Door Handles

Rebuilding Lille

 --

Bridging past the trains of departure
To the land of shaped silence.
For once buried deep beneath the surface
Is a poor and desperate wall.
It begs to but uncovered,
And feigns death
But lives in history,
Under a veil of modernism.

--a poster for our Lille design Charrette--
--

A Music Experiment

 --

The bland, the bustle and the boring hold our society in a prison of ample dread. We wander about with some point of interest but find ourselves only waiting for the end: the dues ex machine. What if we could find a way to entertain our dull periods? Well, many have with certain items: food, games, books and the like.

I was on the metro filled with a transparent emotion. The simple monotony of waiting bears down hard. The visual images, the people swaying forth and the flashing lights all form an image deep in the mind. This image perpetually forms an associated emotion drugging-up each and every time the action is commenced. The emotion, most importantly, is linked to a space. Architecture completes this feeling.

So I decided to experiment with a certain rigor.  A movie is but limited without its soundtrack. The music produces powerful emotional connections which stimulate endorphins that flow throughout our brain. The idea of producing a new emotional association to the common day life sounds exciting with music. While this is blatantly obvious and done often, it is indeed exciting to develop.

I presented a deep-heartened soundtrack from Hans Zimmer to the entrance of the metro. The gaping chasm filled my periphery. The solemn sound produces a gloom cohesively with the rainy atmosphere. The song changed to that of movement and blundering objects. The people in the metro-train moved with the piece. The emotion suddenly became that of adventuring excitement. I looked around and watched people as they entered. They became main characters to the plot. They started fulfilling the dream. The experiment was certainly successful. It produced a new emotion to a dull atmosphere. The space was experienced in a new way.

 --

Redevoloping Lille

The Residence

The Industry

The Wall

--

A charrette on a rainy day takes our tiny but neatly organized group to the outskirts of Lille. We are to redefine the boarders which exist in the abstract ideas of the city planners to create a new identity of the space. Bridging the canal to the historical defense wall is plan one. To do so, a mere excavation of the wall must be done. This shall open a wondrous space past the highway to prey on the landscape.

--"Like a foundation island between the Bay Bridge 

this space becomes a bridge for the river, the trees and the wall."--

Taste

A Morning Pain

A crepe or baguette

Brasserie et Vittel

Shrimp

Spaghetti agli olio e peperoncino

A Subtle City of Creme and Green

Upon a Wall

The City Sits

To Bridge Between Nature

And the Architecture Within

To Collect

To Escape

--

The City of Stone lives upon a micro pedestal looking down beneath the depth of the forests. Luxembourg surely captivated its audience by the sheer loveliness of tiers and towers. The city sits delicately within gardens, trees and the greater landscape. I find the subtle architecture to be immaculately powerful. Designing a building to let the entire surrounding lands, the people and the paths intermingle and present the whole as something to aspire towards. There is a blatant disregard for pure decoration but rather letting nature transcend the the architecture. In our post-modern society we have learned to design a standard building that may plop any place. This sort is lukewarm. This typology is meaningless and empty. 

Architecture requests the site be perfect as much as the building itself. Mise-en-scène. Everything in totality. The experience is supernatural and organic. Of course I am in love with the organic nature of architecture and landscaping, so Luxembourg was a great place to view. Entirely shaped around the cliffs, the architecture naturally clings to. The paths roll up and down like ships in the ocean. The river twists and turns under gorgeous Roman bridges and under castle towers. The city is romantic and unadulterated. The city is very clean. I believe it to be the largest gated community in existence. A true delight to view in person. 

The obtuse interest I have in the city though is the livability aspect. It is of course an antique. But adventuring through the remains of old battle scared buildings, I find homes with real residencies. They live, work and play in this interesting area. The city seems worn with use as well. It is not polished and treasured as an object in a glass case but rather a favorite gardening shovel. The city is alive and well.

--

A Bath House of Roubaix

Roubaix--a textiled city of the working class--sits knitted with the finest. A sub-Lille post focused deeply with a more traditional life style houses a wonderful museum. The rebirth of a "Bains Municipaux" forms a lovely bath scenery to express their art collection. The bath seems to come forth from the 1920's Grecian Revival. The quaint golden sun, Marble statues and mineral water plays with your senses. This lovely building indeed shows the little pockets of wealth a city can hold. 

Roubaix

Gare

Baths

Grecian Sculptures

Happenstance

People

Pouvez-vous me donner quelque chose contre le mal de mer?

Je avoir fumeurs?

?

Gouda et Baguette

--Less busy but a rather interesting day of presentations. Presenting on the characteristics of Lille France and the obtuse interests it carries.--

1. The city is held by a dense four to six story cavern 

of buildings designed in a hybridized Flemish and Rococo 

French stylized architecture.

2. The city is full of youth being a large college city.

3. Everyone smokes.

A nice baguette, 

Gouda cheese 

and a sit-read 

shall relax 

the ever present 

stress of a stress-less day.

Trying to Evoke Emotion

The Great Ghosts of Old

Shine Light of Glory Upon

To make the Same Bright as Day

--

I have been sitting silently in a Cathedral for nearly an hour. The gargantuan columns protrude like obelisks towards the heavens. They are trees that seek to find roots within the ceiling. The columns are cold and heavy. They are daunting and strong. They stand waiting for a craftsman to gently observe and feel the delicate nature of the beast. The columns connect to the four-part vaulting. Riding the ridge across the blanket that looms over the souls below, the simple stones clasp each other as to hold in place. They fight not to fall from the ceiling.

I have been sitting silently in a Cathedral evoking my emotional connection with France. Nothing happens. There seems to be a heavy wall between my psyche and my consciousness. I am unable to experience the whole; the totality of the situation. I long for a connection. A deeper feeling than that of my design state. I try to consume the environment like the baguette I had earlier. Nothing seems to work well. Nothing stirs.

I am floating in a dream. I am in a surreal moment. A moment of progress I am unable to change or remove. It is a memory without my mind present. I seem to be dragging my body through the city without a sense of place, time or relation. It is surreal. In a few moments I may feel it.

I have been sitting silently in my room now for nearly five minutes. A bell from the local church rings violently across the courtyards below. It suddenly strikes emotion. I feel a connection in my bones. I am here in France. I am here living a separate life. This is a majestic moment for myself--a moment of emotion and experience.

This is architecture. 

This is phenomenology. 

This is the power a design 

can muster and bring a floating soul 

right down to a moment of experience. 

Do not forget to shape the world through experience. 

--