Reinhart: Now I used concrete as the main material of my building because of the site issues with erosion. If problems begin to occur the concrete will not crack.
Heiner: Because no one wants a crackhouse in their neighborhood!
*Awkward silence*
On Tuesday we began our journey to Nurnberg. Our bags were packed and loaded at 8:05 am and everyone herded onto the bus and instantly fell asleep. About an hour later we arrived in Dessau. Yeah...not a fan. It may have had something to do with the gloomy weather but I have never seen such a depressing city with so many depressed looking people. It was shabby, dark, and honestly smelled not so great. First we visited the Ministry of Environmental Protection (?) building. It was interesting to see how they took a "green" building and took it a little further. One of the main criticisms of green or sustainable architecture that I hear a lot in studio is that with a variety of methods most architects can very easily a sustainable building...but they simply leave it at that. The actual architecture simply gets left behind. I think they did a pretty decent job with the Ministry building. Of course the tour guide gave us a bunch of gimmicky made-up nonsense about how the different colored panels on the facade reflect the surrounding hills, industrial zones, and residential areas and everyone just their eyes. But on the whole, despite looking like a bag of Skittles, it was a nice building. After that we drove about a mile to THE BAUHAUS. Hallowed ground. It was just beyond surreal actual being there and touching the walls and playing with the windows. Of course it took a little effort to put myself back in the shoes of those who were around when this opened. We're now so used to this very "sexy" perfect clean architecture that an older modernist building doesn't have the same effect. But when I stopped to consider just how revolutionary every single aspect of the building was and what a huge effect it had on our architecture school at Virginia Tech, it was unreal. Heiner kept on jokingly calling it our grandpa's house and saying we were going to go visit Papa Gropius. We had lunch in the Bauhuas cafe and I very sneakily stole a Bauhaus spoon as my souvenir. Plus TJ, Indy, and I needed a spoon for our Nutella so we figured if we were going to sneak one, might as well be a Bauhaus one. Very Virginia Tech Architecture of us.
After the tour at the Bauhaus and a bunch of silly pictures of all of us jumping in front of the sign, we boarded back on the bus for the final four hours to Nurnberg. The transition of the landscape was astounding. When we began it was completely flat...like Kansas flat...and there were hundreds and hundreds of windmills all around us. I fell asleep about forty minutes into the trip and when I woke up everything had changed. We were going up a huge hill and we surrounding by these beautiful pine forests. It reminded me of those romantic hunting painting from the Middle Ages where the light is shining between the trunks of the trees.
We arrived in Nurnberg and were immediately struck by just how hilly it was. Thankfully we were able to drive up to the Nurnberg Castle (where our hostel was) to drop off our bags...becasue believe me, walking up that hill with my bag was NOT happening. I had more than my share of that hill over the next couple of days. We got settled and had dinner at the hostel. A bunch of people went out to explore the city but I stayed in because I finally had internet and wanted to get my life (and emails) back in order.
The next day we began by meeting a Virginia Tech alumni named Reinhart at what amounts to an architecture managment firm. He looks like the German version of Billy Rae Cyrus, drives a Porsche, and smokes more than I have ever seen anyone smoke in my entire life. But he's very funny and we later discovered, has a RIDICULOUS house. The architecture managment firm is used as a head office for small, generally one person, traveling firms. An architect can rent out a desk for a half day, a full day, or a extended period of time. They also have access to four conference rooms on the lower level and have a full office staff on hand. It was an interesting concept. After that we went to the New (***) Museum. It is built as a diagonal cut through one of the older buildings that are attached to the stadium where Hitler held the Nazi rallies in Nurnberg. It is now a museum about the Nazi party and focuses in particular on their history in Nurnberg. The museum itself is incredibly. It uses glass walls to border and create walkways through this old building, as though its recognizing the history of the place but looking at it through fresh eyes. The exhibits were on the intense side and I think everyone was a little overwhelmed when we left. Then we met back up with Reinhart at the Art Center (****). I think this building must just have different effects on different generations. Heiner and Mario were completely engrossed by the modernist structure but the students were a little under-whelmed. It probably was a beautiful building about fifty years ago, but lack of upkeep, what smelled like some mold problems, and the destruction of art students over the years left it rather delapidated. Granted, Modernist building, like this one (built in the mid fifties), aren't what my generation has grown up with as being revolutionary. But all I could really see behind what probably was once a very pure space were all of the problems. Cracked, dirty windows. No insulation to speak of in the main entrance way. Water seepage. We've been told over and over to forgive these problems because these were experimental buildings with experimental materials, but at what point does the architect actually test some of his ideas...or just logically think through it, for that matter...before he actually builds it. I just think that building, in particular, had just one too many problems to be forgiven for being experimental.
The next day we went to the Neues Museum. Wow. We were in a pretty typical area of Nurnberg, aside from the multitudes of strip clubs around it...where Heiner thought it was hilarious to stop in front of each one and pretend to go in. Heiner then showed us a little more modern looking building with a more traditional one next to it. No big deal. Then we got closer and realized that there was a small alleyway between the two. When we rounded the corner into the alley...there it was. This huge, curving glass curtain wall that just seemed to go on infinitily, cleverly hidden on the side of the more modern building. In front of the curtain wall, and behind the more traditional building, was a massive cobblestone plaza with benches. Wow. Wow. Wow. We all freaked out and went back and rounded the corner several times because it was just that amazing. The interior of the museum was so well thought it. It had the curved glass curtain wall with what seemed to be much more orthangal interior walls juxtaposing and colliding with it. This created a variety of space that would open up into a huge room or close down into a narrow hallway. All over the building were these "moments" were you would round the corner of a small doorway and turn to the side to see the whole expanse of the building before you. So much attention to detail. And so much emphasis on these hidden views...almost like a Baroque garden. We stayed there for about 3 hours, got lunch at the cafe next door, then wandered around Nurnberg, playing in the shops and taking silly pictures on the bridges. Then we all met back up at 1:30 with Reinhart so we could visit one of his residential construction sites along the river. It was definitely interesting seeing the difference between a German construction site and an American one. For one, no one was wearing hard hats and there was a more than a little less emphasis placed on safety, but that just meant we got to see more of the site haha. After visiting the site we wandered around the city some more before meeting up at the Neues Museum to begin our trekk to Reinhart's office/house. Again. Wow. There's no other word to describe his house than just plain sexy. He was very generous and bought something like 15 pizzas and 8 crates and beer and everyone mingled for a while. We had to leave in three groups because of the train tickets we had purchased so Indy, TJ, and I decided to stay until the end with Heiner and Mario and a few other students. It was a lot of fun...topics ranging from design, American versus European culture, advice from Heiner and Mario on the issues our generation will face in architecture, Heiner making fun of Mario for about an hour, and then everyone else making fun of Heiner when he walked away. We even managed to make a Turning Torso-like (Calatrava) structure out of the pizza boxes and an "architecturally" (barely) significant arrangement of the old beer bottles and used wine glasses. Heiner even managed to restart the whole "Marie looks like a vampire thing" because apparently his nephew who was visiting him that day asked him three times if I was one. Oh ddeaarrr.
We packed up everything this morning and are now on our way to Munich. I'm currently watching the landscape change out of the window. It's funny how it will randomly look like Virginia for a split second and then I'll see a bunch of buildings nestled on the hillside and I'm reminded where I am.
TCHAO!!
p.s. I apologize if this is riddled with typos. I have done absolutely no proofreading on this. Also...expect all emails to be answered in the next couple of days.
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