I woke up at 6am yesterday to prepare for our departure from Amsterdam and our day trip to Almere. Almere is a unique town in the Netherlands, about an hour outside of Amsterdam. The city was designed, built, and constructed only 30 years ago. The master planner was Rem Koolhaas. It's still a work in progress. At least one new housing development is built each year. In the last 10 years the population went from 80,000 to 180,000. We wandered through the exhibition experimental housing projects, which were incredibly interesting but not necessarily appealing. The Dutch are NOT afraid to combine materials in their buildings. And they are big on cantelevers. They produce some pretty crazy designs.
An architect, René van Zuuk was nice enough to meet with us and give us a tour around the city and inside some of the buildings. There are a lot of big name architects involved in the development of this city like OMA, SANAA, William Alsop, David Chipperfield, etc. It's completely contemporary and follows the theoretical design we learn at Michigan. The whole thing is in layers. There's a "subworld" of parking and infrastructure that is invisible to the pedestrian. Then there's shops on the first level, housing above that, bridges above that, green rooftops with more houses with front lawns. It's like nothing I've ever seen. The community seems to be closely knit. The SANAA (firm which built the Toledo Glass Museum) building is a city art center. They teach art, dance, music, theater, and more. There were kids and families swamming the building. It was pretty inspirational. Hopefully one day I'll create architecture which can effectively reach out to people.
After our tour of Almere, we hopped on our night train to Berlin. My friends bought a bunch of wine and cake and we celebrated my birthday on the train. We had 11 people in a tiny sleepercar meant for 6 people. It was a great time and we met some other Americans and Canadians, who we ran into today.
Our lofts in Berlin are remarkable (though very expensive). [We're also in a good location - about 10 minute walk from the Central train station on the East Berlin side.] You can check them out at miniloft.com. There's an architectural firm at the top of the building. Somehow I ended up in a boy room instead of a girl room. But that's okay. Boys are easier to live with anyways. I'm rooming with Andrew, Erik, and Kelly.
Today we slowly explored the city. It's nice not to have to rush and see everything all at once. We bought our monthly transportation pass and took it to the Tiergarden park area. It an enormous park but then again we're in an enormous city. ENORMOUS!
We visited the monument of the angel and hiked our way to the top. Then we just laid in the grass and relaxed for a while before grabbing an authentic hearty German meal at this whole-in-the-wall restaurant which Lars recommended to us. And now I'm here. Finally. A moment to relax. It feels great. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Hope you all had a great Mother's Day.
xoxo
(Almere_Showing the top level of townhouses)
(Almere_Showing the above and below ground levels.)
(SANAA Building_Showing the families in the building)
(SANAA Building_Showing how the building butted up to the water)
(Night Train_Birthday Bash)
(Berlin_Approaching the monument)
(Berlin_View of the park from the top of the monument)
(SANAA Building_Showing the families in the building)
(SANAA Building_Showing how the building butted up to the water)
(Night Train_Birthday Bash)
(Berlin_Approaching the monument)
(Berlin_View of the park from the top of the monument)
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