Friday, October 31, 2008

Study Travel Trip Two

It seems like just yesterday we were returning home from our various independent travels. Now we are setting off again as one group for our second extended study trip. We leave tomorrow morning for Firenze, Siena, Tuscan hill towns, Orvieto, and Roma. I am posting the basic itinerary again for those of you following our travels from home.

Saturday November 1
Depart Genova at 8:52 am. Arrive Firenze at 12:33.
Explore Firenze for the rest of the day.

Sunday November 2
9:30 Reserved visit to Museo Uffizi
2:30 Reserved visit to Museo Accademia

Monday November 3
9:30 Reserved visit to Museo Bargello

Tuesday November 4
Depart Firenze at 10:10. Arrive Siena at 11:38
Free day

Wednesday November 5

Free day in Firenze

Thursday November 6
8:30 Leave Siena with a private rental bus to visit the Tuscan hill towns of San Gimignano, Pienza, Montepulciano.
Transfer to Orvieto in the late afternoon.

Friday November 7
9:00 Welcome Presentation at Centro Studi Citta di Orvieto
11:00 Guided tour to the Cathedral and to S. Brizio Chapel with Luca Signorelli.
12:30 Free time
6:30 Guided tour to the Orvieto Underground
7:30 Dinner at Parco delle Grotto

Saturday November 8
Depart Orvieto at 11:28. Arrive Roma at 12:48.
Free time in Roma.

Sunday November 9
8:30 Walking tour with Professor Stefano.

Monday November 10
9:00 Tour of EUR with Giuditta Poletti

Tuesday November 11
Depart Roma at 1:46 pm. Arrive Genova at 7:08 pm.

As usual, go to our various photo sites to follow along with the trip! When we get home I will post some excerpts from our sketchbooks again.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Study Travel Trip One

Back in September we enjoyed our first study travel trip through Venice and the surrounding area. The trip was extremely well-documented in photos, which you can see at the various photo-sharing sites listed in an earlier post. Here is a tiny sample of some of our sketchbooks from the trip. Professor Bruhns challenged us to produce at least 6-7 sketches a day, and the results were a great record of our trip. This sampling shows some of the different sites we visited, and the different drawing and recording styles each of us have. In my opinion, one of the most valuable parts of the trip was sharing our sketchbooks when we returned.


Some pages from Shana's sketchbook, which was full of color and journalistic-style text.



Sara's sketchbook, with a careful attention to architectural details and precise drawings.



A few pages from my sketchbook (Erica), of Venice, the Rialto bridge, and a bridge in Prato Della Valle in Padova.


Brian's sketchbook (well, one of them), showing his range from carefully constructed floor plans to the amazingly random "In Between Spaces at Castelvecchio"



These are from Karyn's sketchbook, one of our most prolific sketchers. I think she had over 100 sketches by the end of the trip, so detailed they read like an itinerary of the trip. Impressive!


There are so many more in each of these sketchbooks, and even more in the other students' books too. Ask about them when we return to the States!

Introduction to New Project

It certainly has been a long time since the most recent post, a testimony to how busy villa life is in between our study travel trips. So though this project is new to you, we have already reached the first stages of development. And so, a brief period of catch-up!

SEMESTER PROJECT: Edifici per abitazioni-- Castelletto

The site consists of a vacant parcel above the CAF villa, where the salita San Simone interescts Via Domenico Chiodo. The property is bound by an apartment structure to the west, and another residential property directly to the east. The parcel consists of a flat section and a portion which is steeply sloped to the border formed on the southern edge. Expanisve distant views of the port are a feature of the site.

The design challenge calls for the design of a multi-family housing project and a public piazza, that would hypothetically be maintained by the City of Genova as a public ammenity.

Our first steps in the development of this project were research and site analysis. We broke up into teams to start building a context model of site, research from books, and research from life.
Below are some examples of research in the form of precedent studies and case studies, compiled and presented by Karyn and I.


New Municipal Offices, Genoa. The field study group also visited and photographed this building, observing how it relates to its surroundings and the landscape.


A series of typical floor plans, providing inspiration from precedent.

Below is one view of the massive site context model built in part by the entire studio. It is at 1/8"=1' scale, an ambitious task, but will be a useful design tool as we develop models at the same scale. Our site is the area illuminated in the middle right section of the photo.

Site Context Model, 1/8 scale

As we became more familiar with the site through our research, we began to develop schematic design proposals for the program. On Thursday, October 2, (yes yes I know this was a long time ago) we spent the day doing an extended sketch problem. Each student produced an initial site plan at 1"=20' scale and a North/South Site/Building Section at 1/8"=1' scale, the same scale as our context model. This challenge forced us to examine how our buildings would fit into the landscape, and how to develop the relationship between the public space of the piazza and the private space of the housing units.

Currently we are working in pairs to finish out the semester with joint projects. The pairings will help us be most efficient with our time in the villa, while also challenging us to merge our distinct ideas into a single unified project.
The partnerships are as follows:
Brian/Tim
Ryan/Mariana
Sara/Will
Karyn/Chris N.
Mason/John
Erica/Chris L.
Frank/Shana
Geoff/Elissa

There will be further updates on this project as we have interim reviews... or perhaps later catch-ups a month after we have the review!