Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Extended Travel Trip: Venice and the Veneto

Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for our first extended study travel trip to Venice and the surrounding area. I am going to post the basic itinerary here for those at home who are following along on our travels, since many of us will be away from our computers until we return home.

9/18 Thursday – Depart Villa….arrive Padova

Travel from Hotel to Venezia Santa Lucia and get Boat Passes

Return to Hotel in the Evening and Explore Padova


9/19 Friday – Depart Hotel at 8 a.m. for Venice

Arrive in Venice for 9:30 a.m. appointment at Giardini and Biennale

Free afternoon to explore, return to Hotel in the evening


9/20 Saturday- Depart Hotel 8 a.m. for Venice

Peggy Gugenhiem Museum at 10 a.m.

Free Afternoon to explore, return to Padova in evening


9/21 Sunday – Padova

Visit Cappela Scrovegni at 9:30 a.m.

Afternoon free to explore.


9/22 Monday- Depart Padova...arrive Vicenza

Depart hotel at 8 a.m. for Palladian Villa Itinerary

Evening free to explore Vicenza


9/23 Tuesday - Vicenza

10 a.m. visit to Teatro Olimpico

Free Afternoon to explore Vicenza.


9/24 Wednesday Depart Vicenza…Arrive Verona

10 a.m. Visit to Villa Rotunda

Visit Castelvechio / Purchase Verona Card / Free afternoon to explore


9/25 Thursday - Verona

Free day to explore Verona


9/26 Friday – Depart Verona…Arrive Bologna

Afternoon in Bologna


9/27 Saturday- Bologna

Day to explore Bologna: Asirelli towers, Museums, etc.


9/28 Sunday – Depart Bologna….Arrive Villa

Morning is free to explore Bologna

6:18 pm: Arrive in Genoa.


Day Trip: Pieve Ligure

Last Thursday we made a short day trip to Pieve Ligure. We arrived in the small town early in the morning and hiked up a steep set of stairs to small piazza. At the piazza we rested and sketched for a while. Some explored a nearby by church, while others took advantage of the break to enjoy a brief nap in the sun.

Here are some of the sketches from our stop in the piazza:


sketch by Chris N.


Sketch by Tim

After our break we continued the rest of our hike to the peak of the mountain, our goal being a small chapel at the top called la Chiesa di Croce. The path was dry and dusty, and not as steep as our previous hikes. We were also better prepared this time, with at least half of the students carrying hydration packs and a general upgrade in our hiking gear.

When we reached the chapel at the top, we spread out in the area to eat lunch and sketch some more. Here are some images from the summit:


The view from the top, sketch by Chris N.


On Top of Pieve Ligure, sketch by Tim


La Chiesa di Croce


Ryan sketching at the top of Pieve, photo courtesy of Mason


Brian and Mason's "extreme photography" escalates to war, photo courtesy of Mason

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Project Two: Il Teatro

For our second brief design project, we each designed a floating theater. Here is an excerpt from the project statement:

This project engages the demands of precedent, program, site, and creative direction in the design of a small, floating theater for the performing arts to be located in the harbor of Genova. As stated, the theater structure will be mobile, floating on a buoyant hull, enabling it to move to various locations about the port. The floating theater finds historical precedent in the form of "Teatro del Mondo," created by architect Aldo Rossi for the Venice Biennal in 1979. This small theater navigated the basin surrounding Venice and served as a moving benue for the productions mounted there. The project inquiry also resides with the larger historical context of small theater design found in Italy.

Below is an image of Aldo Rossi's Teatro del Mondo.

Each student developed a design proposal for the small floating theater based on a program including stage area, backstage, and circulation space. The LArch students also created an extensive site plan exploring possible locations and solutions for viewing areas.



Schematic drawing of the proposed theater location, in the harbor near the Porto Franco area.


Aerial view of the proposed seating area, with the approximate location of the theater marked by the white circle.

The seating area made use of some of the already established cements structures in the port area, and the existing patterns of circulation. The majority of the seating would float, like the theater, in a semicircle enveloping the theater. The plan provided for maximum seating with minimal disturbance of the existing surroundings, and even made provisions for natural materials that would blend with the lines of palm trees that dot the port area.

Below are a few examples of individual proposals for the floating theater itself.


MARIANA


SHANA









MASON

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Day Trip 1: San Fruttuoso and Portofino

On Thursday, August 28, we made our first day trip led by Professor Bruhns. We took an early train to Camogli, a town most of us were familiar with from our previous beach trips. From Camogli we were to take a short ferry to San Fruttuoso, but we had some time to explore Camogli a bit before we left. In our group, no matter how often we visit a place, there is always another picture to be taken, and we had never seen the town in the early morning bustle before. John took this beautiful shot of a child taking a break from catching bait for a day of fishing on the family boat.


courtesy of John Oxenfeld


A brief ferry ride took us to San Fruttuoso, a small but beautiful village set in an inlet at the foot of mount Portofino. Here, we had time to explore the Benedictine abbey in the town, and enjoy the cluster of beaches between the rocks.



If you look closely at the white boat front and center in that photo, you might be able to read that it taxis out to "Al Cristo della Abissi," or "Christ of the Abysses." This references an eight-foot tall statue of Christ sunk more than 50 feet deep beneath the surface of the water off the shore of San Fruttuoso. The Christ of the Abysses is supposed to be the protector of divers, and many newlywed couples in the area make a trip out to the statue and leave a wreath behind on the statue to bring good fortune to their marriage.

We had heard about this statue and the many legends that go with it, so a group of us decided to make the journey to find it. Since the water was so crystal clear and inviting, we decided to swim out to the location. Some friendly locals sunning in their boats pointed us in the right direction, but even with their help it was a long swim. It was worth the effort though, because the brilliantly clear water let us see right down to the pale white statue below. Not knowing how deep the statue was under the surface at the time, I decided to dive down and see how close we could get to it, since the clarity of the water made it seem deceptively close.

Needless to say, I did not make it to the bottom of a 55-ft dive with no scuba equipment, but I did dive down far enough to snap a few photos on Chris N's waterproof camera. The result of my dives was a slightly better view and a lot of ear-popping.

We swam back to our group, and let the sun dry the salt water off of us as we ate the sandwiches and fruit we had packed at the villa. Feeling thoroughly relaxed and more than a little tired from our swim, we met up at our predetermined point to begin our "brief" hike to nearby Portofino.

Ahem. "Brief" is apparently a relative term, and could refer to a hike a la Outward Bound. During the steep climb, I was fairly certain that my overloaded camera backpack was going to send me toppling backward down to sea level. Our lack of preparation for the hike was evident, as our hiking gear ranged from polos to flip flops to swim suits.

And then suddenly the terrain flattened out and the worst of the hike was over as quickly as it had begun. We all began to catch our breath and take in our surroundings. What we saw took our breath away as quickly as it had come, because the view from the ridge was absolutely astonishing.
Here is a vista we took in during a brief rest on the hike:
It is important to remember that we started this hike at sea level...

The trail curved along the ridgeline and slowly descended towards Portofino. The group spaced out as we trickled down the mountain, some falling behind as they took extra photos while others scampered ahead to stake out the trail. At one point Elissa, Frank and I found ourselves on one outer curve of the mountain with a few of the leading boys on the curve ahead. We got a hearty rendition of "CLEMSON..." "...TIGERS!!" going between the two groups and it felt just like being back home in Death Valley.

As the clumps of people thinned out along the trail, a group decided to pose for this priceless photo of them lost, tired and dejected:

Mariana, Shana, John, Brian, Ryan, and Mason wilt on the hike to Portofino. Photo courtesy of John Oxenfeld.

When we finally reached Portofino though it was definitely worth the hike. The area was chock full of colorful buildings and colorful people, with ridiculously expensive sailboats and yachts as far as the eye could see.

We wandered and sketched amongst the designer shops and designer boats, taking in the pure luxury of the site. Even the colors were rich.


We of course made time to indulge in some gelato before barely making our bus back to the train station, where we had a very sleepy and quiet train ride back to Genoa.


A final view of Portofino, photo courtesy of Mason Couvillion

First Project: The Frontispiece

Our introductory project was a brief drawing exercise exploring the "frontispiece."


Historically many of the great books which have been written, particularly pertaining to the fields of Arts and Architecture, contained a "frontispiece." The frontispiece is typically understood as a drawing which gives some indication of the contents of the book. It often combines a series of graphic images which serve to foreshadow the descriptions formed by the written word that follows it. Often the images serve to direct the mind of the reader in very literal ways. Sometimes the images of a frontispiece seem obtuse, indicating messages which are obscure or encrypted. While the place of the frontispiece has been greatly eroded in modern times, it remains a vestige of both the literate and pre-literate worlds.


We researched historical examples of the frontispiece in the villa library, in books such as Alberti's Ten Books of Architecture, Palladio's Four Books of Architecture, and Spiro Kostoff's The City Shaped. Drawing on these examples and ideas of our own, we eached produced our own frontispiece that attempted to foreshadow the experience we imagine we will have on our semester abroad.


The results showed a range of expectations and drawing styles. Some used featherweight pencil strokes while others went for bold pens. Some focused on the idea of traveling, and exploring new worls while abroad. Others saw our time in Italy as an opportunity to bring the things we've learned about in books to life. Some look forward to expanding technical architectural skills, while others look forward to enjoying these new experiences with new friends.


Here is a small selection of the frontispieces from our pin-up. Some of the quality is lost in the scanning process, but they still manage to showcase the range of results our class produced.



by Chris Lambka


by Karyn Sealy


by Ryan Sutherland



by Erica Morrison

Monday, September 1, 2008

Tracking our Travels

Many of the students are keeping photo blogs and journals online for this trip. Some material from their sites have already been linked to this blog (such as Mason's photo contributions in the last post) but there is a lot more where that came from!

Check out some of the links below for more photos and points of view about Clemson in Genoa!

Mason's Pictures and Blog

Ryan's Blog

Ryan's Pictures

John's Pictures

Erica's Pictures

Karyn's Pictures

Elissa's Pictures

Frank's Pictures

Geoff's Videos

Chris N's Pictures

Enjoy!

Exploring the Coastline

In the days leading up to class, we all decided to explore our surroundings through a tour of the local beaches. Trips to beaches at Nervi, Camogli, and Bogliasco culminated in adventures ranging from climbing down a wall of rocks to reach our first swim in the Mediterranean to a giant game of human checkers.

As we got used to the extremely salty sea and scampering around barefoot on sharp rocks, we also became familiar with the local bus and train systems. All in all, the sea, sun and seeing the sights were not a bad way to spend the last few days of summer!

Here are some of the pictures from our self-directed day trips along the Ligurian coast.


Nervi, photo courtesy of Mason Couvillion


John perched on a Rock in Nervi, photo courtesy of Mason Couvillion


Camogli


Shana and others line up to capture the beautiful sunset over Camogli


Camogli reflected in Ryan's sunglasses


Bogliasco, photo courtesy of Mason Couvillion


Bogliasco, photo courtesy Mason Couvillion



Bogliasco, photo courtesy Mason Couvillion