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Final reviews of the Master of Architecture Thesis projects have come and gone, but I am still having dreams about giving my presentation. I guess when you've tackled a project for eight months - constantly wrestling with it and developing it from inception through final production, with all the various iterations, morphings, stray paths, and about-faces in between - it stays with you for a while. 
The final presentation of the work by itself. It's a bit odd to think that the whole thing can be reduced to a 16' x 8' section of a wall (plus a bit of floor space), but such were the requirements of the exhibition.
The review itself was about 40 minutes long. I took about 5-10 minutes to present the work, and the remaining 30 minutes were used to open up the conversation with the reviewers: discussing the work, questioning it, questioning each other, talking about the further implications. It was an engaging and challenging conversation. I couldn't have asked for more.
It's always gratifying when reviewers become physically engaged and get up out of their chairs. It feels more like a discussion amongst peers at that point, and much less an inquisition by a panel of judges.
The critics (from left to right): Dawn Gilpin - advisor, Dora Epstein Jones, Paul Tierman, Mary Ann Ray, Milton Curry, Anya Sirota, Robert Adams - advisor.
Viewing the thesis through the thesis... sort of. This is a view from the vantage point of my main implement of exploration, the laser-drawing machine.
Selected works from the Architecture of Objects class are on display in the Art+Architecture building this week (3rd floor, west review space). My pieces are the glass-topped coffee table (photo #3) and the angular vase (photo #8, left side). If you look real close at the first photo, you can also see one of my clocks on the shelving unit (left unit, 2nd shelf up from the floor, the clock made of aluminum with a wood base).
Well, today is our last day in France..... (*sigh*).... so it's now or never for posting photos from our last intra-european jaunt!
First up, a quick photo tour of our 40-hr trip to the Normandy coast:
When we arrived in Rouen, our (not-so)trusty GPS tried to take us across this bridge. Needless to say, the bridge is currently closed while an Arne Quinze sculpture is installed. We arrived just a bit too early, as the installation was completed just a couple days after our visit. It will be up until mid-August.
We stopped in Giverny to see Monet's garden. I became a little too captivated by the flowers...
We stayed the night at Mont Saint Michel, a spectacular abbey on a quasi-island located on the border between Normandy and Brittany. There is a causeway connecting the abbey to the mainland, and vast mudflats surround the area so it seems to be high and dry during low tide. But the tide rises 50 ft (!!) here, and the mudflats are so flat that the water rolls across certain areas at 8 miles/hr! Woe be it to those tourists who wander the mudflats without checking the tide schedule.... Also, I woke up extra early with the idea to take sunrise photos, but the fog had other ideas.
On our way back to Paris, we stopped in Bayeaux to see the famed tapestry that tells the story of how William, Duke of Normandy, battled the English in 1066 and became William the Conquerer. The real tapestry is about 1m high and 140m long (it's quite an involved story, what with political machinations, secret military missions, attempts at reconciliation, and bloody battles, so it needs a lot of space to be told in pictures). Unfortunately, photography of the actual tapestry was not allowed, so the photo above is of a cheap imitation of a segment that was for sale in the gift shop.
The monument at the US Military Cemetery near Omaha Beach. Very stirring, very powerful.
We stopped ever so briefly in Honfleur (about 30mins total) before heading straight back to paris. It's an adorable little town; kinda felt like Door County :). Interesting bit of trivia about the row houses pictured here: they were taxed by their width, not height, so the owners did the fiscally prudent thing and built up instead of out (our suburban McMansion culture could learn a thing or two from this....)
Now for some snippets of Budapest:
The Chain Bridge, the first bridge connecting the city of Buda on the West bank of the Danube with the city of Pest on the East. 'Twas completed in 1849, then the cities were officially united in 1873 to create the current city of Budapest. Our tour guide said it could have been Pestbuda, but the combination of "st" and "b" next to each other was difficult to pronounce in Hungarian, so they put the names together the other way.
Parliament. Pretty cool, eh?
The sunset on the first night was spectacular!
What's New:
- Megan has arrived!! (Hurrah!)
- The class, Studio Civic Friche, has ended. (Boo! It was a fantastic class... I will miss it.)
- Megan and I have gone to and returned from Normandy (photos to be posted soon...)
- Megan and I have gone to Budapest... and we're there (here) right now. We've just arrived, and are sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the staff to finish preparing our room. Sorry, no photos just yet (the computer here in the lobby doesn't have an SD card reader... oh well). So the next post will probably have a collection of photos from various locations (don't worry, we'll caption them so it's clear what's what). Ok, I think our room is ready now, so it's time to get settled in, strategically plan our sightseeing missions (we only have 72 hours!!), and teach ourselves to speak Hungarian... maybe we'll skip that last one...
I may be living it up in Paris for two months, but it's not all fun and games. This trip is, in reality, a course for credit, and we're doing real work here. All the trips we take outside of Paris are organized around visits to specific architecture projects that we are documenting and analyzing. But don't worry, we do set aside some time to relax and have fun, such as this past weekend, when we were in Marseille. While the reason for traveling to Marseille was to visit the Belle de Mai Friche project, we had plenty of extra time to wander the city, hike around the Calanques, and scamper around the Iles du Frioul:
Homer Simpson!
Is it just me, or is this motorcycle a wee bit too small?
Gorgeous.
You can't camp, smoke, or barbecue in the Calanques, but you can fall off a cliff, get hit by a falling tree branch, or get caught in a rock slide.
Do you see the little bay at the bottom of the "V" formed by the Mediterranean and the hillsides? The one waaaaayyy far away from where this picture was taken? We hiked down to that.
...We're getting closer to the water...
...But first we have to repel down this 15' face...
... And we're there!
The Iles du Frioul.
Our swimming spot here was MUCH easier to get to than the one in the Calanques.
The seagulls on the island were VERY protective of their babies. A couple of us got dive-bombed when we got too close, but fortunately none of us came under this kind of attack.
A popular spot.
It's only taken a month, but we finally got a photo of (almost) the entire civic-friche team. If you want to read our individual bios, they can be found on the official civic-friche website. This photos was taken at Le Channel in Calais.
Back row, from left: Devon Stonebrook, Ivan Adelson, Tyler Willis, Brittany Roy, Mo Harmon, Matt Nickel, Lauren Bebry, Catherine Baldwin, Jordan Buckner, Steven Christensen (instructor).
Middle row: Lauren Vasey, Talia Pinto-Handler, Kayla Lim, Noureen Lakhani, Lena Pasqualini (secrétaire générale for Le Channel), Anya Sirota (instructor).
Front row: Nathan Doud (me!), Erika Lindsay, Bruce Findling, Jacqueline Kow.
Not pictured: Jean Louis Farges (instructor), Marie Combes (photographer extraordinaire), Patrick Renaud (photographer extraordinaire).
This group can't stay still for more than 30 seconds. It's always, "So what's next?" and everyone is off in search of the next adventure or great photo opportunity.
