Day 5 - Design Charette

Today was rather uneventful. We started off with a late morning meeting around 10:00 to discuss what we will be doing now that our teacher has finally arrived. A charette is a quick sketch design process wherein designers come up with lots of ideas quickly, pick one, and develop it enough to be communicated. I started by tracing the plan of the courtyard and cavelike fortress cellar so that I'd have a base point:

I am getting a cold and spent most of the day asleep, so I don't really have anything else to report for today. I am video documenting most of what we do, though, so it should be easy to show you a lot more when I get back.

Some students went into town this afternoon to get supplies. I asked one of them to get me some hydrogen peroxide if he could find any. I bit my lip really badly during turbulence on the plane, and it's only getting worse. It's not infected yet, and I want to keep it that way. I didn't tell him why I wanted it, though, so he came back with a spray-on disinfectant that you can't use in your mouth. One of the other students here has his first responder, though, and suggested what I should have thought of: boil some water and make a salt water rinse. It'll probably be better than hydrogen peroxide would have been anyhow.

One day I'll write a blog and there won't be any medical problems involved....

Day 4 - Site Visit and Heat Stroke

Today we went to Locarno and visited the site where our project will be built. I feel odd typing this blog because while I was there I got heat stroke and hallucinated that I was writing today's blog. It makes me feel that I am doing something I have already done, but I know I haven't.

It was between one and two hours to get to Locarno, which houses the site for which we will be designing a cultural center. The castle (from the 10th century) that was there was destructed in order to use the stone for the foundations of the surrounding buildings after the castle was no longer necessary. The fortress was built in 15o7 and still exists. It is said to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci, but this is also being debated.

When we got to the fortress, we had about an hour before we were supposed to meet with people, so I walked back to a department store we had passed in order to pick up a watch since I didn't bring mine as I was accustomed to using the cell phone I don't have here. The woman in that department didn't speak English, but she knew the phrase, "not water resistant," so we communicated well enough for her to point me away from the cheap watches I was looking at towards the more expensive water-resistant section. I went with the cheap one anyway, and after I bought it I saw that it says "water resistant" on the back of the battery. Cheap here is not the same as cheap in the states. I like this watch and will (hopefully) wear it for years to come. If I keep the receipt and will ever be back here again, it came with a 1-year warranty.

(Fr. 12.- or $13.50 for the cheapest watch I've ever seen in this country)

When I got back, everyone was standing in the sun on top of the fortress listening to the owners talk about the history of the place. I got very uncomfortable very quickly after joining them, and was reminded strongly of summers back home in Bakersfield. My thoughts kept refocusing themselves on the heat until the only thing I could think of was that. Eventually I noticed that my thoughts were also extremely sluggish. I decided I would need to walk away from the group and get to the shade for my own health, but then I heard one of them say, "...just to wrap this up, ..." so I stayed in the sun for I-don't-know-how-long until they were done talking, two presenters later. When we walked through the shade and I didn't feel any better, my very sluggish brain finally started to realize that something might be really wrong. When we walked up the hill and inside the slightly cooler building and I still didn't feel any better, the thought began to finally be a real one. When we walked up the stairs and I sat in one of the two chairs and I didn't realize that my knee was touching the person sitting next to me until he stood up and walked away, I finally decided that yes, my brain is not functioning and I need help. I don't know how long I was sitting there; I think I was slipping in and out of consciousness. It was sometime during this that I thought I was writing in this blog. As my group descended the stairs, I caught Jeffrey's eye. He's one of the architects who lives here in Ticino (tee-chee-noh). He could tell something was wrong and asked if I felt sick. I nodded and said, "heat stroke," thankful that he seemed to understand the term and I didn't have to try to think well enough to explain in different words. I said that I needed water. He told me to sit and wait, and came back shortly with a cup of cold apple juice. I was skeptical at first, thinking it was beer and not wanting a migraine, but grateful when I found out what it was. While my group went on a trek in the heat to see something some of them report as unimpressive, I sat in a chair in what I believe is the only mechanically cooled room in the building. There were beds and a shower, both of which I was offered by the owner if it would make me feel better. I just wanted to sit and take off my shoes to cool down faster, so that is what I did. I am very humbled by the caring nature of the people here. They made sure that I was comfortable and took very good care of me, and this is not out of character for what I have seen of the Swiss in Tichino (the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland).

Soon after I had recovered, the group returned from their walk and we sat in a courtyard area while the owners made us rissoto (ree-zoh-toh) and socialized with each other, the architects with our group, and the students. They brought out red and white wines and shared with all who wanted it, keeping the small cups full. Lunch was absolutely delicious, and I have a video clip of the explanation they gave us of the recipe, so I will try to make it when I get back. The majority of my class got a little tipsy, half were a little more than tipsy, and a few were really quite drunk. Quietly drunk, but still drunk. If they didn't understand wine and how little it really takes, they do now. When I politely turned down a glass of white wine, the man offering it joked that he should fetch me the vodka instead.

(The building on the right is the main public building. The stone wall is part of the fortress. The pole in the middle is actually a sculpture made of stacked 10-cent Swiss Franc pieces held together with pressure and no glue.)

After lunch we got a tour of the earthworks under the fortress, part of which has become a concert and exhibition space. The acoustics are perfect for such a use.

(The main exhibition space in the fortress includes a catwalk, projection screen, and reflective panels. This was a short artistic video documenting the construction of the sculpture in the previous photo.)

After the tour we went inside to discuss the project and what they (our clients) want us to design. Our site includes part of the fortress and three surrounding buildings, one of which is built right on top of the fortress. We have permission to change anything we want to except the curved facade of one building and the walls of the fortress itself. For some reason the earth in the earthworks is protected; if we want to grade the earth in the interior, we can move the dirt around but not remove any. The project turns out to not really be a cultural center in the sense I've designed before, but rather an international place for all forms of art, art students, and art exhibitions. There will be classroom space, places for students to live, places for exhibitions, etc. The best part is this: Locarno will be the site of an international art festival in 2015, and this center will be one of the pavilions. This means that any ideas we come up with could potentially be part of this festival. This is the first opportunity I have had to work on something that could end up built, or that could end up the basis of whatever design does get built. I am now, for the first time, excited about the architecture and not just for learning Italian!

Speaking of Italian, I had a wonderful experience on the way back to the train station from the project site. We had half an hour to make a 10-minute walk, so most of us stopped in to the department store on the way. Some needed towels, some just wanted to shop. I decided to get myself a wallet that's the right size for Swiss Francs and fits in my pocket. I didn't speak any English the entire time and I understood all of the Italian that was spoken to me! Granted, it was very simple, but I understood all of it right away without having to translate into English first. That means I'm learning Italian correctly instead of categorizing it against English inside my brain. Thrilled!

Even now that dinner is over at the ostello, Enrico (en-ree-coh), one of the architects with the group, checked with me to be sure I am feeling okay now. The people here really do care. It is beyond refreshing to see that a place like this exists.

Day 3 - First Full Day at the Ostello

(a bee collecting pollen early this morning)

Today was extremely tiring, but definitely worth it. I woke up of my body's accord around 6:00, took a shower and a walk, and had some free time before breakfast, which started at 8:00. It was refreshing to have the shower room to myself (gym style; six shower heads with no divider) and to see the town with no one else awake.

(one example of the hairpin turns typical of this place; the yellow building on the right behind the stone building is the top of the ostello)

Breakfast was an interesting concoction made of mixing yogurt, granola, and chopped fruit. It looked highly unappealing, but I was highly hungry, so I tried it anyways and found it to be better than tolerable, though not by much. As I ate, the flavors grew on me. Most of my classmates loved it.

Our teacher still has not arrived, so the three architects working with our teacher have taken charge of the students for the time being. The time between breakfast and lunch was spent arranging the tables in the workspace into a working layout and researching cultural centers, seeing as that is this term's project.

After lunch we went back to Chiasso (kee-ah-tsoh) in order to buy regional transit passes. These passes allow us to take any train or bus in the region for free, meaning that although they are quite expensive we will be saving a lot of money with them. Chiasso is the closest city, and it costs several francs to get there, so we'll be doing a lot of traveling for every day business, let alone our Friday field trips.

(a photo booth for passport pictures; we used this for our regional pass photos)

In Chiasso we stopped at a bank, bought our passes, and took a short tour lead by the architects with our group. A free tour by locals. You can't beat that! We took a bus to a neighboring town, where we visited a school of architecture and saw some final models of graduating students. Then we went to a town square where one of the World Cup matches was showing. There was a grocery store there, where we gratefully went to get snacks and things we'd forgotten to pack. I got shampoo, cookies, and some things I can't spell correctly (snacks). I'm not accustomed to this three meals a day thing - I like to snack all day and end up eating four or five small meals. Mostly it's the scheduled meals I'm unaccustomed to. My system might adjust eventually, but for now I need snacks to kill the hunger ache!

(a topographic model made from layered pieces of thin, hand-cut cardboard)

When we got back to Muggio (moo-joh), the little town we take a bus to in order to take a shuttle back to Scudellate (skoo-deh-lah-teh), I picked some large clover flowers and made two circle chains. When we got back to the ostello I gave them to the very nice woman who makes our food and helps out in some other ways.

Dinner was delicious. Now some of us are watching the next World Cup match and I am taking advantage of the lack of internet users to try to upload a video in hopes that there is more bandwidth available. If you can play a video of the scenery here, then it worked. If you can't, then I don't think I can upload videos here.

Day 2 - Scudellate (skoo-deh-lat-teh)

To get here today, we took a train from Lugano (loo-gah-no) to Chiasso (kee-ah-so), then a bus from Chiasso to Muggio (moo-joh). Looking at the map below, it may seem rather indirect, but because Muggio is up in the mountains, this was actually the most direct route available.

(dark blue = train; light blue = bus)

When we arrived in Muggio, we had about an hour and a half to wait before the next shuttle came to take us up to Scudellate, a tiny little town of about 30 people at the end of a string of tiny little towns. Here is a map showing some of the switchbacks to get up to Scudellate; the driver had to make K-turns at some of the hairpins:

While we waited for the shuttle, we had lunch at the only restaurant open on Sundays. It is run by a very nice woman who speaks almost all European languages and who helped us with our Italian. The place is so small that they serve on dish per day of the week; Sunday's dish is gnocchi, the same meal I had for dinner. Good thing I like it! This version was made with red sauce instead of oil and herbs, so I did get some variety.

There are several bunk beds crammed into each room in the ostello. One large room is dedicated to the male students while the other two are for the female students. I chose a bed in the room with the balcony. Here is the view from my bed:

I would post a lot more pictures of the beautiful place where I get to live for the summer, but the bandwidth here is quite minimal and it took about 20 minutes to upload these three. Oscar, one of the three main people (architects maybe?) that we will deal with here has organized a dinner for us tonight, and it is ready now, so I am going to go wash up and eat.

Ciao!

Day 1 - Lugano

The flight from Zurich to Lugano was a simple forty-five minute up-down flight that took us over some beautiful mountains for which pictures do no justice.

I ran into a classmate at the Zurich airport who turned out to be on the same flight to Lugano and who did not have a hotel room. She is staying with me now, which makes me feel more comfortable. She bought me dinner in return for the room.

(gnocchi, a yummy potato dish with a gummy texture)

After dinner we wandered along the lake for a bit before returning to the hotel. It's 10:00 at night here, and it feels like 11:30 at night, so I guess I'm doing pretty well with jet lag.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Muggio, a bus to Scudellate, and set up for our summer in Switzerland. I will have to duct tape my luggage together (yes, I brought a roll along) just to get it to the ostello. A wheel got ripped off of one bag, and there's a gaping hole where the handle to another had been.

(Yeah, you're really not supposed to be able to reach inside like that...)

(There was a wheel there when I left. Now there's a gaping hole.)

Day 1 - Flying to Zurich

We flew past Las Vegas not long ago, and the flight has reached a point quiet and boring enough that I feel like writing...

My parents and my boyfriend saw me off at the airport. They stood outside the security area until they couldn't see me anymore, occasionally trading waves, winks, kisses and smiles across the queue.

I have my grandfather's drafting tools and my amazing scaled dividers (another drafting tool) in my carry-on bag so that they won't get lost if my luggage does. Security wanted to see them, as they had in an airport in Japan, but there were no other problems. The scaled dividers looked like a knife in a case on the screen, so I really don't blame them for wanting to open up the box.

I have the best seat on this airplane - the window seat in the last row. I get to see everything, lean on the wall to sleep, and no one will be kicking my chair. Jeff's big gray sweatshirt is accompanying my journey and will serve as a pillow when I finally decide to sleep.

(Picture out airplane window; that's the moon, not the sun.)

The man sitting next to me is from Switzerland, so we have had enough to talk about. His main language is French, and he works in Switzerland for a company based in San Diego. He was in LA for training, and says that English would be easier to learn if he could ever be there for more than a week or two at a time. Scudellate, the town where I will be staying, is so small that he's never heard of it. He even asked me if I'm sure it's in Switzerland.

We are about to fly near Richfield. I am glad I will be asleep for most of the oversea portion of this trip. While I know that we are high enough that crashing on land or water won't make any difference, something makes me feel more comfortable knowing I'm over land.