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Greetings from Lille, France.
After spring break, all of us had to hit the ground running with our studio and seminar assignments.  Since several of us had traversed the far reaches of the European Union during spring break, it was quite difficult to bring our assignments with us.  This week was a work week before another whirlwind adventure.  We will be heading out with the French students on Tuesday on a 5-day bus trip through Germany to see new architecture in Cologne, Mannheim, Stuttgart, and Munich.
During our time this week, we worked with Vincent Ducatez, our Lille seminar teacher, on our respective seminar project as well as our plaza project.  We also had the opportunity to visit Vincent’s studio and see the progress his students have made on their own assignments.
A majority of the group decided to travel to London.  Andrew and Olivier stayed longer to visit Olivier’s cousin in a suburb of Enfield.  They went to such places as Parliament, British museum, Natural History Museum, Wimbledon grounds, changing of the guard (Buckingham), Gherkin, City Hall, National Gallery, Portrait Gallery, Olympic Grounds (2012), and the O2 arena.  The rest of the London group saw various places like Tate Modern, Globe Theater, and Millennium Bridge.
The majority of those who went to London found that they had come at a time of student protests.  British students and others shut down the main part of London as they marched to Parliament.  It was  part of the 2010 UK student protests that began in November.   The reason for the protests sparked when the student fees have tripled in the past year.   It was relatively peaceful for the most part for the size of the crowd.
Nathan went to Canterbury this weekend, which is where Geoffrey Chaucer set his tales named appropriately Canterbury Tales
Paul visited the city of Metz in the eastern part of France, which has a new branch of the Pompidou Center art museum in Paris.  The spectacular building is called the Center Pompidou-Metz and is designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.
On Monday, we had the unique opportunity to learn about what is currently happening with mass transportation in Lille.  We sat down with head planner Matthew  Goetze and the material we discussed was very informative for our seminar project.
Also, we had a birthday this week: Scott Wullschleger.  Happy Birthday, Scott!
Stay tuned for exciting stories about brand-new architecture in Germany.

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April 5, 2011

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