What the future looks like...

By request I am going to make a list of my upcoming weekends and the locations I will be.

This coming weekend Feb. 25th-28th:  Amsterdam.
           -Seminar study trip with our professor

March 3rd-8th:  Barcelona, Bilbao, and San Sebastian, Spain.
           -Myself and two others are going to be flying into Barcelona for two nights.  Then taking a train up to Bilbao for a night to see the Guggenheim Museum.  I was suggested to go to San Sebastian if possible, so I think we are going to try to squeeze it in.

March 10th-14th:  Chamonix, France.
           -I am going skiing in the Swiss Alps with two others for a few days, and then going to Geneva the last night to explore.

March 15th:  Paris.
           -From Geneva I am going to Paris for the night to hop on a plane to fly to Athens, Greece the next day.

March 16th-21st:  Athens, Greece.
           -The two people I am going skiing with and one other person will be going to Athens for our spring break.  Hopefully have warm enough temps. to spend some time on the BEACH!!

March 25th-27th:  London.
           -THEY SPEAK ENGLISH!!!! :)

April 1st-5th:  Germany.  (I think those are the dates?)
           -The school that we are in invited us to join them on a trip through Germany stopping at sites that aren't usually accessible to the normal tourist.  We will be taking a bus with the French students and ending up in Munich for a couple of nights.

April 8th:  Last day of school!

April 9th-19th:  SOME MORE TRAVELING!!

April 19th:  I fly back to America out of Milan, Italy.  So somewhere in the 9th-19th I will be traveling around Italy for a few days.

April 26th:  We have to go back to Fargo to make a final presentation of all of our travels and projects that we worked on here in France.

May 14th:  GRADUATION!!  I have a hard time believing that I have already finished 4 years of college.  Thankfully I have ONE last year to finish up my masters degree in architecture.


Keep checking back for the upcoming pictures from my trips through Europe!

Brussels and Liege, Belgium

BrusselsLiege

This past weekend I took a trip to Brussels and Liege, Belgium.

Brussels was another European city. Pretty similar to what the other cities I have been in look like. The highlights were waffles and beer. The beer tastes much different here than in America. Sorry guys, but its better here.

The main reason for the trip to Liege was to check out Calatrava's train station (same architect that did "Turning Torso" the building in Malmo, Sweden I went to.) Very Very Impressive!!

Liege also has a new mall that was interesting. It reminds me of my current project that I am working on with the structure. I guess it will be a good case study.

I was suggested to do a post on my upcoming trips and weekends. I will get that up soon... It looks like every weekend from here on out are booked!

Here is a design charrette that my partner and I worked on in Blois, France. We had to design retail, studio/apartments, demonstration spaces, administration offices, gathering space, and a market that fit into the old city.

Everything seemed to turn out pretty well considering that we only had maybe four days to work on it. My partner and I decided that a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark was more important! You can ask me if I feel that way still after going and being done with the project... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH YEAH!!!! :) :)

Let me know what you think (good or bad)!! Conversation is always good and makes me a stronger designer!

Hello...

I have been without the Internet for almost a week now! I didn't know that I was so dependent on the Internet. Lille is starting off pretty good.

I am now in my own apartment. I take the bus and metro to get to school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Monday and Fridays we do not have school, so we can have long weekends to travel.

I haven't taken out my camera that much yet, so stay tuned for some images on Lille. This coming weekend I am not sure if I will be traveling or not, but next weekend I will be in Amsterdam for four days. I sure I will have plenty of pictures from there too.

-Cody

The Grand Arc

Champ Elysees Axis

Arabic Institute by Jean Nouvel

Instillation by Zaha HadidSun set at Versailles

Well I am back from Paris. I got back this past Monday, but wasn't able to post on here for a few reasons. First, we had a project due today. That took up a lot of my free time and also the Internet has been really flakey.

Paris was a pretty fun trip. I made it to all of the tourist sites. I went to the Eiffel Tower at the perfect time in order to get a good picture. The colors I think turned out really sweet!! I did not go up the tower, but my class all went up on the Arc de Triomphe to get a clear view of the entire city.

The Louvre was as amazing as I anticipated! I.M. Pei (the architect) had such as cool vision of what the space could be.

I went to church with a few people in the Notre Dame on Sunday morning. No I am not Catholic, but it was the only chance to get in for free ;) The entire sermon was in French, so I didn't really understand much. Also on Sunday I took a train to Versailles to check out the famous chateau. Quite impressive and immaculate.

Monday morning before I left I made it to the Arabic Institute by Jean Nouvel who is a famous French architect. The buildings south facade was made of little shutters that respond to the amount of light shinning on the building! Very impressive!! Right next to it was a project that was a traveling building instillation that was in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and now to stay in Paris by Zaha Hadid. Another famous architect!!

Paris was a lot of walking and riding the metro. The only major complaint was how disgusting the metro is in Paris. Reeks like pee and seems to never be cleaned.

Today (Thursday) is my last day in Blois, France. We are moving as a class to northern France to Lille, France. Lille is a the 4th largest city in France, so there is a lot more things that it will have to offer. It still is sad to be leaving Blois though. I feel that I am leaving for home home, but the trip IS JUST BEGINNING!!!! Sorry America I am not ready to return yet! I have too much to see and learn before I do.

I mentioned that I had a project due today. I will see if I can post that on here also some how.

Thanks for checking the blog out and the next post will probably be from Lille, France!

-Cody