A Week Come and Gone

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last wrote. I'm trying to think of how I can sum up the entire week in one post...Here are the highlights:

GRAFT: One day this week we went to a really cool architectural firm called GRAFT. They hit the jackpot when Brad Pitt asked them to design him and Angelina Jolie a house. Since then they've opened up a office in LA and Bejing. Brad was the one who called them up to get going on a project in New Orleans, so they organized a building campaign with famous architects and the Make it Right Foundation. The cool part was that it was all based on the people's feedback. Designs were chosen by the people themselves instead of doing mass quantities of contemporary housing which would be irrelevant to the culture and style.

They also just won a huge competition in Berlin for the property of the former airport Tempelhof. A large part of their success is this consideration of an architect's social responsibility. So for example in their competition entry, one of their main ideas is to revitalize the run-down baseball diamonds and buildings that were closed because of the airport. So instead of taking up all the land with a massive building, they are basically rearranging the perimeter of the fence and opening up a large portion of the land to the Berliners. The open space gives the Berliners an opportunity to define the space in their own way and create an identity for the park through makeshift outdoor eating areas with beer stands or artisian markets, etc. I think it's a really refreshing approach to land use and social considerations. Architecture may not be able to cure the world of it's problems but it can open up spaces for communities to grow. I find it pretty inspiring. Their website is graftlab.com if your interested.

Boat tour: We finally did a boat tour of the city. It looks very different from the water but it was a good way to get a feel for the large landmarks, the museum row, and see the governmental area.

Lost voice: Unfortunately, I lost my voice this week. All the coughing lead to a day and a half period where I couldn't even get a whisper out. I isolated myself and did work until it came back. Otherwise it was too tempting to talk back to people. Fortunately its back and my cough is going away. I feel like everyone is taking turns with the cough. College kids are prone to everything.

Housing developments: In 1957 there was a housing exhibition in West Berlin. One of the days this week was dedicated to meeting with people and architects who lived in the buildings and their thoughts on the projects. Although some of the buildings were pretty ugly and outdated it was still worth seeing what social housing was like in the 50s while the country was still recovering from the war. We were supposed to do a self guided tour of a 1950s housing project in East Berlin but it started pouring rain and we ended up going back to the apartments instead.

Bunker Tour: This was probably one of a favorite things we have done so far! There is this old war-time bunker that housed 5,000 people at one point. It's a massive above-ground bomb shelter. It's uses have changed throughout the years: fruit storage, notorious clubs, and art exhibitions. It's now a privately owned Boros Collection (http://www.sammlung-boros.de/index.php?id=2711&L=1) and you need to book a tour to go through it. We had this great tour guide who was extremely knowledgable about all of the contemporary artwork. A lot of the work was designed for the bunker specifically. Some of it was even built inside of it and can never be moved out. There were even a few that went through walls through cut-outs, or spanned several stories, etc. They have knocked down walls and removed floors in order to create bigger spaces and terraces. It's really interesting to look at the stratification of the walls and see where the concrete floors used to be. The artwork was amazing. Strange at times. But amazing. Probably one of my favorites was an electric fan that was hanging down from the ceiling. It rotated and swung all around the room responding to the people in the room. The closer you got to it the smaller movements it made because you were blocking the air; the further you got from it the more wild it got. Crazy stuff.

Festival: Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of Germany (and its government). There was a huge festival all-day and into the night in the Tiergarten. It started with stages and vendors down by the Bradenberg gate and went for miles. Me, Sarah, Ally, Erik, Andrew, and Kelly just hung around drinking beer, eating crepes, listening to music, people watching, etc all day. Tough life.

Kelly actually brought his guitar with him. We've been doing that a lot lately since our computers are gone. Just play the guitar and sing. Even make up songs (blues about our laptops..haha). We took it even further - Andrew, Kelly, and Ally would play and sing for beer. They got free beer twice yesterday. Haha! So funny. I've got it all on video. Same song different places. We'll see how far it gets us.

More live music: Last night we went back to the artist colony for some live rock music. There was a great band playing in a small club and it wasn't TECHNO! Haha. We had a blast but once again got back as the sun was rising. I'm exhausted.

Wannsee: Today the guys, Sarah and I took the train to Wannsee which is a harbor and lake area on the outskirts of Berlin. There was a nice park but unfortunately most of the areas around the lake were privately owned and we didn't get too close to the water. Oh well...only 3 days til Greece! Can't wait.

Miss you all. Love you lots.