Educational

My Santiago Reflection

Santiago was quite an experience for me. I’ve learned a bit about Spanish cultures before in high school, but Chile was an extra step in that development. Being in Chile was a refreshing change for me. I loved being immersed into new area that at first seems alien to me, but after getting a closer look at all the things that make up the culture, it’s not all that different, but still unique.

The people of Santiago were generally very nice and relaxed. I’d probably contribute that to the stray dogs being all over the place, but I don’t know. I felt comfortable whenever I had to speak to someone, whether in English or Spanish. That really helped me adjust to the new surroundings and relax. That is, until I lost my wallet. Other than that though I felt safe for the most part and enjoyed whatever it was we were doing.

One of my favorite parts of Chile was the art. It seemed like there was some kind of sculpture or painting around every corner, especially in Valparaiso. It made what could have been another normal city into a lively and vibrant environment. Speaking of environments, there was so much landscape. Even inside the city! I thought that was a really cool feature that Santiago had. It made the city feel like it was more than just an urban, concrete fortress.

Up in the Clouds Going Back to Reality (post Chile blog)

Chilean Winery squad

Back to Columbus

I honestly was having withdrawal symptoms of missing Chile as soon as we were boarding the bus to leave for the airport. I didn’t want to say goodbye to the beautiful city, the culture, the food, nor the people of Chile. The first full day of coming back to Ohio, it was 35 degrees outside and raining. Not the best weather to come back to after being in 80 degree and sunny weather of Santiago. Although I do have to say that I am grateful we at least came back to rain and not snow.

The Santiago trip exceeded my expectations immensely. I not only gained an understanding of the Chilean culture and new sketching skills, but I also gained some amazing friendships along the way. Overall my two favorite parts of Chile was the nature and the importance of not being on your phone 24/7. I fell in love with the landscapes Chile incorporated throughout all of Santiago. Every street, every walk you took, you were surrounded by trees that bordered the road or trees/plants that created spaces or provided shade. There were numerous amounts of times when a lot of us wanted to be under the shade of a tree and it was provided no matter where we were. The importance of nature was really prevalent in Santiago, even their malls had openings to let in natural sunlight and fresh air. 

I also enjoyed not having cellphone service in Chile and how in the Chilean culture, they really want you to not be on your phones and to experience the conversations and the surroundings you are in. One of the restaurants even had a place mat that outlined where to put your phone in order to not be on it. I appreciate the amount of importance Chile promotes to not be on your phone and wish America promoted it as well. 

My experience of the Santiago study abroad trip has been one I will never forget and I hope one day, I will get to go back to see even more that I missed. 

Figures and Voids: Universidad Católica

Innovation Center – concrete exterior creates a heavy feeling of the building

Plan of Lo Contador campus

Interior lobby of Innovation Center

The day we visited the Universidad Católica was a day of figures and voids. At the San Joaquín campus, we studied two figures: Torres Siamesas and the Innovation Center. Each was an inverted version of the other. Torres Siamesas, built first, had a exterior wooden material patio with a glass structure standing in the center. Inside the glass shell is a polycarbonate pair of boxes that have slight displacements on the top. The heavier interior with a softer exterior is reversed in the Innovation Center with a heavy concrete exterior and softer wooden, glass, and steel interior. The Innovation Center is a heavy (in terms of weight) and light (in terms of light) from the concrete exterior and smooth and light inside the lobby. The first image is a sketch of the lobby of the Innovation Center. The difference between the two buildings reflects what Alejandro Aravena (architect) wanted and what his client wanted.

Lo Contador campus focused on voids. With limited space, the university chose to build down into the earth rather than up into the air. The center band of the university was a void used for traffic, displays, projects, sketching, and more. Cutting into the ground allows there to be classrooms and libraries under the ground level and maintaining the voids. The contrast of this void with the heavy structural figures at San Joaquín creates a dichotomy of the two campuses of the same university. It’s important to remember the importance of site characteristics and boundary conditions when designing.

Wine + Bikes + Gorgeous Views = Slice of Paradise

On our free day, a group and I decided to visit a vineyard near Santiago that was fairly easy to get to by metro and a 10 min taxi ride. The vineyard was called Viña Cousiño Macul and it was located south of Santiago. The vineyard was founded in 1856 and is still in the hands of the original family (the 6th generation now) which is rare because most vineyards have been sold off to bigger companies in around the Santiago area. The tour that we did was the bike and wine tour which included a guided tour through the vineyard on bikes, a tour through the processing facility where they make the wine, and a tour through the cellar where they stored wines to age. Our tour also included four wine tastings as well. I thought that the tour was so amazing! The vineyard was so beautiful because you could see the mountains from the property and one fact that I found really interesting was that the vineyard actually stretched all the way from the outskirts of the city to Plaza de Armas when it was first founded, but was slowly sold off over the years. The wine tastings were amazing and our tour guide who was an American from Colorado, showed us the proper way to taste wine which was the “5 S” rule:

See: Look at the wine first and see if it’s transparent or opaque…if it’s more transparent, the wine is much younger, if more opaque, the wine has been aged longer.

Swirl: Swirl the wine in your glass and see if the wine runs slowly or quickly down the walls of the glass. If the wine moves quickly, it will have less body in your mouth because it has less viscosity, and the opposite if it moves slowly.

Smell: Smell the wine and try to pick out different notes. Is it fruity, is it earthy, etc… everyone’s sense of smell is different, so no judgement can be given.

Sip: Taste a small portion of the wine and try to pick out any flavors that you smelled. Are you surprised by the taste? Is it sweet, more acidic, drier, etc…

Savor: Enjoy the wine!

Learning how to properly taste wine was so much fun and I encourage others to try the 5 S rule when trying new wine!

Here are some pics from the vineyard:

Rows of Grapes

Close up of some grape…they were delicious and sweet!

Guide to making some wine!

 

No hablo español

Probably my most used phrase—”no hablo español.” When applying for the Santiago trip, my biggest concern was the language barrier. I can count to ten in Spanish, say hola and por favor, but that’s pretty much it. In high school I took Latin classes, which sometimes helps with root words, but other than that is almost no help. Thankfully, I am usually with Lisa during the trip, who knows enough Spanish to get us by.
This entire trip has been a learning experience. Slowly I am building my vocabulary word by word, just through interactions with the locals. Here are the most important things I have learned so far:

“I’m sorry” – “Lo siento”

“Excuse me” – “permiso”

“How much?” – “quantos”

“Can I have the check please?” – “la cuenta por favor”

When talking about the price of things, it is the number followed by “mil”

“bathroom” – “baño”

The Baquedano Market—where I got to practice my Spanish

Relative to the language barrier comes the term “gringos,” meaning a white, English speaking person.  “Gringos” is considered a derogatory term, and I have encountered it a couple of times.  The first time it was really directed at me was when a few of us went to this bar to just check it out and see if it would be a good place to go another night.  Upon entering, we were greeted by a waiter who only spoke Spanish, who yelled down to the 4 women in the basement, the only other people in the place.  He told them we spoke English not Spanish.  The women replied with something in Spanish but we caught the word “gringos” among the words.  Immediately after that interaction, the waiter turned towards us and said drinks were 10,000 pesos, which is similar to $15 in the United States.  Obviously he tried to take advantage of us and we left.

Today, we visited Quinta Normal Park and the Museum of Memory.  During our free time we went to lunch at a small, cheap restaurant near the museum.  Half-way through our meal, a man across the streets yelled to the ladies at the table next to us in Spanish: “Oh I see you’re sitting by the Gringos.”  I thought this was a really weird thing to say.  In America, this would never happen.  It doesn’t matter who you sit by, we consider ourselves equal.  This man did not just say that, but he yelled it across the street.  I did not get offended because I know it is something that their culture does and has been doing for years.  It just made me think about how diverse and integrated the United States is compared to Chile, which was something I have never thought about before and was very interesting to think about.

 

 

3/16 -Memories

So today was a fairly simple day. Go to the cathedral, the park, museum of memory, then eat. I’m really glad we got to go to the cathedral too. I’ve seen some cathedrals in Spain before and they are massive, even compared to the one we saw today, but I appreciated the use of space that this cathedral had. Like adding the crypt underneath the alters (I think). Which I also though the crypt was really cool how it shows a transition from the clean white marble, to the rougher, tan marble and wood hand rail ends and steps. I’m curious on why the hand rails were purple too. The only reason I could think of is it was supposed to be a wine like color, and the wood ends are like the wooden cups that Jesus would have drank from. Other than that it’s a mystery to me. The park we went to today was actually really cool, we took a walk around the whole thing after doing a sketch and it had some real interesting trees and features to it. It was a fun time. The memory museum today though. That got a little deep. On an architectural standpoint, I though it had really good spacing between each display and the path you would follow was easy to go through. As for my emotional state, it made me feel numb. I couldn’t read almost everything in the museum, but the images speak for themselves. Knowing that an entire country was changed in a single, devastating day, makes you think for a moment. I don’t know exactly all of the details, but I got enough to understand that a lot of people were torn apart during this time. Wether that be because they lost someone dear to them, or had to leave everyone dear to them. The museum captured what was to be felt and understood about its history, and I’m glad I was able to have this experience be a memory that I won’t forget.

Museum of memory

Picture outside the crypt

Picture inside the crypt

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

 

Costanera Mall-3/13

The day was a long one and the exhaustion caught up with us all about halfway through. We had been on the bus travelling from the monastery to the graduate and undergraduate architecture schools here in Chile. Then we had dinner at Mestizo, enjoying a delicious lunch of salmon with flan for dessert, followed by a walk through Bicentennial park where we fed the birds and enjoyed a walk. Following the events on our itinerary, we managed a group visit to Costanera tower. The whole group made their way to the 62nd floor of the building for a breathtaking view of all of Santiago. My friends and I took our time making our way around the building to see all of the angles. After we gad a small rest, we went to the elevator and took the elevator down to the 5th floor. We explored the next 4 floors down the mall beneath, comparing the stores to those we have back home and enjoying the Chilean culture we could observe. We did this for about the next 3 hours and managed to find out way back to the hotel. We then went to dinner at Ekika Ilmenau across the street. We got some Chilean style burgers and fries and enjoyed a few hours together.

One of the really cool art pieces at the University Adolfo Ibanez graduate student campus.

A Costal Excursion

Some street art in Valparaiso

My sketch of La Sebastiana.

The last two days have been very eventful. During the two hour bus ride to Valparaíso, Tamina and I watched Moana while everyone else slept. When we arrived, we went straight to Pablo Neruda’s house, La Sebastiana, and took an audio tour. While I initially felt apprehensive about visiting the house of a poet with whom I was unfamiliar, the eclectic design of the house and sweeping panoramic views of the city below quickly made me appreciate the romantic style of the setting and the poet’s enigmatic life. I was surprised to find that he had been an ambassador to France and was such an important figure in Chilean culture, especially considering that authors today, aside from a select view, are not nearly as celebrated as before.

I enjoyed the city tour of Valparaíso and while the street art was varied in color and style, it was not necessarily my favorite thing that I have seen in Chile. The excursion to Viña Del Mar, however was one of the greatest things that I have done here and it was made even better by the Pizza Hut Lunch accompanied by music and trip to the beach.

Today, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the Museum of Memory and had a much greater sense of empathy for the victims of the dictatorship. Combining this experience with the Santiago Cathedral, I feel as though I had a mind opening and relatively refreshing day. The empanada I bought on the street definitely helped with that too. I am really looking forward to the free day tomorrow as I hope to go hiking in the Andes with a group.

Day 3-4

‘Sun’tiago

During these days, we visited the various universities around Santiago as well as the Costanera tower (tallest tower in Latin America). At the universities, I had a chance to observe the interactions between the students which turned out to be very similar to the interactions of American students. The layout and the structure of the colleges played an important role in helping enable the social environment. The college had large, spacious courtyards where all the students gathered to hang out between classes. The fresh air and view in which the college was situated in which added to the fresh environment. Studies have proven that having ventilation and sun help improve creativity, thus a prime setting for a university. The landscapes around the building were mainly shrubs or shrub-like looking trees, helping maintain greenery and preventing potential soil erosion. After visiting the university, in the evening we went to the Costanera Tower. We went up to the 62nd floor to watch the sun set behind the Andes mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. In addition to the gorgeous sunset, the architecture of the top of the tower was also breathtaking. There was no ceiling at the top, so the air surrounding us was fresh, enhancing the experience. All around the top floor, there were hidden drains that would take care of any water that may accumulate with any precipitation.

After the sunset, we explored the rest of the tower which was essentially a shopping mall. We went into the department store which closely resembles a Walmart or a Costco from back home in Ohio. Overall this day was amazing; the views and the similarities I noticed between Chileans and Americans were striking.

Travel within Travel

Ayer se ubica como uno de los mejores días de mi vida hasta el momento. He aquí un breve resumen de lo que pasó:

montañas -Watched pasan a Pink Floyd durante dos horas

-Toured La casa de Pablo Neruda y mirado a su colección litografía probablemente más tiempo que nadie jamás

-Drew Valparaiso de arriba a abajo

-Toured La ciudad y vio la más bella pintadas y murales de mi vida. Sintió totalmente inspirado por todo. Comprado obra y fue consolada por serigrafías en las paredes. Se recordó que la letra impresa no está muerto

-Found Un agujero en la pared lugar sándwich en un accidente que Anthony Bourdain había sido rellenado y nuestras caras en las rocas. Subió alrededor y dejar que el Pacífico salpique nuestros pies

-Cambio En trajes tan rápido como sea posible y se fue al océano a gran velocidad, dejando que el agua fría de hielo se convierten en nuestro mejor amigo para las próximas horas

-Frank Perdió sus gafas, Rico puede haber experimentado la hipotermia, y Kaz era del mismo color que la arena

-Walked Por el paseo marítimo y tuvo éxito en la búsqueda de un anillo y un novio

-fieltro Gusta llegamos al final de la tierra al final del paseo marítimo, regresamos a la tierra, se convirtió en una de las cajas de arena, sol, y la pizza

-Más montañas y Pink Floyd

-Más El Huerto, la conversación y el vino

-Reír tan fuerte que no puede respirar

-Más amigos.

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.

First Moments

We have landed in Chile after a 10 hour overnight flight on which I dreamt of various approaches to my next lithography project.  As we touched down, the sun was beginning to rise over the Andes mountains and they appeared as some kind of flat construction – three pieces of faded paper pasted onto one another and hung around an entire city.

I had forgotten what travel really felt like, the freeing energy you feel walking down a street on the opposite hemisphere as your own.  An odd familiarity paired with an uneasy feeling of knowing absolutely nothing makes me feel like a child again.  It felt wonderful to have these feelings again and to recieve happiness and joy from the simple act of presence.

We dropped our belongings at the hotel and 20 girls managed to change in a bathroom made for three.  From there we headed to Cerro San Cristobal – rode the cable cars up the hill, joking the whole way up but taking a few silent moments to absorb the sights around us.  When we reached the peak I was able to spend some time alone to recharge and reflect, reveling in all the intense feelings travel provides.

Hitchcock vs. San Joaquin’s Engineering Building

Sketch of façade of civil engineering building at San Joaquin

Civil engineering building at San Joaquin

My favorite part of Day 4 was visiting PUC’s San Joaquin campus. Not only were the Torres Siamesas and the Innovation Center beautiful buildings, but so were all the others on campus! The campus had so many beautifully designed buildings, as well as landscapes. As you enter the campus, you see the innovation center on the left, a statue in the center, and another interesting building on the right, that work to bring you into the campus to explore more. After walking through campus a little bit, I decided to sketch the civil engineering building. It is one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s made mostly of concrete, but the façade has steel pillars that start out as one, and then branch off into two or three in the top half of the building. Im not sure if those serve any structural purpose, since there are concrete pillars placed at even intervals which seem to be doing most of the structural work. It was just a really interesting building, that probably makes the engineering students that attend classes there stop and think. Thinking back to Hitchcock, which is home of the civil engineering department, why can’t we have a building as cool as the one at San Joaquin? Hitchcock is a run of the mill building from the 1960’s, with a basic layout and brick façade. It would be nice if at some point Ohio State could redo Hitchcock, because as the main engineering building, it should fascinate the students that go there, and force them to think about the building in terms of what they learn in class. Similar to how Knowlton does this for its students.  Overall, it was a really interesting campus.

innovation center

Innovation center perspective view from outside

The UC Innovation Center was my favorite building visited on the urban campus visits. Although I was initially more excited for Aravena’s Torres Siameses, I found that the Innovation Center was the more successful project in the end. While Aravena’s solutions to budget constraints for Torres Siameses were innovative, it also created maintenance problems for the building. The wearing wood exterior ground and the unwashed glass showed signs of problems reached in the post production of the project.

View of atrium from ground floor

Meanwhile, the Innovation Center’s more simple form created many features with just the element of shifted prisms and voids. Voids were important in this volumetric building in creating openings between the concrete for occupiable balconies that also let light in. A central void running through the central axis mundi of the building created an atrium that let light shine through all the floors of the building. Another void acted as the entryway into the project. From the exterior, the voids seem to be shifted along three rows of the facade with double height balcony spaces. This creates ambiguity between the indoor space that actually holds 11 floors.

Innovation center facade

The voids created transform from balconies to entry to atrium creating outdoor spaces and clerestory. Staying true to its name, this project takes innovative plays of breaking the box.

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

Spheres and Rocks (Day 4)

Today we took the metro to visit Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Campus San Joaquin. While visiting the Innovation center on campus, I was intrigued by these cement spheres that were situated in front of the Innovation center due to their unique design and diverse purposes. There were three sets of the cement spheres containing roughly thirty various sized spheres in close proximity to each other. The texture of the spheres looked like a mixture of cement and other aggregates. As I was observing how the spheres related to the campus, I noticed they were being used more so as a place for gathering, sitting, and elemental design instead of relating to its context. Multiple people were sitting on the spheres, including our Santiago group, to rest or meet people to go inside the innovation center. The cement spheres acted as its own location marker due to how easily it was to spot and notice them. 

While walking around campus, there was also a stone garden that was behind the Complejo Andronico Luksic Abaroa (the cylinder brass looking building). The rock garden contained a rigid path passing through the empty space of two adjacent buildings and included various metamorphic rock types on each side. Lapis Lazuli, a very deep blue color, was one of the rock types shown in the stone garden and  an important one to learn about because of its mining origins and how native the rock is to Chile. The major source of mining for Lapis Lazuli is mined from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Andes mountains within Chile. 

Cement Spheres

Lapis Lazuli

Sketch of Spheres in front of Innovation Center

 

Day 1

My first days here were amazing. I knew this trip was going to be awesome the second we walked out of the airport and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The bus ride to the hotel got me very excited and I enjoyed seeing the neighborhoods a little further out.

My favorite thing we did yesterday was take the cable car up to the top of the hill. The views from the cable car exceeded all of my expectations. I am a little afraid of heights but the views were worth it. They were unlike anything I had seen before.

View from the cable car

A very interesting experience I had yesterday was going to the grocery store. I was trying to get very basic foods so I could pack sandwiches everyday because of my allergies. Trying to order meat from the deli was very interesting so I just had to point and hope for the best with whatever meat I was given. We all got some interesting looks but overall it was a funny experience. At the grocery store we came across Twistos which I recommend every has once. By the time we all got home the two bags were gone. So far my time in Chile has been very fun and I am looking forward to this week!

Size Does Not Matter

So today I saw how size does not matter when it comes to forms of amazement here in Santiago. To help justify this statement lets take a look at two examples starting with the smaller end of the scale. On our way to another campus of PUC we passed a house that had a privacy wall with purple and white flowers growing down it. Now I understand, just flowers; we have them in Ohio, however I have never seen a flower like this one before. After some research I discovered the name of the intriguing flower, it is a Passiflora × belotii. Also, to my amazement, I found out that there are similar flowers in the family that grow in Ohio. I believe this flower to be a prime example on the smaller end because as we passed by the house, there was a stop. Seems a number of students could not continue their walk without snapping a show of exotic plant. This obviously is something amazing and rare to us.

 

            Passiflora × belottii
       Found as far north as Ohio

My second example of scaled amazement would be the UC Innovation Center. This monolithic structure cannot help but bring attention to itself. Its the first building you see when walking from the train and last one on your mind when you go. The color and shape truly work to the building’s advantage. It is this hard gray giant that sits in the foreground of the Andes, and from some angles on the campus, looks like it is rising from the soft canopy made with the trees on campus. This just goes  to show how size is not necessary when it comes to being amused by Santiago

The Innovation Center of UC looking north

 

Two Projects with Sustainability in Mind, One Success.

Today we were able to visit the San Joaquin Campus and had the chance to explore two projects there: the Torres Siamesas and the Innovation Center. While I do not have the specs on the energy consumption of these two buildings, it was quite evident which building had more success in its design in conserving more energy and creating a more comfortable environment in my opinion. The first building that we toured was the Torres Siamesas. My thoughts were kind of split down the middle when it came to this building’s overall design and its attempt to mitigate the effects of solar gain due to the radiation of the sun. Firstly, when it came to its aesthetic design, I had mixed feelings. I found some details like the shape of the building and details in the interior like the lights and staircase to be quite interesting. On the contrast, I was not fond of the choice in material for the lower exterior. Although I appreciated the contrast in materials and a weathered wood would have still looked nice, the durability of the material was terrible and some areas were so deteriorated that it was unsafe to the public. When it comes to sustainability with this building, I believe the intentions were good, but I don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been…and I’m not sure if this was due to the budget, or general failure in the design. The building seemed to be quite hot on the upper levels and the double walled system did not seem to be working properly because heat was being trapped. This is quite problamatic because in order to cool the building it will require a lot of energy. Possibly too much solar gain was occurring for this building and maybe a better type of glazing would have helped, but these are only speculations. Overall, I’d say the design was not a complete flop, but definitely has flaws.

The Innovation Center was a different story than the Torres Siamesas, and I found this project to be very successful and was one of my favorite buildings I’ve seen so far on this trip. The choice in materials was ingenious and beautiful and I loved everything that this building had to offer. The exposed elevator system was not an eyesore and was rather quite fun and inviting, the cantilever pieces on the building acted not only as sun shaders, but were aesthetically interesting as well, the functionality of each floor was intriguing, and the atrium tied everything together. On a sustainable level, I thought this building was extremely successful. Concrete is a more sustainable material due to its properties with thermal bridging, and the atrium in the center helped heat from the building to rise and escape at the top. This building was much more comfortable than the Torres Siamesas, and I think that this project was wonderfully executed.

Innovation Center Sketch

 

Universities: Santiago vs Columbus

From visiting the Universidad de Adolfo Ibañez (UAI)and Universidad Católica de Santiago (UC), I started noticing differences between the campus layout and culture. One of the more unique features of the universities in Chile is the use of outdoor space. In the Universidad Caólica and Universidad de Adolfo Ibañez, there were many spaces created outdoors for students. Much like Knowlton at OSU has the big steps, large steps used for sitting and socializing were found in at least three different instances outside in the open at UAI. There are many outdoor café’s and patios. There were multiple ping pong tables at both universities outside and often in use. Many projects from the architecture and design students were put on display in outdoor spaces. It was common to see students socializing or studying outside. In contrast, most is done indoors at OSU and the outdoor space is often used for recreation or socializing. This is logical with Columbus being a colder climate than Santiago. The university was also spread across different campuses with different colleges (engineering, medicine, etc.) at each campus. Unlike OSU where all colleges are on one campus, UC had the engineering campus separate from the design campus.

Steps outside at UAI, similar to the big steps in Knowlton

Another difference was that the university students did not live on campus. Instead, they commuted, often from home, to the university. This is hard to imagine when the university could be an hour away or longer to get to when the farthest location at OSU is roughly 15 minutes away for me. That long commute time is less time for studying or getting involved in activities. A lot of students on campus were also wearing jeans and semi casual clothes when it was nearing 90 degrees. While in the US, it’s all about comfort, in Chile, it’s about looking nice. I was unable to spot a single Chilean in gym shorts. It is great to compare how the universities are set up around the world so we can see what is worth replicating and appreciate what we already do well.

Captain’s Log Stardate 0315217

Chemamulles exhibit

Sketch of Chemamulles exhibit

I know this was yesterday, but I can’t get over the Pre-Columbian museum- specifically the Chemamulles exhibit. They are wooden statues that were placed on the tombs in ancient Mapuche burial sites and they represent the spirits of the dead. The sky light from above gave soft, but still strong lighting to the statues that accentuated the details of the figure. The eyes, nose, chin, and breasts in the women especially. The order in which they were placed was smartly done as well. It goes from high to low from, if you’re looking at it, left to right, with hierarchy given to the farthest left figure which is the tallest and has the biggest head. All are male figures except for two, the second and third from the left. This tells the observer that women were also given these carvings to adorn their graves and help them into the afterlife, however they are some of the smallest which may indicate social class. I also thought it was interesting that one is leaning to the right. The display allowed for imperfections which I absolutely love in design. No human is perfect so why should their spirits be any different?

Aside from the subtle inferences one can glean from what is presented, they also have a significant effect on the underground gallery as a whole. As you go from display to display, you are acutely aware of the shadowed eyes following you. I hope for some, the feeling that someone is watching them will encourage them not to use flash when taking photos down there. Although, I believe for most, they act as watchers over what is left of their people in the gallery and reminders that the people who used and wore what we are seeing there, are now dead and these Chemamulles were their grave markers.

The sun sets on another day in Santiago

Beginning to watch the sun set

Currently I am on the 62nd floor, open roof, observatory deck of the Costanera Tower. After a long exhausting day of exploring all over Santiago, it is nice to finally sit and just observe. Our day started with a drive to the Benedictine Monastery, which was incredible and had amazing views.

Sketch of Benedictine Monastery

Benedictine Monastery in relation to landscape

Then we travelled to Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, which was equally amazing. I think I enjoyed the graduate school more, but both were incredible buildings with incredible views (although it was scary climbing the mountain in our huge coach bus).

Universidad Adolfo Ibañez

We rested with a huge and delicious lunch at Mestizo. I had Meat Ragout over gnocchi and tres leches cake for dessert. It was probably one of the best meals I have ever eaten. I was so full I don’t know how I ate it all.

Beef Ragout over gnocchi

Tres Leches was FANTASTIC

Then directly following the meal, we walked through Bicentenario Park, which was super lush and green. Santiago is a very Catholic country, and within the park we found a small chapel. I had no idea it was a chapel from the outside, but it was so peaceful inside. The tree really surprised me. Then we met the group and walked another 15 minutes to the Costanera Tower.

The landscape at Bicentenario Park was beautiful

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So, here I am, reflecting on my day as the sun goes down behind the mountains. I can’t believe we fit all of these things into this one day because it feels like that trip to the Monastery was forever ago. I still can’t believe I am in Chile, even South America. I honestly never thought I’d have the chance to come here and I am so happy to have this opportunity. The city is amazing, the weather is fantastic, the food and drinks are awesome, and the people are so friendly. I am loving Santiago.

After an hour and a half of waiting, the sun finally set, and it was so worth the wait.

Buckeyes in Santiago

 

My favorite part of today’s adventure is that we were able to explore the PUC Lo Contador campus. It’s cool to see how different other schools are compared to Knowlton. My favorite part of the campus would have to be the stair design in different buildings. The use of different materials for one stairway was very common among the buildings that we toured. The yellow and red stairs also contrasted with the neutral stairs around campus. I was really impressed with the auditorium space and loved how the seats were bleachers. For some reason I’ve never thought to use bleachers for a lecture hall space but it truly is a good idea to get the most use out of an area. One thing about Santiago is the variety of different trees and plants that can even be found in the city. Some of these plants are a lot different than the ones that we have in the U.S., however I was far too familiar with this buckeye tree. Brett found the buckeye tree on our way back to the hotel from Lo Contador by seeing stray buckeyes on the sidewalk. It was good to see a taste of home and to know that there is some luck with us on the trip.

Stairs near Lo Contador library

Brett holds buckeyes that we found on the street.

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.

Exploring the Architectures in Schools

If I have to pick highlights in these two days’ travel, I would definitely say the schools we visited. First of all I think the Architecture Graduate school of University Adolfo Ibanez impressed me by its central plaza. The plaza was occupied by many students who were chatting and circulating around. Such scenery is actually not common back in U.S. I think what I see in U.S. most is that people do their individual’s work more and seldom make connection with others directly. Despite many of them are still greeting each other and have common chat. I am not judging or being critical about this since I think it is all about cultural difference. In the undergrads school of the same university,  we see many open public spaces like the ones we had at Big Stairs in Knowlton( though it’s indoor) under circumstances. I think it’s pretty interesting.

Quick Sketch looking at the Central Gathering Space


And a day after, we went to the famous innovation center in PUC. The architecture itself from exterior is fascinated. To go further you might notice the structure seems to be in a weird but meaningful proportion which I think it’s pretty interesting. I also love the details inside of the building and I did a couple of sketches.

Exterior-Innovation Center

Furniture Pieces inside Innovation Center

 

University Adolfo Ibanez and PUC

View from Adolfo Ibanez Architecture School

PUC Lo Contador campus

Visiting the architecture school in then mountains pleasantly surprised me. I was so amazed by the magnificent view the architecture students get to see everyday whether it be in class or simply strolling around the beautiful campus. The cool tones of the buildings on campus made the space feel very light and breezy to walk through. Personally, I favored the design of the graduate school more than the undergraduate school in that campus was more quiet and there were bigger changes in section. I loved hat inside the building there was so much natural light coming through and that they didn’t need to use a lot of artificial lighting inside the buildings. The design of the buildings and the way they were layed out sort of reminded me of the architecture in Greece, where the white buildings are connecected by narrow stairways. At PUC in the Lo Contador campus, I liked seeing the contrast between the old and the new buildings that were put right next to each other. I also liked the idea of having reviews outside in the daylight rather inside in a cool and dark building. At PUC in the San Joaquin campus, it was interesting to see how much busier and more urban the campus was compared to the Lo Contador campus or even the Adolfo Ibanez School of Architecure campus. Can’t wait to go to the beach tomorrow!

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.

Silent Cerritos Santa Lucia-3/12

Today, following our planned events, my friends and I went on a little expedition to Cerro Santa Lucia. We later found out that a majority of the Santiago group made this trek as well. The walk was surrounded by beautiful wildlife and a multitude of families spending quality time together. After our first set of statistics we met a man with his mother, they were visiting from Australia. They had just landed a few hours ago and we’re asking us if we knew of any cool touristy sights they should see. Naturally, we laughed at the fact that we’d only just began our explorations as well and then told them of the Moneda Cultural Center and the Plaza de Armas. The stairs were a treacherous experience as many of them were weathered and they all seemed to be different shapes and sizes. When we got about halfway up, to where we could see the castle, we stopped for a refreshing drink and took in the view, admired a beautiful waterfall/fountain, and then got a classic picture with the Santiago skyline and the mountains in the background. After our little breather we continued the climb up the hill, meeting more and more of our fellow travelers along the way. As we got to the top we caught sight of the beautiful view that was ahead. We entered the small, crowded crows nest area and I immediatelay took this photo.

The view from the top of Cerro Santa Lucia