Friday, April 1, 2011

I've been living in Rome.....Gosh this is Amazing.

These last few weeks have been pretty stressful. We are continuing to work on our third and final project of the semester in studio while two of our other classes are coming to a close. I am not looking forward to the Italian final.

The final project consists of drawing a classical Renaissance facade in Rome, analyzing it, then transforming it into a modern facade while maintaining the same language as the original. The first two parts were interesting because we needed to trace the facade perfectly, then carry the same size board out into the field and sketch the analysis at the site. I feel that doing that really helped my sketching skills and my layout ideas; I'm excited to see how my sketchbook will change.

We have had some highlights though during the work. We took a field studies trip to the Jubilee Church by Richard Meier, the proposed Roma 2020 Olympic site by Calatrava, and then we visited the MACRO museum. That day was so exciting and we got the chance to see some really innovative architecture. Each was unique in its own way and I enjoyed each site for that special quality.

We also had a week long visit from Stanley Hallet. He used to be the dean of the Architecture school at CUA and now he makes films with his wife. He had us make a still frame movie about a site in Rome which was to capture the architectural qualities of the space as well as the experiential aspects. Now I have never made a movie with still frames nor do I know how to use a Mac, so I found this project to quite enlightening and thrilling. I plan on looking into a way to make movies with  PC and doing this for some of my pictures once I'm done with the Rome program. I found it a really interesting way to present a place to an audience.

My cousin also came to visit me from her semester spent working in Germany. That was really nice to have a family member come and see how and what I'm doing in Rome. She sat in on a pin up, we cooked dinner together, and on the weekend we all went to the beach in Ostia Lido, which was amazing. I don't really have beaches back home but it made it feel like summer was here, plus it was 75 out and that day our courtyard lawn was mowed making it smell like summer too. The last big thing that we are doing before our trip to the South, is that we are all going to a AS Roma game. This should be so exciting, I love to play and watch soccer but had never been to an European game; Can't Wait.

Well we go to the south of Italy soon and I can hardly wait to see if it is as nice as Rome is becoming. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the different styles of architecture and experience the scenery of the area.

Arrivederci

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