of the project while my partner worked on other things. #2 because I didn’t see the point in staying up half the night for a simple pin up. In the morning, however, I felt bad – like I’d left her out to dry. But, it was over and done, so nothing I could do about that one. That morning, I also realized that we hadn’t collaborated about how the presentation was going to be formatted – at all. It is a fair assessment to say that my partner and I don’t communicate as well as we should. So I was stressed about this for the morning – I knew my part, but as far as her part, I didn’t know what she wanted to say or even what her general ideas toward our project were. O crap. Going into a presentation without a clear idea of what the heck is going on. Setting myself up for a loss already…

So we sit through a couple presentations and decide that it’s our turn to go. I start out with our diagrams – why we did what we did. Basically, our project is inspired from a pine cone – the shape and characteristics of the object. We looked at how the lobes terrace and overlap each other and used the circular shape of the cone to organize the park space of our design. That’s the basic outlay that I nailed during the pin up – it’s the details that I botched. I just couldn’t seem to explain why how the overlapping of the terraces was going to be a good thing. I tried to explain it by referencing the “human scale” (which seemed right at the time, but I now know that I used the term horribly backwards!). I felt like I had the words, but they just wouldn’t come out right. Sensing this situation, I just imploded. Crap. In the middle of a review, and I can’t explain my ideas. Crap. The rest of the review matched suit. And to boot, at the end, after the professors are done offering suggestions and the floor is opened up to the class, both my partner and I stare awkwardly at our project board, not at the class – aka, we imploded. Crap. Now we look like we are hiding from explaining our project. Now our lack of communication as a group is pretty dang obvious. Crap…

The one thing that I do like about reviews, though, is that it gives you a chance to literally sit back and look at the work of your classmates and what the professors have to say about them. It’s a good way to get feedback about your project without the pressure of standing up in front of everybody; albeit an indirect way that involves more work on your part in sifting through to the relevant information. I learned a lot about architecture in general and made a lot of mental changes to our project just from listening to what the professors had to say about other people’s project – and what they would inevitably bring up in the final review if I didn’t address them in my project now.

Interesting day, interesting day indeed.

 

A presto,

 

Tyler

History repeats itself...

We designed ourselves into a hole. Literally. Our project was flowing right along. We had some suggestions from professors and had sifted through most of them to refine our design – the driving factor being to reduce the symmetry of place (apparently a classical style thing that is soooo 100 years ago). One of our professors made the comment that we shouldn’t necessarily follow the design factors from the classical period (symmetry included). He thinks, instead that we should try to be more organic and forward thinking. So that’s what we did. We made the mistake, however, of assumption. We came to the point that we felt that digging into the ground was the solution to our design problems. At the time, this made sense – we were going to tunnel under a very busy street to assist in pedestrian safety, but the tunnel was quite deep; therefore, make the grade closer to that of the tunnel. No assumptions up to that point – it’s all valid. The assuming came in the fact that neither of us considered how to buffer between the existing grade level and the new grade level (we assumed that the side of the hole was going to be just a vertical wall with railing around it, which is NOT the way to design a space). We focused more on the general shape of the area that we wanted to create in plan view – never looking at the design in section. Problem. The funny thing is, last semester my partner and I ran into the EXACT same problem – we were tunneling under a railroad track to help pedestrian flow and didn’t consider HOW to go from exiting grade to new grade until very late in the project – not until AFTER our project had earned the unfortunate nickname “the pit.” Yeah, pretty bad. After that fun review, we decided upon a set of stairs on one end that terraced down into the new space and, after we broke off for the individual final project, I decided to make amphitheater seating to blend the ground planes. In this project, I think that we are just going to backtrack a lot and go back to not creating another pit. Simple enough, right?

On another note, I have started to find my discipline (hard to believe I lost it, right?). I’ve decided that having coffee and fococcia bread every morning for breakfast is absolutely awful for me, so I bought some orange juice and crackers that I spread honey on. Between the honey and an apple, I’m probably getting more energy than I was from the coffee (and it’s natural). Also, trying to drink more water to stay hydrated. I’ve started to work out again. And that’s saying something out here – we don’t have access to a gym. I got an app the other day that has different exercises for every muscle group, including “body only” exercises, which I am confined to at the moment. I’ve done pushups every day now for the past week. My goal there is to be able to do 100 in a row by the end of the semester. Today, I went with a group of people and we went running up the hill a little ways. Started small, but at least we started running. I think that running a little a couple times a week will help keep your legs strong and heart healthy. Also, don’t wanna work out just your upper body because then you’ll look like an upside-down triangle, and nobody wants that. I work every day on things for different classes – although this is nothing new for me, I like to do this so that the info keeps fresh in my mind and I keep moving forward. I’ve been reading a little bit in the Bible and doing a devotional every day – recently started a plan about “unquestionable character.” So far so good.
My hope with all of this is that I will become a well-rounded individual, at least better-rounded by the end of the semester – find a balance between my mind, body, and spirit; or something like that. Also, I want to be a good example to everyone here. It’s been interesting to observe how some people’s conduct has changed with the new-found independence; interesting to say the least. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

 

A presto,

 -Tyler

UPDATE!

So the rest of this week was kind of dry, but here's a few things to keep you up to date:

-Our project is coming right along - ideas finally becoming more concrete. We have a midterm review on Wednesday, but I think that we are pretty much ready for it.

-I'm starting to develop my own "style" of architecture. Haven't presented any of it yet, so we'll see how that one goes.

-On Tuesday, we are going to "Pirate...something." I can't remember the name, just that it has Pirate in it and that we are going to go swimming. Also, on that note, we have parrots in our garden...no joke. They are small and green and annoying.

-I bought some orange juice the other day.

-I'm doing pushups in the mornings because I was starting to lose my chest and that made me sad. So far so good.

-Time is starting to "woosh" on me. For those of you who have stayed up working and lost two night worth of sleep in a row, you know what I'm talking about. Really, though, the days are starting to run together.

That's pretty much the extents of my life right now, consider yourself in the know.

A presto,


-Tyler

The day that Denver went down

I forgot to write about the meal that we went to Sunday night at “The 3 Black Birds,” which was in Italian, of course. Everyone got all dressed up for it and we had a bit of a prom moment outside in the garden before leaving. Once we got to the restaurant, however, the story took a turn for the better. Way better. We got there and the wine was already on the table – some sort of white wine that wasn’t too dry, really not bad. It didn’t hurt that we basically had all the wine we could drink, heck yes! The first course (haha never had to say that before) was some kind of fococcia bread with cheese and a chick pea based bread that were both delicious! Second course consisted of a tortellini with white sauce and noodles with pesto. The tortellini was probably my favorite of the entire meal! Main dish = fish (which was, again, amazing; and I’m not even a fish person!).  And then, to top it all off, for dessert, “half cold” ice cream! It was coffee flavor and just a little melty. And let’s not forget, during the course of all of this, the waitress keeps the wine coming! I didn’t drink too much, did pretty good I think. All-in-all, not too shabby.

As for Tuesday, I woke up and remembered that I had some kind of crazy dream. I dreamt that I went home and my dad had the bright idea that our next family trip was going to be in Poland. Then I woke up and fell back asleep to another dream that had something to do with the Hoover Dam. We were walking along a small stream talking about how beavers make their dams and with what kind of trees and then all of a sudden, whoever it was that was walking with me turned and said, “And that’s one that the beaver’s didn’t make,” as he pointed toward the Hoover Dam in the distance. Whatever. I was afraid that today would be one of those days that I wouldn’t be able to wake up – wouldn’t be functioning at 100%. Luckily, I was wrong on this one.

Tuesday, we went for our first day trip, this one on a tour of the city of Genova. My job this semester is as the “day travel assistant,” so today was my first go at it. Basically, my job was to carry around the 500 Euro that Silvia had given me the day before and track our spending of it; on bus tickets, train tickets, museum fares, and what have you. Our teacher was not our usual Professor Bruhns, but was Gulietta, whom we had met before. The only thing that I remember about her is that she told us that we “wouldn’t like her” because she “talks a lot, is fast paced, and smokes a lot.” I initially thought that she was crazy, but after our first hour of listening to her go on and on about the general history of the city, she pretty much hit the nail on the head with her first comment. She gave us all these names of kings and queens that I really had no care for and her fast paced, long winded story quickly lost my attention. I did, however, like the view that she had given us for the back story – overlooking the entire historical center and harbor. From there, we went on down the hill and made a few stops at various piazzas, Cathedrals, and points of interest. I got a few sketches of the areas, but mainly focused on analysis of the “personal bubble” that everyone has by watching how people interact with each other and estimating the distances between them. I found that people have several different “personal bubbles” depending on who they are with. For instance, if they are with someone that they love, their personal bubble (measured from the center line of their head to the center line of the other person’s head) I have estimated at 12”. If they are with family or close friends, the bubble exists at around 30”, and if they are around people that they don’t know (and have room enough to keep their space) the bubble extends to around 48”; this all as best I can tell. I’ve thought about this a lot over the course of the past few months, and I think that it can be useful in designing different spaces. Designing a mall, for example, I would be more inclined to use a unit square of around 48” (based on individual space in a public setting), while at home, using a unit of 30” (based on individual space in a family setting). Whether that is a good idea or not is up for debate, but as for now, I think that it is a pretty good one.

Today was a rather interesting day. We had history class this morning and it wasn’t so bad. Talked about the Berlin Monuments and Nazi Architecture, at least at the part that I was there. I blogged about how the Nazi party established a new culture through architecture in just a few years and it took 50+ years to undo this and reestablish a new culture of architecture for the city of Berlin. Kind of crazy. We took a little coffee break half way through, so we all filed down the stairwell and swooped down upon the coffee and foccocia. I leaned over and told Denver that if we just stopped class here, that’d be fine with me. Not five minutes later, he is cutting some bread and slices his finger. Oops. At first, we just think that it is a small cut, so he goes to wash off the blood and someone gets a first aid kit with band-aids. The only problem was that it didn’t stop bleeding. We took him into the kitchen where they had more first aid stuff and he is leaning on the sink and suddenly begins to faint! So the villa staff lay him down and prop up his feet so that the blood in his legs will return to his torso and one of the staff tells me to make him some sugar water. Silvia, the villa administrator, calls and finds a pharmacy that is open and we take a taxi over to get some “sterile strips” and have his blood pressure checked, and it was 104/52 – pretty low. So for lunch Cristina, the cook, makes sure that he has some form of meat to replenish his blood iron. The staff did an excellent job with the situation – they knew what to do and did so quickly. As for why he fainted, I think that it was because he is so tall and lanky, plus the sight of the blood and knowledge that it wasn’t stopping. The sugar water, I learned was to get his blood sugar back up – another reason why he fainted.

And all of this went on during the second half of class – which I missed and it’s fine with me.

In studio, we kept chugging along with our proposal. We had the history teacher for our desk crit and he said that our project had good ideas, but was too symmetrical, too “beaux arts” as he called it. Apparently this was the style form 100 years ago – everything symmetrical and in line. He doesn’t think that we should follow this in today’s world. I will agree that it’s more interesting if it isn’t perfectly symmetrical, but the project starts to get pretty complicated (and not to mention expensive!) pretty fast when you deviate from that. We decided, though to make our tunnel under the road follow the pattern of the sun rather than go straight across the road following the existing axial line. This way, the plants that will be inside the tunnel will have substantial light to grow and make the space less dreary; at least that’s the hope.

 A presto,

 -Tyler

The Pine Cone: The Ave. to Success?

Yesterday was a sleep in day, heck yes! The Commodores really hit the nail on the head with their song “Easy (like Sunday morning).” A few people went down to a local church and listened in on the service. I think that I will do that next week just to experience it. But as for now, the sleep is well appreciated.

I got a lot of work done on our studio project yesterday afternoon. My partner was sick with a sinus infection, so I took some design liberties on the project (…insert evil laugh here…). I thought more about the pine cone inspiration that she seemed to take to immediately. I know it sounds a bit absurd to take architectural inspiration from something like a pine cone, but I am starting to see the value in the simplicity of the idea. Apparently, as I learned today, simple concepts like this one are the ones that tend to win architectural competitions. Having the simple form of a pine cone gives us something to fall back throughout our design process – as someone so elegantly put it today, we can simply ask, “what would the pine cone do?” I know, this design stuff still sounds strange to me too, but I’m starting to get used to it.

So there I was, pine cone idea floating around in my head, analyzing every part of the object. What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The design that I came up with, though, was well received by both my partner and our reviewer today. (When I figure out how to scan stuff into my computer, I’ll include sketches so that this all makes more sense).

Big event for yesterday – we found peanut butter! We have all been searching for the delicacy since we arrived. Although it cost around $5 for a small jar, it was well received. I didn’t get any though. I have nutella and Ritz crackers. I don’t think that I can handle any more good-ness at one time.
Fast-forward to this afternoon’s studio class, where we had our first official “desk crit.” This is where the teacher comes around to your desk to see what kind of progress you have made and to offer a few design suggestions to consider in order to further develop your ideas. The reviewer that we had today was EXTREMELY practical. He suggested that my partner and I focus more on the scale of the site and the elements that we planned to add to it. I have found it difficult to grasp the scale of objects here because all of the measurements are in metric units, and I am used to working with the English Imperial system. He also suggested that we start thinking about materiality – what different kinds of materials to use to denote specific programs. For instance, wooden “boardwalks” may become the material that denotes pedestrian traffic for our project; this in contrast to cobble streets. In regards to this, I decided that I would try a more natural selection of materials – use a natural stone similar to that at the existing site, wooden beams, grass, etc. I think that this will inform a more natural style of architecture – one focused on nature and how my designs can integrate with the site. I think that this style would fit well with my background – Eagle Scout, landscaper, general outdoorsman. Maybe this will become my “style” of architecture as I move forward in the world of architecture and design.

Again, when I figure out how the scanner works, I’ll add some sketches and such that will hopefully help a lot of this make more sense. Until then,

A presto.

 -Tyler

We Happened Upon a Fort...

So I’ve decided to start posting every other day or so rather than trying to write a daily post. Studio is beginning to start up, so my life is about to get pretty repetitive and boring and I won’t have as much time to write. It can be quite time consuming…

Yesterday morning, we had another Italian lesson bright and early. O joy. I’m glad that our prof. is interesting because I could get really tired of that class otherwise. I think that she is a good teacher – she understands that we just need to know the basics to get by during our stay. After that class, we had our first “Italian Rationalism” class. Sounds fun right? Yeah…we just had a 30 minute class and the guy almost put half the class to sleep. Can’t wait to sit through a three hour course on rationalism in Italy on a Friday morning…

The good thing about Friday, or should I say the extra special thing about Friday, is that we only have class until 12:30. Later on in the semester, this will be valuable time, as we can have that extra time to travel – go ahead and get to the place and have all day Saturday and Sunday to be there, then come back on Monday morning – no class until 2:00 on Monday, heck yes! Today, we went and got our cell phones. Cost 20 Euro. The basic call-and-text phone without a camera. It is pretty lightweight and small-ish, but funny to go back to the basics.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. Didn’t do too much. Worked on the project a little bit and just hung out in the villa. Slow night, but that’s ok – it was a slow night in Italy instead of Clemson.
This morning, got up and went to diagram some on the site before Italian class. Kind of interesting to see the place in the day vs. the night. In the morning, all of the people with a ‘lot of life experience’ are out getting their exercise and several people are taking their dog for the morning walk. At night, however, the same place is littered with teenagers hanging out under the cover of darkness. Some of the streets here are a bit questionable during the day, not to mention after dark.

After lunch, which was simply leftovers from this week, a big group of people left for the beach. Denver and I, along with two of our other friends, decided to go to the top of the chair lift again and check out a field that one of the professors said was up there for public use. We get to the top of the chair lift and start walking up the hill, where the supposed field is awaiting our arrival. Instead, we find a large defensive fort from the medieval ages that has currently been overtaken by a restaurant (…see what I did there…?). Further up hill, we begin walking along the ridge and find a scenic overlook. The wind is gently curling over the mountain, pushing the clouds along the ridge, slowly beginning to reveal another fort further up the mountain. Really cool sight. We don’t find this next fort on today’s adventure, but decide that it is worth looking further into later in the semester.
It still surprises me how similar the foliage is to what I am used to at home. On our excursion today, I spied the Italian version of the white oak, black birch, black locust, and hydrangea. It is really helpful to me to be able to identify some form of life that surrounds me. Even something as simple as the plant life has really helped me feel more at home.

After dinner, which, again, was leftovers, I started diagramming our site more in depth. This time, I was looking at the scale of each terrace as it related to the human figure. For instance, let’s assume that the average human is around 6’ tall (just to make the numbers easy). We compare this to each vertical stretch of space. With the first terrace being 15 meters (around 50’), this vertical is roughly equivalent to the height of 8 people standing on each other’s head (50/6 ~ 8). This is a strange but helpful way to look at vertical spaces. The more people the space can fit, the bigger the space will feel (in general), and the more public the space becomes. The tighter the space to the human scale, though, the less comfortable the space becomes, and people will naturally tend to move away from these and toward the more open spaces. Architects play on this to move people through the spaces that we design in particular ways so that the people who visit the site can experience what the space has to offer to the fullest – direct people toward the “good” and away from the “bad.” But what is “good” and what is “bad?” That is where architecture comes to play. The “good” may be a view, a feeling, mood, action, location, etc – it is up to the architect to define and act upon this. Maybe that’s why we have to go to school for 6 years to draw lines and shapes on the computer for a living.

 A presto.

 -Tyler

Decision Time

After writing my post last night, a few interesting things occurred. Several of my studio friends were also working on developing the initial ideas behind their projects, and you know what most of them were doing? Diagramming. Heck yes. This is where I usually start, even when I’m with my dad, as I have spoken about before – with the wind patterns and cardinal directions. Just seeing others start out this way helped ease my woes about the project in general. Nevertheless, as I lay my head down to sleep last night, I still couldn’t get over that – I just couldn’t understand how someone could come up with an idea and push it through that fast. It actually kept me up for quite a while. My head still spinning, I just wanted to understand. Could I work with a person who was so artsy? To give a reference, let’s assume that 1 is die hard practical, functionality man and 10 is abstract artist. I would be about a 3 – I am pretty dang real with most of my projects, but I can be a bit abstract if need be. My partner, however, is an 11. That’s right, it goes up to eleven. I really wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out and uncertainty usually doesn’t sit too well with me. However,  I shared a few good laughs a bit later and all was well…ish.

This morning, the woes continued as we made our way to the PosteItaliane to fill out passport info. It wasn’t until the bus ride back that I decided that I had two choices:

1. Talk to the professor and see how plausible it would be to change partners with someone who was more “realist;” aka, “the easy way out.”
2. Deal with the situation at hand – if I plan to have a business of my own some day, I have to learn how to work for and with different kind of people.

Guess which one I decided to run with. I figured that it would be for the best if I just ran with it and do what I know how to do – this would also be consistent with how I started to get over my fear of architecture by working with my father. And, surprisingly, this strategy hasn’t gone too badly so far. I sat down before lunch today and began sketching out some ideas based on the idea that my partner came up with last night in conjunction with the existing layout of the site. The result was a solid one, I think. My partner seemed to accept a lot of the ideas that I threw out there, as well. Lesson learned. A turn out that Dad was right; as always. He has told me several times that taking the hard road will pay off in the long run. So far in life, I have found out that he has been right – it wasn’t cool to be in Boy Scouts, for instance, and still may not be. BUT, I have noticed lately that the skills that I’ve learned from the program are, in a word, invaluable. Something as simple as making sure that we leave no one behind in our group or having the responsibility to tell a friend when something may be wrong – you can’t buy stuff like that. Dad continues to be right – taking the high road definitely isn’t easy (namely architecture school), but in the long run, it will most definitely make the utmost difference in my life.

During studio class today, we again walked around the city, but this time, we went up; way up. We were smart about it though – we took the cable car up the mountain and hiked down. After seeing how steep of a climb the cable car endured, this was most definitely the right decision, as the mountain was nearly at a 45 degree angle. Once at the top, we divided into our groups and began our tour of our individual “salitas,” which are the old trails that connected the medieval city of Genova to the mountains, at the time considered the countryside because it was outside of the city walls. These old trails were used to access the farmland on the mountain, notably olive groves, and were often traveled by donkeys with carts. Today, the paths are seldom used despite the fact that the city has grown past the old walls and leached out up the mountainside. As we started down Salita Carbonara, the first thing that I noticed was the view of the lower city and harbor; the layering of the buildings as they reach down to the sea is really an astonishing view. Farther down, we spy a few old houses (200+ years) that are in arguably better condition that ones built 20 years ago, at least on what we could see of the exterior. It was interesting to compare the construction of the older homes directly across the salita from the more newly built homes. To me, the older construction in general has a lot more character, but who pays for it is beyond me. This is not surprising, however, in this context because people who could afford a house in the “countryside” of the time weren’t doing too bad I suppose. That being said, I feel that this city has a lot yet to offer in terms of history and character, and I look forward to uncovering its decorative past.

A presto.

 -Tyler

Let the Games Begin!

Early start today – 7:30 here we go. Again thanks Denver for getting me up. I don’t know what’s up – am I still jet lagging or have I just not gotten enough sleep for the past few days? Either way, had an apple and coffee for breakfast in the sunroom, which reaches out into the villa garden space. What a way to start the day!

Italian lessons. O joy. Today we went over verb conjugation and more vocab – it was a bit more practical because we began learning how to say phrases like, “I’m American, not German,” “I’m from Travelers Rest, that’s near Greenville,” and “I study architecture.” So far, there are a lot of similarities between Spanish, which I have had several semesters of, and Italian, which I have had 2 days of. It’s not too hard to understand it if I can see it, so I came up with a system by which I take what the teacher is saying and picture the words in my head. This way, I can see them and it helps me to understand the conjugations and follow what she’s saying. Also, today I noticed that my fear of speaking up in class has resurfaced, even though I know literally everyone in the class. I don’t know why, but as we were going around saying something even as simple as “My name is Mario” (my new Italian name!), I got nervous for no foreseeable reason. After a few rounds of this, I decided that this is ridiculous and that it is ok for me to make mistakes – that is, after all, what I’m here for; I don’t know Italian, I am learning Italian. So I made a mistake after that and it was fine. No big deal.

We had a new professor come in today, or at least one that I’ve never met before, who is our history teacher. That guy goes really fast – and this is an “I can’t even remember his name” fast. His lecture took us on a journey into the future. We did a brief and…you guessed it…quick intro for the entire semester. I think that I’m going to like this class. Some of the buildings that we are going to study are some that we’ve seen before, but that was through American eyes. We now have the privilege of seeing through the eyes of a native Italian. This, I think, will provide us with some helpful insight into the design and structure of these buildings, or at least that’s my hope. As well, I have recently given strong consideration to going into the historical preservation side of architecture. One of the biggest problems that I have with these projects at school is that I have to make these spaces up from scratch, and, frankly, that scares me to death. I don’t know why, but continually try to understand this fear so that I may one day overcome it. This being said, I feel that historic preservation would be right up my alley, so to speak. I would have a starting point already established in the form of the existing building. I have been around construction my entire life and have come to understand the basics of what makes up the structure of the home. I am very practical and, from my landscaping ventures, I have learned that I like to make things look better. In addition, I was talking with our professor over lunch one day and he informed me that there is a big demand for this; as my dad has informed me of as well. So boom. Career.

After a filling lunch, studio begins. It took me to about the point that the professor hands out the syllabus to start getting nervous. Here comes the fear of “real architecture” again. Strange, because I was totally fine the month before I got here and was working with my dad – I was doing “real architecture” and it turned out fine – my designs looked good, made sense for the clients (whom I met with on a regular basis) and stuck to the budget, at least in a relative sense. Now, in the face of this school project, which in the grand scheme of things may be a little less important that what I was doing with my dad (which would actually shape people’s lives), the fear resurfaces. About half way through, however, the fear subsides a bit as the ideas begin to trickle forth.

To fill the rest of studio time, we  took a trip to the site – a small park in the apex of a turn just a few minutes’ walk down the hill. The site is separated into three distinct terraces. The first is street level that has a large set of about 50 stairs leading up to the next terrace. From the top of the stairs, one can see down the street all the way to the sea. Quite a view. At this point, everyone must play Frogger and cross a road that is quite busy. If you win the game and don’t get squashed, you end up in a tiny little park with a few trees and a playground. O joy. Around this is a set of apartments that part around a pathway that leads up again, probably about the same distance straight up. This pathway was an old roadbed that the people used to use to travel up the mountain with donkeys and  carts. The history and growth of Genova is quite interesting in itself. As far as the project goes, it is a paired project, and my partner is a girl that I haven’t done much collaborating with at all, so right from the start, I can’t shake the thought that this’ll be interesting. We continue with a stroll through the Genova hills to see a few more examples of how to approach the design. This was a long walk, so fast forward to after dinner...

So after dinner, my partner and I got together and began collaborating about the design solution to the problem – being that the park sucks. I start out by presenting an idea, that, predictably, is the practical thing – we need an elevator to lift handicap residents from the parking garage (which is relocated with an entrance at the first terrace, effectively creating a need to move residents from terrace one to two with some sort of ease). The rest of my idea follows in practicality – narrow the roads around the apartments to allow people to come in and park if they’re handicapped, allowing for a slightly larger park; use the rainwater to help keep the park alive; use the elevator shaft as a “design opportunity.” Pretty basic, but simple enough that it could actually be done; to a certain extent. My partner, on the other hand, saw a pine cone at the site and decided that the lobes of the pinecones were like terraces, and that the terraces could hold fields where sports could be played (I found out that there is no field in Genova from an earlier conversation with a local architect), and we would get people across the road by having the last terrace reach under (no more Frogger) and, o yeah, we are suspending the fields from the sheer face of the first terrace. O my God, my head is still spinning an hour and a half later! This is so far out of the way that I design and so far outside of what I do that I can’t understand how she got to where she did – and so quickly. We decided real quick that she is the artsy one and that I am the technical, diagramming one. Maybe, and a strong maybe, I could have gotten to a similar conclusion, but it would have taken me days of deliberation and analysis. O my God!  I am so overwhelmed right now. Sure, I think that the idea is solid. But at this point, when I say “the idea,” I mean “her idea.” I literally added two things to the design. Two minor things at that. She doesn’t consider things like sun and wind patterns until later, sometimes so late that the project is already completed, but that’s where I usually start. So we decided that we would go to the site tomorrow and check a few things out. I could diagram a few things, but what does it matter at this point – the design is already developed a pretty good ways. Like I said before, this will definitely be interesting. To make matters worse, at this point, I am seriously thinking that I should have done engineering – I’m not really artsy/designy, I’m really practical and always focus on careful analysis. BUT, maybe there’s a lack of this in the field of architecture and I could use this to my advantage – like in historical preservation, yes! Pretty long and interesting day. Hopefully tomorrow will yield a similar amount of observation and learning.

A presto,

 

-Tyler

One Last Day of Freedom

Today I slept until 11:30. This is really not like me; last year, I was up at 7:00 every morning to go get breakfast at the Harcombe dining hall with my roommate. To my little sister: I now know how you feel, sleepy head. What makes 11:30 an interesting time to awake is the fact that we had a meeting today at 12:00. So thanks to Denver for getting my sleepy self up. In our meeting, we chose our household duties for the semester. Duties included kitchen assistant, kitchen cleanup, gardener, lockup, etc. Though I was really hoping to get gardener (I did, after all, run a landscaping company for 7+ years and quite enjoy the activity), all of the slots got filled for this and I settled for being the “day trip guy.” To the best of my knowledge, I will be keeping track of everyone to make sure that we leave no one behind and the like.

After an invigorating lunch,  a group of us up and left for the beach at Nervi. The beach (or perhaps I should say the ocean) was absolutely beautiful! The “beach,” which was recommended by one of our professors for its senographic qualities, was hardly a beach at all – more of a rocky outcropping whose shape created a natural cove with still, clear water revealing the texture of the rocks below. Shortly after we all waded into the water, a local informed us, in clear English, that the octopi liked to hang out in places like this. Thanks man. Whether he was pulling our legs or not, I’ll never know, but a lot of the girls kept this at heart most of the time we were there. My biggest fear was stepping on a sea urchin. Ouch.

We swam out a ways through the shallow, waist high water to the rocky outcropping visible in the picture. There, we sat for a few minutes and experienced what the natural cove had hidden from us before - the absolute power of the ocean's waves. As waves swelled up, we could feel the water being sucked out from under us and lunged backward, only to have the wave come crashing down upon us, shoving us foward like rag dolls.

We eventually made our way over to a shelf that dropped off into the open water. It was surprising how easily one could float in this water - so salty. After a bit of treading, and a few people testing how far out the other could go, most of us settled on the shelf - still in the water, but only mid-calf deep. Nonetheless, the waves still had a hold on us. Just before we decided to leave, a good sized wave came in as I was sitting on this natural shelf. This particular wave was stronger than the previous ones and sucked me out toward the end of the shelf. In the headstrong nature of men, I decided to try to fight back and hold myself from the force of the wave. In the unwavering power of nature, it didn't work. Here I am, legs way out in front of me and arms tucked way behind still trying to hold on, and here comes the wave. CRASH. And so did I. Up I go, legs flailing, arms still gripping (or at least trying), and head spinning. A small cut on the hand is my only battle wound, but still the score remains: nature, 1; Tyler, 0.

A voyage back to the villa and a cool shower, and then it was dinner time. Pasta and meatloaf and veggies. And some of the freshest fruit I have ever enjoyed. Apples, bananas, peaches, grapes, watermelon, so hard to choose.

Directly after dinner, we had an our first day of the Italian Crash Course with Barbara, an Italian professor at Clemson. We learned the basic phonetics – when “c” is pronounced as “ch,” “s” as “z,” and so forth. We also got some basic vocab, some of which I will share for your viewing pleasure:

     -Buongiorno (bon-jour-no): Hello (formal)

     -Ciao (chow): Hello

     -Grazie (grat-ze-a): Thank you

     -A presto (aah pre-sto): See you soon

Another thing that I learned is that apparently the name “Tyler” doesn’t exist in the Italian language. So when I said to the teacher, “Sono Tyler,” she quickly responded with “Tyler doesn’t exist!” I found this quite funny. Apparently I don’t exist in Italy ha. So, I have to think of a new “Italian” name. If you have any good suggestions, feel free to post them.

A presto.

-Tyler

The Villa: Day One

Today, we woke up, packed our bags and got out of Hotel Bologna as fast as possible. We were finally villa bound! The villa matches the city – beautiful. Marble floors, marble ceilings, marble columns.  The windows are placed in such a way as to capture the breeze that floats by, natural A/C. Shortly after arriving, finding our room, and putting all of my stuff into my armoire, it was time for lunch. We had some kind of rice with onions, olives and mozzarella that was amazing. Plus fresh fruit. Heck yes.

After lunch, we wait got a bit of a house tour by our Administrator and neighbor, Silvia. She showed us how to use the dishwasher, the washer/dryer, and, most importantly, the coffee machine! That little machine is my favorite. A bit later, someone chimed in that our professor in residence, Professor Bruhns, had said that there was a beach close by and suggested that we go there. A few people, myself included (despite my non-beach-going-ness), took the bait and off we went to the train station. Destination: Genova Nervi. Until we got to the station and realized that we wouldn’t have any time to enjoy the beach if we were to get back before dinner at 7:00. Destination: gelato. And oh, the gelato is heavenly. I myself prefer the white chocolate, but it comes in a variety of flavors that always aim to please.

For dinner, we have gazpacho – similar to a cold tomato soup. Not my favorite, but it’s Italian, so it can’t be too bad, right? After dinner, we had a cleaning frenzy. Everyone wanted to chip in to help clean up the space, since our cook had left for the day, and it’s not her job really. I think that, for this and several more reasons, that we have a great group here with us. For the most part, everyone knows each other, gets along, and can work together with few hardships. I am excited about getting started with this semester, as I think that it will be a memorable one.

 -Tyler

Life Before the Villa

We got in Friday around 12ish and, having heard that the best way to get over jet lag is to just stay up until nightfall local time (+6 hours), we decided to just stay up until it was night in Italy. That’s a lot of not-sleep.

 Hotel Bologna, our one star bed and shower, had a major lack of wifi – like none at all. Luckily, we have friends who are staying in a hotel with wifi. Also luckily, we ran into one of them who had just happened to come back to the hotel because he felt sick. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been back for hours and we would have been up a creek. After our short reunion, we decided to walk around the city a bit and see some of the sights. One of the first things that I noticed was that the plant life in Genova is eerily similar to that of upstate South Carolina – pine, magnolia, and fig trees, boxwoods, hydrangeas, and geraniums. Best I can figure it’s because we have not traveled that far north. Basically, it’s basically home with palm trees.

The setting here is kind of weird. We are right on the ocean…and the mountains. This, however, makes for some gorgeous views. Looking back at the city from seaside, it’s like the soil was peeled back to reveal a bustling civilization upon a hill.

 The food, as expected, is delightful. The pizza is quite flavorful, right down to the sauce. Breakfast, however, is a bit different. Our hotel didn’t have “continental breakfast,” so we went down to the corner store the next morning and got some kind of almond cranberry fruit bars that were pretty tasty. All this time in Genova, however, and I have yet to have a hearty breakfast. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, not to mention my favorite.

 After we all convened again, we decided that we would fancy seeing another fine Italian city and decided on Portofino. The train ride was only half hour long, but it didn’t take us all the way to Portofino – it took us to Santa Margherita Ligure, which is the picture perfect Italian seaside town. The water was blue, the sky bluer, and the hills a dark green. Buildings were similar to those in Genova - placed every so carefully on the hillsides.

Walking around this small town, we happened upon a vast villa that was home to an opera school, in which a rehearsal was ongoing. Walking through the rose garden, overlooking the Mediterranean, listening to an opera – welcome to Italy. The cathedral directly beside the villa was standard-ish on the exterior. White marble, large columns, cornice details, pretty typical. Inside was a totally different story. The ceilings were painted to look as if they extended into the heavens. Each bay along the exterior wall had an icon with a different saint, each with its own lavish housing of a specific pediment and column structure. With some, the marble columns were twisted. One even had the flutes carved into a twisted column. That is extremely impressive. It’s like the stone is melting in the awe of the presence of a deity.

 Our last day before moving in, Sunday, August 19, was much of the same – touring more around the city of Genova. With all of our friends who had arrived in the city yesterday, we went into a church across the street that was very similar to the church in Santa Margherita – bland exterior, but o so lavish inside. These buildings remind me of those rocks that you break open to find crystals – from the outside, it looks just like every other rock; crack it open, and it becomes something worth seeing.

 Overall first impression of Genova: pretty sweet city. The city itself isn’t sketchy, at least not when I was out and about. Although not the cleanest city (political graffiti tears through nearly every building), the people are relatively friendly, the food is amazing, and the gelato is close by. I think that I’m going to enjoy this semester most fully.



-Tyler

The Voyage

The day before I was to leave was filled with a rushed panic of trying to get everything completed before the big trip rolled around – like finishing up the three projects that I was working on since I’d gotten home and final packing and such. Very hard day – I finished up one plan set for a client who needed a garage/apartment up the night before (which we had to have built 27 days from then) so had it down to the addition project that, as we learned from the last post, was basically my project. The race against time was on. I finished it up on time, however – about 9:00 that night. To be fair, I had several things in my way, such as going to get the suburban from the body shop, going to get a scale from my loving grandmother because ours was 20 lbs off and weighing suitcases/repacking. That’s was one crazy day. I feel bad because the last time that I saw my grandma before I left I felt really rushed (and I don’t do so well when I feel rushed). Not exactly the best way to say bye, but I can top it – the day that I left, my little sister was sleeping when I left around 10 (because she tends to not want to get up in the mornings EVER) and I didn’t tell her bye because I didn’t want to wake her up. I’m pretty sure I’ll NEVER live that one down, but if you’re reading this - bye bye sleepy head J.

My dad drove me up to Charlotte and saw me off. Quite nice of him, actually. Mom had to work that day because it was the day that all of the freshman come into Furman and flood her office with ID requests. At the airport, we checked our bags, stormed through security and, like true architecture students, went to get coffee before the plane left at 4:30. My favorite part of a plane ride is taking off. Just the feeling of your stomach dropping when the wheels have just come off the ground and the plane dips before it takes to the skies. After that, the plane ride was pretty boring. It was cool to see the land to give way to the ocean. Flying over the ocean at night, however, was pretty strange. Every time the plane dropped, I felt like we were getting closer and closer to the water. Then the sun came up, a cool sight in itself, and the land came back. We landed in Paris, after playing American and glaring out the window at the Eiffel Tower, and ended up on the wrong end of the sprawling airport, apparently. We landed at Terminal 1, and after some deliberation, decided that we were supposed to be at Terminal 2. So we take a bus. At Terminal 2, we try to go through security, but don’t have our boarding pass, so we have to go find that one. We retrieve out passes and have to go through, around, above, and over through the “blue hallway” to get to the other side of Terminal 2 (which is divided by a major highway). At Terminal 2, take two, we find another bus awaiting our arrival, which takes us to Terminal 2G (which wasn’t attached to Terminal 2). Basically, Charles de Galle Airport is one giant CF.

Another hour and a half to Genova, Italy, heck yes! Of course our first few glimpses were absolutely beautiful. We landed and the first thing that you notice is that Italy really is 15-20 years behind the US (which I had heard from a previous traveler). First off, no wifi to be found. Plus, the terminal is obviously in need of some major TLC, which doesn’t help the case. Our taxi driver got it done though – there is a thin line between maniac and professional driver, and he was just this side of maniac. Off to Hotel Bologna!

Summer '12 Recap

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work as an "architectural intern" at Darien Lake Theme park about half hour outside Buffalo, NY thanks to my friend, Denver Sells, whom I met my first few weeks of Architecture school at Clemson University, whose father works as the Director of Maintenance at the park. Our main goal was to recreate the digital park map that had become an AutoCAD landfill. Everyone seemed to dump all of their highly detailed information into this file without attempting to correlate with anything else that was on the map. The file started out at 20 MB (which is absolutely monstrous) with over 650 layers (which is WAAAY too many) and by the time Denver and I were through, the file was down to a much more manageable 3.5 MB with about 55 layers. The file can now be used as a tool for master planning for the future of the park - buildings and landscape can now be easily be removed and new rides and shops can be added with ease.

As well, we had several remodeling projects that we completed; more or less. Each time we began a new project, we would first go out and measure the building and draw the floor plans in AutoCAD. From there, we consulted with Mr. Sells on how to best achieve the goals of the specific department whose building we were reorganizing. In each project, the major thing that we had to consider was how people were going to move through the space (an obvious but very much true fact). This being said, the spaces that we were to create had to have an easily understood and consistent flow about them – in other words, anyone who walks in the doors should know immediately where to go.

Once we got back to the motherland (being Travelers Rest), I hit the ground running, which is quite fine with me. My dad, a residential contractor and owner of Silvers Construction (Visit our Website!), had a few things for me to do once I returned home. Within a few days, I was back at it – meeting with clients and drawing an addition, a renovation, and a new garage. This was actually my favorite part of the summer – during this three week span, I decided to slow things down and concentrate on doing what I know how to do. Before this summer, the last month or so really, I had an utter distrust of myself with the field of architecture; nothing else, just this one aspect of my life. I think that I’ve finally learned to trust that I know what I’m doing – now I just have to do it.

The last bit of summer in the motherland, my father entrusted me with an addition for an older woman in town. He and I met the lady for the initial consultation, but after that, the project was pretty much mine! My father helped me draw up some initial options to play with, but it was up to me to meet with our client and ensure that she got exactly what she was looking for; it was up to me to ensure that the driving force behind our business, quality in customization, was held up throughout the entire project. I met with our client a few days before I left for Italy and we resolved a few small details. From there, I proceeded to draw up all of the necessary plans to have the project completed – an existing floor plan, a demo plan, a new floor plan, new foundation and roof plans, and elevations – and then I left them behind for my father to do his thing – give our client a price and have the project finally built. I feel as this project was my father trusting that I know what I’m doing – I’ve been around construction and remodeling my entire life and have seen it from the inside out.  I also cememted my trust in myself through the completion of this project – I realized that I understand more about the construction process than I had initially thought. I realize that this construction is an extremely difficult field to master and that years of experience lead to full understanding, but I think that I have enough of the basics to run with it, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.