The Social Scene

I've had a couple of visitors since I last wrote. Matt's friend Evan met up with me on Thursday and joined our architecture march. Lars gave us a tour around the city; some of the things we visited or looked at: remainders of the wall, the Church of Reconciliation, Alexanderplatz, the TV tower, some buildings by Peter Eisenman, Philip Johnson, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, a handful of memorials and plazas, and the Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum. It was a pretty full day but incredibly informational. It means a lot more coming from a guy who has lived in the city and remembers it the way it was. 

Evan joined us for dinner and a trip to the bars. The next day our class took a trip to J. Mayer H. architectural firm in Berlin. They had some really bizarre and expensive designs but incredibly interesting. For example they had a 2 million euro budget for a house which ended up being 8 million euro. He said the clients were difficult and wanted to change a lot of things after they were already built; but he also said that you need crazy clients to complete their crazy projects. Their projects really relate to what we learn at Michigan - way of thinking, theoretical design, and use of technology.  The firm is working on a huge plaza-like structure in Seville, Spain. It's definitely worth looking up. 

Late that night Johanna arrived. The next day we went to the Modern Art Museum and experienced the most amazing sound installation. There was a large open room with speakers hanging at all different lengths in cocentric circles. People sat and laid down in the middle of the circle surrounded by these speakers each with a different sound. The show was called "Murder of the Crows." The sounds were so incredibly clear you really thought that there was a bird, piano, wind, or singer somewhere in the room. It was so realistic sounding!

We also went to the artist commune in our neighborhood. I'm not sure if I already mentioned it but it was this old abandoned war-struck building which was squatted by artists in 1990. They made a colony and have been fighting on and off with the government to hold on to the property. These artists live, eat, work, drink, and hang out there. It's covered in graffiti (the preferred medium of Berlin) and full of the funky artistic youth of Berlin. You can buy their artwork there to support their fight. It's so rebellious and has an underground kind of feeling to it. I've never seen anything like it and find it completely fascinating. I've taken some great photos there. 

Last night was our first clubbing night in Berlin. A group of 10 or so of us headed out to the club at around midnight and returned at 6 am. People were still in line to get into the club  at 5am even thought the sun was already up. Crazy! It was a blast but I dunno how much more techno I can take. Haha.

For obvious reasons today was a lazy day. A group of us went to the Tiergarten to relax, read, and do some homework. Johanna left to return to Munich. Erik and I went on a run with Greece in mind. In only 10 days a group of us are traveling to Greece for 6 days. Have to get back in shape! We're flying into Athens, staying there for a couple days, and then making our way to the islands. I can't wait!

Living the life. Love you all and miss you tons! xoxo