After lunch today we went to the Humbolt Box which is a temporary museum that raises money that will go toward rebuilding the Berlin Palace. The land that it once stood on has been left untouched because people feel that you shouldn't build something else on top of it. The reconstruction of the Berlin Palace will actually begin in nine days.
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| model of the Berlin Palace |
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| Brian and I at the top of the Humbolt Box |
While in the Hunbolt Box Brian and I met a guy that worked there and got to talking to him. We soon learned that he is a retired engineer and had met I. M. Pei, a famous architect. The man told us that I.M. Pei told him that "Architecture should fit. Architecture is like a beautiful lady. But if she smiles and there is one gold tooth among all the others, regardless how valuable it may be, it just does not work. It does not fit." The man said thats how he likes to think now. So throughout the rest of the day I kept his story in mind.
Our next stop was Frankfurt Tor. While there we came across the Hausburgviertel Gymnasium. While not very sure whether or not we were allowed in, we went in anyway. A guy that was clearly a coach, as we could tell by his apparel, came up to us and asked "Who are you?" Mr. Caldwell told him that we were architecture students. Just as I thought the man was going to kick us out he blew his whistle to all the boys in the gym and they began to leave and the man began to give us an unofficial tour. He showed us around and told us that they gym used to be an old slaughter, the biggest one in Europe. The architect used parts of the old building and made renovations to the rest. It was a very nice building in the way that it let in great light. Then I realized that it was good architecture because the architecture fit. The old parts of the building kept it rooted in its history. The new additions did its job in whats required for a gym while still being aesthetically pleasing.
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| Parts of the existing building with new additions |
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| The brick of the back wall is from the original building |
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| Back side, I should have got a street view! |
A project that I was excited to visit was the velodrome and natatorium by Dominique Perrault. This was projects built for the competition for the 1972 olympics. Unfortunately Perrault did not win so the facilities are not used like they were excepted to be. But what made visiting it so great was that land around it was all over grown and the grass was about waist high and the buildings were set into the ground so that the roof was at about ground level. The skin of the buildings was were simple so that the presence of the buildings weren't intruding. The buildings fit into the landscape and they complimented each other.
A church was our next stop. Churches haven't been particularly interesting to me so i wasn't so excited. The outside of the church was cool because of the old stones that it was made with. We went inside and the whole place had been stripped down because they are getting ready to do renovations. I enjoyed seeing this church over all the others. You can see every crack and the bare concrete, just as you would expect it to look because of its exterior. The interior fits its exterior unlike all the other churches that have been renovated/restored with vibrant paint colors and fake stone or brinks.
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