JAKRIBORG, SKÅNE

In my previous post, I wrote about our current atlas workshop, in which we were to individually do analysis on different given locations throughout the Øresund region. Since we were four students whose locations were on the Swedish side of the Øresund region, we decided to follow one another to our locations. The first student, Helge, was given the site of Jakriborg, which is located directly between the coastal city of Malmö and the university city of Lund.

Jakriborg was Helge's site, but nevertheless I found it so fascinating, that I simply had to document my experience there. By looking at the picture above, when do you think this town was planned? The 17th century? The 18th perhaps? Wrong again. The Jakriborg residential area was built from the late 1990'ies till 2003! This urban development is a perfect example of the New Urbanism movement, which focuses on urban planning for pedestrians rather than vehicles. The most interesting in this certain project, is that the architects chose to built the entire area as an imitation of a pre-industrial Hansa town. At the arrival from the station, the town area is even surrounded by a fortress wall, built in a way to truely look medieval! Furthermore, the town features a town square, which almost exactly resembles one of a medieval town as well as details such as overhead passages between the town's buildings as seen below.

What troubles me the most is that I can't really decide on my oppinion of this area. On one hand, there is the obvious. Designing an artificial medieval town is not only amusement-park-esque kitsch, but also somewhat of a sin and taboo in modern architecture. I mean, the architects could at least have attempted to make an abstraction of such a town! The whole medieval theme gives the town a rather fake appearance, and this is litterally visible in parts of the buildings where low-cost construction materials have pealed off and reveal isolation boards beneath the "historic" facades! 

On the other hand, if you (as hard at it may be!) ignore the "aesthetics" of the project, I believe that it has certain qualities to it as well. The entire area is planned for pedestrians, with small paths between the houses and small squares in front of the buildings for children to play. The area is a bit of a labyrinth if you will - one that features a fine variety of outdoor spaces, as well as a fine (but perhaps a bit too huge) diversity between the buildings in the area. Walking around the area, one can observe that the locals have even made their surrounding public spaces a bit as their own by having facade plants and other greenery that makes the public spaces more personal. In general, it seems that there is a strong collective spirit among the local citizens and there is a feeling of a common public space with life rather than autonomous private gardens and empty public squares. I believe the picture below captures this feel quite well.

Below is a map of the development site which shows the plan of the entire project (excuse me for the bad quality of the photo). The only part of it which is actually built, is the southern-most area (the slightly isolated rectangle). What happened is that the developers of the site went bankrupt and the project was discontinued, despite great interest among families looking forward to move in to a rather different housing area. 

The sudden discontinuation of the development has clearly left its marks on the area. Below is a picture that illustrates this quite clearly.

To sum things up, Jakriborg is in my oppinion an interesting urban experiment. On one hand, it boasts urban qualities that, quite litterally, invite life to the outdoor area through small squares, paths and green areas, while on the other hand, it recreates an artificial medieval town in a manner that is just too kitschy. Perhaps the aesthetics of the area may be every contemporary architect's nightmare, but among people who have no specific oppinions on the aesthetics and theories of our line of work, I can actually imagine that they probably see this as a pleasant place to live (especially for families with children I suppose). But again, that is only for people who truely can ignore the artificialness of the area and who perhaps accept replacing real cities with amusement park towns.

Further reading:

- Jakriborg Wiki

- Andy Minchev

TRIP TO AMSTERDAM

The first time I was in Amsterdam, was around the year 2002. At that time, I was only about 12 years old, and have a very limited memory of my experience in Amsterdam and Holland. What little memory I have left of that trip, is that I found Amsterdam to be a rather pleasant city. This nostalgic memory paved the path for my Amsterdam trip this year.

Before I proceed, it is perhaps important to mention that before leaving for Holland, I decided not to do some research on what to see, and what not to see (like I often do), and instead embrace and explore the city more spontaneously. This meant that I didn't go on targeted hunts for modern architectural buildings, but rather wandered around the city streets, seeing whatever would come in my way. 

Already on the first day (out of just three), I noticed that Amsterdam has a lot in common with Copenhagen. The bike culture in Amsterdam is very similiar to the one in Copenhagen - not infrastructurally superior, but nevertheless quite efficient it seemed. The old city area is placed in a similar manner to that of Copenhagen, but of a rather greater size. Both cities furthermore have old industrial harbours, which are both currently in the process of being rebuilt to new, modern service and commercial venues. And last but not least, both Denmark and Holland have a rather low topology, which in the case of the two cities, seems to create a similar local weather. One of the greatest differences between the two cities on the other hand, is the vast amount of tourists in Amsterdam. The city's population may be slightly smaller than that of Copenhagen, but with Amsterdam being an extremely popular tourist destination, the tourist population is remarkable. The vast tourism in the city has boosted a bustling café and nightlife (especially in the Red Light District illustrated on the picture below), that brings a dynamic to the city, that Copenhagen quite simply can't compete with.

No matter where you go, and how small the streets you wander, there are people practically everywhere. Tourists taking snapshots of the charming, tilted historic buildings. Local cyclists rushing through the narrow canal streets. Small cafés hidden even the tiniest of passages as illustrated below. Amsterdam is full of life.

The city itself is nothing short of an international example - a statement if you will - as to how much life a city can attract, thanks to pedestrian and cyclist planning. The plentiful canals that characterize the city furthermore create an unrivaled charming atmosphere (except for Venice I can imagine - a city which I long to travel to). In short, Amsterdam is an absolute success when it comes to a living city - no doubt about that! Even the old buildings jump  to life, as their old facades lean towards the streets as shown below:

From an architectural point of view, I think that the city as a general experience is really charming and pleasant. On the other hand, one of the things I can't make up my mind on, is the endless rows of the charming in-fill canal houses. Considering the scale of the city rows, the small, narrow houses really make the long row scale more pleasant, but in the long run, I felt that these houses started getting a bit too repetitive. The endless rows of such houses often ended up looking too monotone to the eye in my oppinion, and unlike most pre-neo-classicistic (I may be making up architectural terms now, but I hope you know what I mean!) historic buildings, which often vary in size, color, shape, etc. even when in rows, the Amsterdam houses seemed just to look a bit too much like one another. There are of course the occasional buildings that stand out, such as the one above, or the tiny house below, but the variations are very limited.

I am perhaps being a tad bit too critical right now, so to be honest, the buildings in the oldest town part (around the Red Light District area) do indeed vary quite a lot! Besides the narrow, charming historic streets, Amsterdam (and Holland generally) are well known for their modern architecture. As I mentioned in the beginning, I chose to experience the city first-sight, so I didn't look up any specific architectural buildings and came across rather few of the modern ones around the historic center, where I spent the most of my time. But I did come across one rather interesting little building by the harbour area (shown below). This little gem is actually the Amsterdam architectural center. I really don't have much to say about it, since the building really speaks for itself.

Later, I would come to regret not doing even just a tiny bit of research on the modern architecture of the city, since having seen this interesting little structure, I began to fear I had missed out on a lot of such interesting architectural eye-candies. With that said, I have yet a lot more to explore in Amsterdam, and I'm sure I'll drop by again some day in the near years. All in all, a lovely city, with an absolutely amazing atmosphere, charm and life. I've tried being critical at some of its ways, but I have to be honest about the fact, that I simply adore it!

Further reading:

- Amsterdam Wiki

- Amsterdam Architectural Centre

P.S. The weather was rather unfortunate during my stay, and therefore I apologize for the somewhat grayish appearance of many of my pictures.

- Andy Minchev

TRIP TO MADRID AND CADIZ

As you may have noticed, it has been a while since my last blog post. This is due to many things, but primarily due to my semester assignment, and a study trip to Spain. Since these university events are now over, and I have begun my summer vacation, I'll try to be more active with the blog - Starting with a post about the mentioned study trip to Spain.

Before I continue with this post, I have to say, that this is far from my first time in Spain (my sixth, and second in Madrid), so I consider myself somewhat familiar with Spanish culture and the urban life (although my Spanish is rather poor - for now at least!). Our study trip consisted of five days in Madrid and three days in the southern city of Cadiz. The study trip was mainly focused around visiting works of modernist Spanish architects, but also more contemporary architectural works of architectural firms such as Ecosistema Urbano and MVRDV. Our study trip was furthermore a very open one, in the sense that we weren't completely "forced" to follow a schedule to see the sights, but were instead given great freedom to experience the cities and culture as part of the study trip. This also meant frequent daytime siesta sessions, vast amounts of tapas and at times, a sangria or two too many - But experience Madrid and Cadiz, we most certainly did! (the above picture, was one of the views from our apartment - overviewing the rooftops in the area near Puerto del Sol)

There are many a story that can be told about my trip to Madrid and Cadiz, but this being an architectural blog, I'll stick to writing about the buildings we've seen and comment on my opinions on them, as I ever so often do. The first architectural work we visited (well, besides the new Terminal 4 at the Madrid airport, which can easily be considered architecturally noteworthy), was the Caixa Forum in Madrid, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Before the new building, the site consisted of an old transformer building, as seen on the facade. This old transformer building was lifted up by the architects, to create a shadowy and cool space under the buidling, as a gathering spot for tourists and locals. Furthermore, the building was added two extra stories on top (one including a café). The extra floors consist of a metal structure, with tiny pixelated openings, that give an interesting lighting effect on the interior. The building as a whole is very functional and pleasant, and the space bellow the building, is indeed pleasant and cool, which is rather important during the hot and dry Madrid summers. The building furthermore had a fantastic staircase leading up to the museum lobby, as seen bellow.

Our next stop in Madrid was the Reina Sofia Museum of Art, with a focus on the new Jean Nouvel extension of the museum. This extension stood in great contrast to the existing building, without any reference to the existing one as a matter of fact, which I see as a very negative thing. My friend whom I was visiting the building with, had to go to the toilet really badly, and due to the building's confusing placement of rooms, it took us a great while to find a toilet, and oddly, it was hidden at the second floor in a certain part of the building, in which one definitely wouldn't expect it to be! Furthermore, the fourth floor on the elevator, marked as "terrace", is a floor where you enter a metal room, and can only go down - This was probably one of the most ridicilous architectural rooms I have ever experienced, the type you post to funny picture websites! The actual terrace of the building does offer great views of its area and the red glossy roof does indeed create an interesting effect, but still lacks connection to the original Reina Sofia building. 

Furthermore, the building has a system of terraces, which is a good idea, except that they are all closed. This could've worked out if there was a park system on these terraces, and say, cafés and such. The colors of the building were mostly dark and gray, which really didn't seem to fit in, nor did they create a vibrant feel to area, as intended by the architect. All in all, the idea of making a social area underneath the huge "roof" is interesting, but if you ask me, Jean Nouvel's design has failed to make it so, and instead created a somewhat confusing structure, that doesn't even have the slighest reference to the museum, that it has been built as an extension for.

These were some of the noteable works we saw on the first day. The rest of the day was spent roaming freely around the city without a further organized plan. Already by this point, I have noticed that by telling even the smallest of stories about each of the notable structures that I've seen during this trip, this post will extended to an unbearably long lenght - So I'll try to shorten things down a bit! So on to the second day...

The second day was basically a tour of Madrid's nothern suburban areas. Many a place were visited on this day, but I've cut the sights down to two buildings, which after my oppinion, show a great contrast on the success rate of contemporary architectural development. The first of the two examples, the one above, is a kindergarden (and also community center) designed by the Spanish architectural firm Ecosistema Urbano. This first example was according to me, the positive one. Placed in a lifeless industrial area, this kindergarden building and its surrounding structures have created a triving green park area and a vibrant hang out place for children, teenagers and also adults. The building features many sustainable feats, such as natural ventilation, gray water treatment, natural lighting and many others. Amongst the architectural students at the site, I experienced discussions on the quality of the aesthetics of the building, and it is indeed a subject that can be discussed, but to me, the positive impression was emphasized on the building's achievements in creating a great social and natural area in an industrial neighbourhood, and also its many sustainable feats - which unlike many of the other buildings we visited, were indeed fully functional and successful.

The second building is a social housing highrise project by the somewhat infamous Holland-based MVRDV architects. The main concept of this building is to elevate the traditional "block" apartments into the vertical level, thus creating great views for the residents of the building, and also creating a panorama terrace that allows the residents to hang out at a vertical terrace with a rather dramatic view of Madrid and its surroundings. It all sounds good right? Did the project go as planned? No. Absolutely not. First of all, I'm not a big fan of high rise social buildings. No matter how much decoration is put on the facade, I believe that the massive form of such a structure always ends up being the same old concrete slab. But that is the least of the problems here. The one special feature about the structure - The terrace with the panorama - Has been permanently closed down, due to some party that went wrong with teenagers throwing bottles off the terrace. The building's surrounding "park" consists of a surrounding grass plain, with the grass absolutely dead due to lack of gardening maintenance. So with all this said, we only met two teenage boys outside the building, sitting on a staircase listening to music. They explained that that staircase was the only place left where they could hang out. It was an architectural nightmare to say the least. 

Our last day in Madrid was spent browsing yet a few more in-the-city architectural works, mostly of the early modernist era. The first building on the contrary, was actually one that is still in the process of being built. The building was an extension to the Royal Museum (right next to the Palacio Real). The project for the site was to be a massive extension, that would be built next to two very important historic structures - The Palacio Real, and the Royal Museum building. The architects who won the competition, won due to their clever idea of building this massive extension along a cliff that is situated right by the two structure, this way allowing the new museum extension to still be a massive structure, while also making it discreet along the cliff side, allowing the two historic structures to still stay dominant in the panorama. The building has yet several years before it sees completion, and despite its simple use of rectangular concrete beems, the lighting in the building was fantastic, as my above and bellow photos (hopefully) illustrate. (I forgot to mention that the building is designed by Spanish Mansilla & Tunon)

Once again fast forwarding into the trip, I bring you to Darth Vader's unofficial residence on the humble and somewhat unpopular little planet of Earth (now would be a good time to look at the photo bellow!). There you go! Sci-fi architecture in Madrid! This building is designed by the Spanish architect Francisco Javier Saenz de Oíza and the it was completed in 1969. The building - Torres Blancas (The White Towers) displays the so-called organicismo style - Spanish organic modernism - and is considered to be one of the finest examples of such architecture. The reason for the building being called the White Towers, is because the building was originally supposed to be painted white (and there should've been two of them), but due to economic issues, the contractor was forced to spare the paintjob. Note the time it was built - It is no secret, that the building was also heavily inspired by the space race between the USSR and the USA at the time, with its space age inspired forms. Furthermore, this building is infamous for its confusing and labyrinth-like plan. The building is even considered to have small hidden rooms and such, waiting to be explored!

This was the last official building on our Madrid tour, and the next day, we took the shuttle (shuttle as in bus, unfortunately not a space one!) towards the historic coastal city of Cadíz. On our way, we had a few stops planned, with some architectural sights, but only one of them truely grabbed my attention.

This building is a youth center in Mérida. The building was designed by Selgas Canos - An architectural firm that we visited while in Madrid, and also their residence - A most interesting building, that I have choosen not to upload here due to privacy to their home. A lot of their work is characterized by the use of many bright colors, that often appear to give their buildings great life and make them dynamic. The most notable thing about this project, is probably the impressive organic forms, that were achieved despite a very limited budget. Of what we were told, and what we saw, it seemed that this building, like Ecosistema Urbano's kindergarden, has succeeded in making a pleasant and vibrant environment for teenagers and the local youth. The most characteristic is perhaps the building's skatepark, sitting areas and a climbing wall, that all connect in harmony with the great organic roof structure. The only minus about the building, is that it is surrounded by a fence, and with forbidden entrance when outside working hours. Generally, they seem to have a great security craze in Spain, which results in many beautiful buildings and "public" areas being closed to the general public (which, ironically, is whom they were intended for).

Ah yes. Finally, we came to Cadiz - A lovely historic coastal (former fortress) city, built in the most traditional of Mediterranean styles - Romantic narrow streets filled with pleasant shadows, cafés and the occasional plazas. Few modern buildings were featured on our tour in this city, so we were given great freedom to wander the lovely narrow streets and experience the history of the place, rather than the modern additions. But much of this freedom was also spent on the beach, which we had longed for, for so long, having been stuck on the Spanish mainland with temperatures as high as 43 degrees (C)! We were in Cadiz for only three days, and due to the casual nature of our stay there, I believe it is about the right time to end this rather lengthy post of mine. With that said, all I have to say is, adios amigos!

Further reading:

Architects:

- http://www.ecosistemaurbano.com/

- http://www.mvrdv.nl/#/news

- http://eng.archinform.net/arch/291.htm

- http://www.selgascano.net/

- http://mansilla-tunon.blogspot.com/

Cities:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadiz

Museums:

- http://www.museoreinasofia.es/index.html

- http://www.museodelprado.es/

P.S. - My next post will (finally) be about my semester assignment.

- Andy Minchev

ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK

During the weekend of week 17, two friends and I went on a short trip to a vacation home, in Northern Zealand (the northern part of the island on which the Danish capital lies). Unfortunately, I was rather ill during this short trip, so we never managed to walk larger distances (the area has a wonderful woodland, with lots of wild nature and also some historic buildings in the woodland as well, so it was a great shame that my condition was as it was). But despite my illness, there was this abandoned amusement park close to where we stayed, which we simply had to experience.

The amusement park, once a bustling attraction for the whole family, with vast lands for everything from gigantic playgrounds to gokart circuits and rollercoasters to petting zoos. But with the economic crisis of 2008, the amusement park was declared bankrupt, and has remained abandoned since. Of course, being abandoned, it has during this three year period been vandalized and plundered for all material remains. But more interesting from the architectural point of view, has for me been to study how the buildings slowly have become subject to decay, and how nature has slowly started taking over the abandoned area. Unfortunately for my study, nature's impact on the abandoned park, hadn't been as visual as I had expected, but still, I documented as much of it as possible from what we saw.

A good example was the gokart center, with a facade on which vegetation had started growing naturally. Despite somewhat stable asphalt on the circuit, minor weeds were also beginning to appear on the track. All wooden structures were furthermore weakened and clearly affected by the lack of maintenance, such as the wood not being polished. It was interesting to see how much damage the wooden structures in the amusement park had suffered due to this.

Besides the wooden structures, it was also interesting to see the impact on the playground areas such as the one above. Here, nature's impact on the park is more clear to see. During my childhood in Copenhagen, I remember once being in this park, and this playground area was really well maintained, with freshly cut grass, small artificial ponds and such. This I remember to have been a little pond you had to cross, now all dried up and vegetated to the point at which it is barely passable.

Close to this playground area, was a giant "Viking hall" building - Built in a style that imitates traditional Nordic architecture from the Viking era. This hall must have been some sort of a cafeteria or such, but as the photo shows, what seem to have been the kitchen quarters, are here completely destroyed, for the lack of a better word. The interesting thing about this structure, is that unlike the others, the wooden construction seemed surprisingly strong and well-maintained. I believe this could be due to the use of a stronger type of wood, or rather one that fits better with the local weather conditions (the wood was indeed different from the rest of the structures in the park).

And now to the more eiree part of our tour. There was an abandoned house with just about everything left in it, such as furniture, clothes, and all sorts of household items (it seemed that there had been more items, but these have no doubt been plundered). We wondered why all these items were still there, as if the owners (most likely the owner of the park lived there) had packed a few bags and escaped the place in a hurry. Either way, it was in here that the work of decay had perhaps been the most visual. The picture above is of the livingroom in the house - I believe it speaks for itself.

Close to this house, was a building next to the main entrance, which seemed to have been like a complex with a restaurant, some offices and a gift shop. As you can see, the entrance to the restaurant now looks like something from a horror flick. The pictures here may not present the more stereotypical kind of abandoned amusement park, but considering that such places are generally very very rare in Denmark, it was a great experience for me to witness the effects of decay, and the change of architecture after it. At our point of exit, we were questioned by two security guards (who were surprisingly friendly!), who also told us more about the place. As it was clearly visible, it had been during several occasions been vandalized by local hooligans, and it had also been plundered by groups og gypsies. Furthermore, the place was to be torn down the following week (which means it is torn down as I write!) - Which means that my two friends and I are very likely the last people to ever take photos of the place! 

- Andy Minchev

TRIP TO BERLIN

During the Easter holiday, a few friends and I spontaneously decided to take a roadtrip to Berlin. Now Berlin is no new city to me - Me brother used to study (architecture as well) in Dresden, so my parents and I have been in and past Berlin quite a few times in the last decade. But this time, it was my first visit to the city with my new architectural knowings and oppinions, so the experience was significantly different.

Berlin, like London (which I visited about two months ago), is yet another great European metropolis. Now I assume most of you readers are well familiar with the city of Berlin, and it's dramatic history as well, so I'll skip the long historic writings and focus more on my experience of the city. But before skipping the entire "lecture", I believe there are a few things that are worthy of mentioning about the architectural styles of the city. As you most likely know, the city was split up between parts during the Cold War era - Eastern and Western Berlin. The eastern part of the city was at the time under influence of the USSR and thus the architectural style was strongly influenced from the styles that were dominant in the Soviet Republic. The west on the other hand, was strongly influenced by Western European and American styles - Such as post-modernism and western modernism. The eastern side was on the otherhand characterized by the rationalistic style, which was dominant throughout the entire USSR due to its fitting image towards the communistic idealogy. The two styles on each side of the border are still quite visible today, which if you ask me, has created a bit of a stylistic chaos in the city. Fortunately the city is changing towards a more harmonious style, that connects the styles of the two borders, but it is a process that undoubtfully will take decades yet. Above is a photo of a USSR-era highrise building that has been redesigned into a hotel, with a more modern and pleasant facade.

So away we go from the history lesson and back to the more subjective and personal material. I've always found it a good thing that the center of Berlin is placed in a fairly close area, thus being a city with a clearly defined downtown area. The area I speak of is the one where the Reichstag and the Brandenburgertür are located and on to the Potsdamerplatz with the Jewish monument on the way. And then in towards east by Checkpoint Charlie and on to the museum island. All these landmarks are within a few minutes of walking distance, which I believe is a vital feat when defining a city center. One place did unfortunately is a while away, is the infamous shopping street, Kurfürstendamm Strasse. As my friends and I experienced during our stay in Berlin, it was no doubt the busiest street in the city (pedestrian wise). I find it a shame that it isn't closer to the downtown monuments and landmarks, but to be fair, you naturally can't just move a street closer to some place (imagine the possibilities if you could though!). Above is a picture of an element of one of the taller buildings on the Ku'damm Strasse (as the locals call it). 

Despite the slightly chaotic structuring of the city (as one can expect for a city of it's size and history), human interaction and life seemed to be plentiful throughout the streets. Germany as a nation is well known for their automotive cultural, and when walking the streets, you quickly notice that Germans seem to be rather proud of their engineering skills and automotive creations. The urban infrastructure highly prioritizes space for vehicles, rather than pedestrians, perhaps due to this cultural tendency amongst the Germans. But yet again, the Berlin infrastructure seems inviting to pedestrians, due to a great abundance of trees at just about every street! One thing I admire about Berlin, is the new Potsdamer Platz area. The architectural value of this area is a thing of taste, but the area functions perfectly in a social and interactive manner. The photo above is a picture of the tent that covers the Sony Center space, which is filled with restaurants and cafés, all filled with people. Never have I seen a modern complex in Europe that attracts as many visitors as Berlin's Sony Center! Now before I get too enthusiastic about the great social qualities of the Sony Center, I might want to explain what it is first... Or, I'll just choose to be a lazy bugger and make you check out this link instead. Read it yet? So how about it, huh?

A five minute walk away from the Potsdamer Platz, we find the now somewhat famous Jewish Monument (as seen on the photo above). Now unlike the Sony Center area, I'm really disappointed with this monumental square. Now don't get me wrong, I feel bad, really bad, for all the millions of Jewish people whose lives were lost during the war, but this is no monument for such a tragic and dark part of the German history. Making a huge square with concrete blocks in different heights isn't going to make anyone sad or remember the poor people who went missing during the war - It is the perfect recipe for a parkour runners dream, or a huge playground for children running around, jumping on blocks, and playing hide and seek amongst them. The possibilities for interaction at this "monument" are fantastic. Who would've thought a bunch of simple concrete blocks could create such a fun space? And yet, one isn't allowed to interact with the square "due to its symbolic value". Peter Eisenman, the designer of the monument, really didn't think this one through if you ask me. It be interesting to make a replica of this monument in some city, without its tragic symbolism, and see how people interact with it - I think it could turn up to be quite a busy playground for people of all ages!

Ah yes. Finally of course, we have the remains of the Berlin Wall. Once a tragic structure that seperated one from the other, today a display of some of the finest Cold War graffiti. I have only attached this one picture above, for there are too many to fit in here on this humble post. But a simple google of the words "Berlin Wall Art" will get you there! Now I believe I've come to the point of this post, in which I've mentioned just the most of the stuff on my mind (it least the stuff there's room for!). I can highly recommend a trip to Berlin at any time, it sure is a city with plenty of life, and lots to do. Oh and did I mention the nightlife is great? The nightlife is great! 

(Do note that my friends and I were on a rather short visit, so a lot of the city remains unexplored from my point of the story)

Further reading:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Center

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe

- Andy Minchev

TRIP TO HVEN

On the occasion of the beginning of our new semester assignment, my department went on a three-day trip to the little island of Hven, where our assignment will be based. Hven is a Swedish island which has a length of 4.5 km and a width of 2.5 km, with an all-year population of about 360 people (1200 during the summer season). The island is geographically placed right between Zealand (the island on which Copenhagen lies) and Skåne (Southern Sweden). It is mainly an agricultural island, but is also a popular family tourism destination during the summer, and also home to the Tycho Brahe museum - A museum dedicated to the infamous astronomer, who lived on the island before moving to Prague, where he lived till his days' end. With that said, honestly, that is just about all there is on Hven.

The landscape on Hven was rather interesting. Despite being the tiny island that it is, the island had a great variety of nature landscapes. The island has minor forests that are almost truly wild, great open field plains, a coastal scenery of beaches and cliffs, and also, small towns of both historic value, and modern resort villages. The great variation of landscape on the island is perhaps one of the reasons why our teachers chose the island as a location for our new project. On the first day, we were simply told to roam the island, and sketch down any interesting sites, places, landscapes or other elements that we find along our trip. Despite strong wind and an empty and quiet spring landscape, it seemed to me that the island has a certain beauty. It may seem dull with the long, open agricultural landscape, but once you explorer the smaller, more hidden areas, there are places of great interest, I must say!

Charming historic country estates are plentiful on the island, and the local architectural style is - besides charming - rather interesting, since a lot of the architecture has been improvised by the local farmers, using whatever materials have been available at the time. Another thing I noticed, is that just about all of the gardens on the island were very tidy and well-kept! I have a few theories for why it is so. First of all, I believe that living on such an island, with very limited sparetime activities, it seems that gardening is an almost unevitable sparetime activity. Second, since the island is a popular tourist destination during summer, perhaps the inhabitants feel that keeping their gardens good-looking, they increase the charm of the island - thus doing something to attract even more tourists. 

On the second day, we were divided in four groups, which were each assigned to investigate the island at four different areas. During this investigation, we were to take notes on just about everything from statistics on vehicle activity and animal life, to talking to locals and counting airplanes (!). My group was assigned to do research on the island's country road - a very long, straight road, that is the heart of vehicular traffic on the island. This was perhaps one of the more dull areas on the island, since it mainly consisted of flat agricultural landscape around the road, and a few houses. The most noteworthy thing about the road, was that almost all vehicular activity was connected to the island ferry's arrival and departure. On the more interesting side, other groups had greater contact to the locals, who gave them rather interesting stories about the island. It generally seems that the locals are rather proud of Hven. In example, despite the island being isolated in the middle of Øresund (the name of the sound between Zealand and Skåne), the locals rather believed that their location is very central in the area, and no matter which of the major cities they wanted to go to (Copehagen, Malmö, Helsingør and Helsingborg), they were never more than half an hours boat trip away from their destination. Furthermore, they were also fond of the fact that no more than 70 of the island's inhabitants went to the mainland for work (70 of 360 is perhaps still quite a deal if you consider kids and elders on the island) - and during summer, they even have people from the mainland coming to work on the island during the tourist season.

But as I said, we were on the island mainly for our new project, which was given to us on Thursday - The last day on which we were on the island. Our project consists of five elements: A sauna house, a stairway/bridge that connects to a bath house by the sea, changing cabins by the beach and a sun watch. These five elements may be built together or seperatly, depending on our choice. The sun watch, seems to me a rather troublesome element, since I really find it hard to fit in with the rest of the elements (my department fellows agree on this), but then again, that is perhaps a good challenge. I have at this point of time already some ideas that I believe could seem promising, but it is far too early to be sure about them, so I won't comment on them just yet. There were furthermore some places on the island that got me thinking on the more abstract side of life, and I'll make a post on some of my thoughts soon.

Further reading:

- http://www.visithven.dk/

- Andy Minchev

TRIP TO LONDON

Never have I seen a city have so few garbage cans! I know it sounds odd, but this was one of the first things I noticed during the first two days of my stay in London. From the very moment I claimed my bagage at London Gatwick airport, I struggled to find a rubbish bin, in which I could dispose my bagage sticker. I fortunately  succeeded in the end, but I have to say the search was long! Besides the whole garbage can issue, my trip was delightful to say the least. I stayed in the suburban town of Kingston - home of Kingston University London - where my host studies psychology. Since this is an architectural blog, I'll do my best to stick to the architectural content, rather than making this a post about my personal holiday. I've taken a great deal of photos during my visit, and since this might end up being a rather lengthy post, I'll try to upload as many as possible to ease the long reading. By the way, it was raining practically speaking all of the time, so it was some challenge taking good photos! In many cases I was forced to take pictures from sheltered areas, due to the heavy rain.

So having mentioned the whole garbage can issue, London seems to have a greater problem than that. Before I go on to explain and comment on this metropolitan issue, do keep in mind that what I write in this blog is most often my personal views and oppinions on the architectural universe, so whether my writings are right or wrong, well, that is always a discussible subject - as are a lot of general things in the architectural line of work. This issue that I speak of, is London's infrastructure.

The thing about it is that the city is often somewhat messy. Vast lengths of the streets are patched up in different patches of asphalt, sidewalks are covered with patterns of old dried-out chewing gum, that has become one with the sidewalks, and at the railway stations, the metal beams and pillars that hold the stations' long shelters are covered in rust. Such infrastructural issues would seem unnoticeable, but once they gather in great numbers, they seem to become quite clear in the urban landscape. To be fair, London, being perhaps Europe's greatest city and a with a population of 7,5 million, is so huge in its size, that keeping the infrastructure perfect may be a somewhat impossible task - especially during these days when budget cuts are ever so common due to the global economic situation.

Besides the infrastructural issues that London faces, I also believe that the city often has some issues with integrating modern architecture with historic architecture. As I have experienced, the two most dominant architectural styles in London are industrial-era architecture and modernist/brutalist architecture. These two have little in common, and since London doesn't seem to have taken great consideration to integrate the two architectural styles so they coexist harmoniously, the urban image is often one that shows a somewhat messy mix up of different architectural styles. Again, I have to admit that I haven't read on the history of London (I visited the Museum of London, but only briefly, so I didn't manage to get in detail with the history), so I'm judging based on what I saw and how I experienced it. I furthermore believe that my photo above illustrates what I'm talking about, regarding the whole architectural contrast.

As you may have noticed, I'm really trying to be critical here, but the fact is that I actually like London. Sure it has its flaws, but don't all cities? And once again, I'm quite sure that many of these flaws can be related to the colossal size of this British metropolis - It must really be some challenge to maintain a city of such dimensions! But the thing is, when you ignore the architectural flaws and such, it is a city that is bustling with life, and I have to admit that the British people are rather friendly and open (at least that's what I experienced). A city having great life, isn't that what it's all about? It is also a city of many architectural monuments, such as The Gherkin on the photo above, or Big Ben below. 

It is a city of greatness. One with a long and powerful history. After all, it was once the capital of the greatest empire on earth, and traces of its greatness still characterize the city this very day. Having made a brief visit to the London Building Center, I saw that upcoming projects in the capital are pointing towards a more sustainable London, and projects that better the city's infrastructure were plentiful as well. Furthermore, developement is bustling (well, as much as it can anyway, in these economically harsh times) due to the upcoming 2012 olympic games. The great city of London has far from lost its greatness, and the future looks promising. I could write much, much more on the subject of this great city, but I'll end this post before my enthusiasm seduces me to write for hours and hours. Below are a few links for those interested in knowing more about London.

Further reading: 

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

- http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/

- http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/

- Andy Minchev