Civic Buildings

Day5&6

Little sculpture in La Sebastiana

Decoration on street in Valparaíso

In day 5, we got up early and start our trip at 8:00am. Taking 2 hours on bus, we went to a costal town, Valparaíso. The geography in there was steep. Houses located from bottom to top of mountains. We straight to La Sebastiana, which is a big residential of a poet, called Pablo Neruda. He is also a receiver of Nobel. This house was facing to sea with a big terrace. Standing on the terrace, you can have a good view of the whole town and the sea. There are 5 floors in this house although each floor is narrow. (This looks like a character of houses here. )Going upstairs, You can see amounts of treasures displayed in La Sebastiana. I even found some pretty Chinese drawing! After appreciating this delicate house, we walked around the town. This town is special because all buildings are colorful. You can see scrawl on wall anywhere. And it is also interesting that design is fulfill in any corner. For instance, the stair is painted in black and white, looks like piano. Then, we go down to seaside. I enjoyed the feeling when wind flowed on my face.
Time comes to day 6. We took metro to Santiago Cathedral and Museum Memory. Santiago Cathedral is a brilliant and holy place. You would be conscious to keep silence when you walk into it. Museum Memory is another respectable place. I learn a a lots about Chilean history there. Through some video and relic, I know how Chilean experience war and gorven. I respect them because I think it is difficult for them coming from battle. After visiting Museum Memory, I have a deeper understanding of Chile.

Lord of the Rings: One and 3/8 Towers

It was on this day that we visited Torres Siameses, Alejandro Arevena’s glass tower on the PUC campus, as well as Elementals Innovation Center. On the metro ride back to our hotel we met a man who was a student at the University. We told him how much we enjoyed these buildings and he was amazed because it’s was so simple on the outside. We described to him the inner beauty of the building, the reason why us architecture students loved it so much. I really enjoyed the texture of the concrete created by the molds used to form it. It was really unique how they chose not to enclose all of the fixtures and workings of the elevator system, as well as the central atrium, making the building far more sustainable as a whole compared to Torres Siameses. In this building, the glass skin that Arevena intended to make the building more sustainable and create a convection current around the building, to save on energy, seemed to make the building even hotter. The design also provided for issues with maintenance, in the areas where windows were later added, the most noticeable aspect was how dirty the building was between the two layers.

My drawing of the concrete’s texture at the Innovation Center

 

Day 5

In day 5, we had been to Valparaiso, a colorful seaside town. It was a sunny day. Thousands of colorful houses on the hill are really clear from the fourth floor of Pablo Neruda house. The Pablo Neruda house is super interesting, where is like a treasure house. I found a candlestick decorated by men with hindquarters of a goat and likely they are Pan, the god in Greek myth controlling flocks. Also, I saw the plate with a pattern that a woman in a nautilus, a teapot with a lady’s head, and many other interesting collections. The overall arrangement of the house is also cool and I really like the small spaces with exquisite furnish and decorate.
The murals around those little houses on the hill are amazing. I haven’t seen so many murals at the same time before. In this city, every corner is colorful and has amazing details. I can really feel the people’s enthusiasm for art and life.
Afternoon, we went to Vina del Mar, where has good beaches. We took lunch at a Mexico restaurant and then walked to the beach. There was really too many winds and sunshine on that afternoon. I felt super cold when the winds blew me and felt hot when sun on me.

Valparaiso

Santiago Interacts Better

We took the bus to El Parque Infantil and I was presented with a feeling of utter joy that was so overwhelming I began to tear up.  We sat watching the children play in the water, exuberant with every interaction they had with the water, the ground, their mothers, fathers, each other.  I sat and took it all in, becoming more amazed by the human connection every second.  I was reminded of the importance of attempting to make a connection with everyone you meet and the impact this can carry.

Fast forward two days and we are enjoying a group lunch at a beautiful outdoor restaurant called Mestizo.  We had just finished a bus trip to a small private university, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez.  My first impression was similar to that of the college I attended my freshman year – small, antisocial, lacking diversity due to the steep price.  But as classes ended and lunch rolled around, the public spaces turned into mini social paradises.  Since the students do not live on campus, they made incredible use of the campus in between class instead of retreating to their dorms and apartments.  It looked like such a great release to be able to socialize to that degree and it left me wishing that Ohio State students would simply walk with their heads up to class.  Frank Brought up an interesting point – was it due to growing up up in a predominantly warmer climate that was condusive to utilizing outdoor space well?  What if we were to build a city in a colder climate, but treat the outdoor public spaces as if it was warmer?  Would the social culture begin to shift?

There is always something to think about.

Day 4

This is the fourth day we come to Chile. We kept going for our journey.

Today, our first destination is Universidad Católica de Chile. We got to there by metro. It is busy and crowded in the metro line because we traveled on weekday and hush hour. Taking about twenty minutes, we arrived the university and visited a building of computer science. It is designed by Alejandro Aravena. This building used glass and wood as major materials. The windows were parallelogram. And this architecture separated into two tower on the top. Looks like ‘Y’. That’s interesting. However, I prefer the building we went later, the Innovation Center. This is also Aravena’s work. It is made up by geometry. The wall is concrete with huge concave windows. It looks clear. You cannot recognize how many floor there are when you have a look from outside. Actually there are 11! The indoor design is also fantastic. A big hollow space is in the middle. There are four elevator which is bare in the central space. The wall is decorated by wood. Everything seems modern!

In the afternoon, we visited another school at San Joaquin. We also did an assignment there. By drawing plan and section, I was clear to understand the construction of that school although it was complex. In this school, all the building has connection. There were some channels connecting different departments. Some of them are on ground while some are under ground. I think the designer did a good job to associate the old building with the new. It is great to keep the old building instead of destroy and rebuild.

That’s what I generally saw today. I feel happy to appreciate lots of amazing architecture. Hope the following days would be more interesting.

central space of the Innovation Center

Day 3

The Monastery Church

The ramp of Universidad Adolfo Ibañez

Yesterday is a sunny day. We meet early and began our journey. We climbed up to a hill to visit a church, called Monastery. To be honest, I rarely focus on church. And I believe this church is the best design I have seen. I think the designer is good to use sunlight. The Windows’ location and size are comfortable. Sunlight go through the windows and come into indoor space, making a sense of holy. And the huge hall looks majestic. Walking into the church, you would be shocked by this masterpiece.

Besides, we went to Universidad Adolfo Ibañez which is a local university. I witness a famous ramp that I just saw in photo. This ramp let me associate with the ramp in Knowlton hall. However, there are a lot of differences. This ramp is more flexible. It is curve that looks really artistic. And the space is much bigger. People can have a open vision when they stand on the ramp. Last but not least, the detail is fantastic. The middle of wall is white while the bottom is gray concrete. And the armrest is made from wood, which is different with the wall material.

Overall, these two building impressed me a lots. They are designed in different way. But they are both successful in details, using materials and space design. I fairly appreciate them.

Day 3-4

In these two days, we have traveled to many amazing buildings and parks. The church Benedictine Monastery Las Condes gave me a really deep impression. It uses simple materials to create a clean and sacred space. The interaction between the dark gray walls and the white walls is good and also the different patterns and tailings on them soften the contrast to make the place closer to people. The light pouring down from the gaps between walls, surrounding the central cross of the church. I like to visit churches where make me feel peaceful and this church is one of the greatest ones I’ve visited.
I had two good lunches these two days. One was in Mestizo and one was in El Anclg today with Momo, Shihan, Ziyuan, and Jackie. We had a group lunch in Mestizo and I ordered salmon and the cake in the glass bottle. The salmon was really, but the dessert was tooooooo sweet for me (haven’t tried a dessert sweet like this even in America). El Anclg was a recommended seafood restaurant on Yelp, so we decided to try it. Many kinds of seafood can be found there and the flavor was good (though a little bit salty). I ordered crab claws. The sauce I haven’t tried before, which is super heavy. It’s not bad but it covered the flavor of crab claws, so I think it’s too strong for me. Really miss the Cantonese seafood in Shenzhen!

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes- the wood door

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes

Crab claws in El Anclg

Day 4 in Santiago

 

The most interesting and challenging thing in today would be the innovation center in PUC. It is a really interesting building that I want to explore. But I afraid of height and the elevator that allow me look through the whole interior make me feel nervous and scared. I just went to he eighth floor and explore the cafe in there. It was a great cafe with some tables on the balcony and the view in there in awesome. After I saw other people had token elevator going up to the eleventh floor, I started to persuade myself. I try to tell myself I should overcome the fear but in the moment when I saw the door of elevator was opening, I decided to go down and do some sketches. Even though I failed to challenge myself, at last I ensure I am survive right now.
After that we went to a restaurant to try seafood. Since we cannot speak Spanish, the order process looks awkward and funny. We used our all gestures that we can make and apps to translate what we want to eat. I got a grill octopus. It looks scared and huge but it is delicious. Since we arrived the restaurant a little bit late, we did not have enough time to enjoy it.

Innovation center from bottom to top

Cafeteria in innovation center.

Grill octopus. It looks scared but tastes great.

Day2 in Santiago

The first highlight for today is the breakfast in hotel is awesome！ I really like the fruits in here and I never eat any melon sweeter than that. And the other thing that I am impressed is the metro.
It is not brand new but it remind me the subway in Bejing. They look so similar that I felt I was in China. The plane de armas crowed. Lots of people in the plaza. It is well designed with lots of trees so it felt comfortable when we seat under the canopies. The fountain in the middle in nice but there are lots of weird things happened there. Children played in the water. Pigeons and dogs took shower in there. Horses drank water. And a man washed his hair. The plaza makes me feel a little bit nervous because there was a group of people speaking loudly and I don’t understand Spanish and I cannot figure out what were they talking. It makes me feel more unsafe. But when we leave the plaza about two blocks away, the world felt back to safe. One more thing to mention, there are lots of dogs on streets and they are so cute!