FEB 23

Here is a random assortment of photos from the last few days.

This is Asta. We have grown to like each other very much. She likes to sit on the counter and eat while I cook. She also likes to give big hugs in the morning. I am a fan.

As I took a break from homework and strolled the streets today I was struck by all these really amazing patterns on everything. I am trying to get in the habit of just taking a picture of these things as opposed to buying them.

I didn't think I needed knobs until I walked into this place! Again, I just took a picture.

Um, yeah.

Ladies and gents, get to knittin'. There are cold trees out there that need your support!

I love this flower shop. And if P.Allen Smith's Garden Show on Public Television has taught us anything, things are better in abundance.

Kid on a leash. You know you are bad when your mom puts a leash on you.

The guy in the middle is my favorite professor, Rasmus Frisk. He took us to a square in Nørrebro.

Notice the bike in the shadows for the scale of this building. This is a an (obviously) old church that has been turned into a contemporary art gallery run by the city. It is called St. Nikolaj located just off of Amagertorv - see picture below.

This picture is taken from the third floor (what they call the second floor) of what I call the "Hay" building. Hay is a design studio that churns out cool, and expensive, Danish stuff.

That is a 125 dollar candle holder. Notice I just took a picture. I didn't buy it!

Study Trip - Last Day

And 300 photos later . . .
The last day of our adventure was both busy and polished off with an amazing traditional Danish lunch. We left Aarhus at 8:30am and arrived at the St. Nicolai Courtyard shortly after. We had dinner at a restaurant in the courtyard the night before. The neon artwork on the brick wall was impressive, as was the space in general. Would have been an even better space if it were 60 degrees, but what can ya do?

Again with the cool lighting.

Besides the art museums, this was my favorite stop. This is Koldinghus in Kolding. It is a 700 year old fortress that has been renovated over the last 30 years. It is now an historic museum and exhibition space. They have done this jaw-dropping job of marrying the new and the old.

The Koldinghus had an exhibit of Poul Henningsens lamp designs which bathed the woodwork in warm light.

There was also a great cartoon exhibit of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's work.

Old and new architecture.

More stairs.

More lighting.
We had two more stops but they were rather uneventful. Then we headed back to Copenhagen. The countryside of Denmark is beautiful. Lots of gently rolling hills and white brick farm houses with red roofs. Most people are pretty darn friendly as well. Besides the cold and the stair climbing, I can't complain.

Study Trip - Day 2

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012

After a great breakfast we depart Aalborg for Gug Kirke, which is a church designed strictly as a Lutheran church without catholic influence.  It is a fine example of beton brute or raw brutal concrete. (Little known fact about me, my great-grandfather was a Lutheran minister). All the concrete would seem really cold, but the lighting made it wonderful and peaceful.

Exterior of Gug Kirke

With the lights off.

With lights on.

Pulpit.

The metal pipes coming from the wall are the heating ducts. The angel is from the U.N.

We do journal line-ups every few days. Everyone throws their journal down and we check out each others' art work. This is one of my favorite things to do. It is very inspiring to see what people are up to, and how they see our shared experience.

This is the Utzon Center (he deisgned the Sydney Opera House). I have to say, this building was so ugly from the outside, but inside was a whole different story. The Center is used by architecture students as it has a wonderful library; by model builders as it has a fantastic workshop; and it also houses a collection of Utzon's design boards. You will see mine in a later blog post.

View from the Utzon Center.

Yep. That's a sail boat in the building. Utzon's dad was a ship builder, so the building has many of the same lines you would see on a ship.

As our group was leaving the auditorium, families were showing up with violin cases. I was downstairs when I heard the music. I went up to check it out and got to watch some of their recital. Talk about adorable. Tiny kids with tiny violins! Might as well have been a pile of puppies.

The photo above is a from Aarhus Råhus (City Hall) in Aarhus.I somehow only managed to get a few photos of this place. Oh yeah, I remember why: because I had climb another 15 stories worth of stairs to reach the top of the bell tower. ¤%&/!
The building was designed by Arne Jabosen, Erik Møllen, with orginal furntiure designed by Hans Jørgen Wegner. Most people in my group thought it seemed like a jail. I couldn't get enough of the place. I loved it. Minus the stairs, I loved it.

The lighting in this country rocks. Hands down, these people know how to do lighting. Oh yeah, that's right. Because it is SO dark here.

Hallway.

Self-portrait. Yep. I'm cold. Luckily, I had just climbed 15 stories so my heart was pumping.

FOR REAL! The ARoS Museum. The rainbow panorama was designed by Olafur Eliasson.

Notice my giant new scarf. I can't see my feet when I wear it.

That statue was asking for it.
The blog has stopped me from adding more photos, so I guess we are done with day two.

Feb 17-22

Well I have certainly been a busy bee. My Urban Design class started the individual portion of our assignments. This meant I needed to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, in about 72 hours. So I did. Not much sleep was involved in the whole thing. I have included some pictures of the model and the presentation board. We then presented them to a group of students and professionals in the urban planning field. This was a stressful experience, although I got some good feedback on things I needed to work on, as well as things I did well.

Look what I made!

Not my prettiest model to date, but it got the point across.

Poor Sarah. She had been up for close to 36 hours working on her project. I, on the other hand...not that dedicated.

There is a bakery across the street. Some students went over when they were throwing out the old Danishes and bread. I have to admit that I really wish I could eat it too.

Susie is my bus mate, sits across from me in the studio, and is my hostel mate. I heart her.

So, that is what I have been up to for the last week. I have had the opportunity to make a few observations and realizations during this sleep-deprived week. One, this city is not clean. Especially not on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. People drink a lot. Therefore, the streets have a good deal of vomit, urine, and cigarette butts lying around. I know this is gross but it must be talked about because it is, unfortunately, a lot of what I experience. I don't think it is this way all over Copenhagen. I think it is mainly in the old downtown section. That just also happens to be where school is. Oh yeah, then there is the dog poo. Really, there is so much of it that I am primed to do a photo montage. Nobody will want to see it, but I will make it none the less.

This leads me to my realization: cleanliness has nothing to do with happiness. These people are great. They are friendly as can be. They are well educated and speak multiple languages. And yet  . . . see previous paragraph.

On the positive side, I have lost 8 pounds, still adore my roommate Greta, am really happy with my professors, love getting to explore new parts of the city, and I meet wonderful people every day.

Sure do miss Tom, Betty, and Portland.

Study Trip - Day one

How quickly one can fall behind! I am going to start with the 10th of Feburary. DIS takes us on a couple of these study tours. About 40 of us load into a nice bus and hit the road. This one was around Denmark. The next one will be a week long instead of just the three days. We are busy from 8:30am - 8:30pm, but it is all very fun. It is also nice because I don't have to drive!

Starting with Feb10. I arrive at Frue Plads (one of the many large churches near school) at 7:30 am. We depart CPH and head for the Trapholt Museum located in Kolding Denmark.

On our way.

Cool building on the way.

Interior of the Trapholt. The lamp fixtures are everywhere in Denmark. I like them very much.

View from the Trapholt diner.

Sure do like things in abundance.

Speaking of abundance! This one is for you Karen.

New favorite painter (besides Tom) is Michael Kvium.

Last one of the Trapholt (I could go on about this place). Very cool.

We left the Trapholt and headed for Lystrup to check out a sustainable housing development. Cool but pretty out-of-date at this point. So off to Aalborg we went. Here we stopped at Nordkraft. This was an old coal-fired electricity plant. They renovated the place and it is now a Kulture Center; an amazing collaboration between businesses really. They have done a good job of creating a sustainable business. Maybe not so much on the green building side, more in the creation a network of businesses that compliment each other, but at the same time, if one closed down, the place wouldn't be empty.

 





Gymnasium in Nordkraft. The climbing wall is four stories. I would just like to mention this was the beginning of a stair-climbing nightmare. This building is 13 stories. That is Danish stories, which means that where our first floor is one, theirs is zero. We had the honor of climbing to the top. Yep. All the way to the top. This would be the first of several buildings that this would happen in. I muttered just about every foul word I knew.

HA! I love this country.

Roof top of Nordkraft. Just as cold as you would imagine it being. Nice view though. The orange beams hold up this incredibly large box of offices on the interior.

This is for you Amanda Branson! Remember when we went to see David Letterman 16 years ago? The band that night was Take That. We had never heard of them. The were AWFUL! We didn't even clap when they were done. Turns out they are a Danish boy-band. I'll be damned. The company that ran the club at Nordkraft had their picture on the wall because they played there. The guy showing us around said "so you guys must know who this is." We all stood in silence. Crickets. Then he said, "its Take That! They are Danish!" I laughed out loud and then had to have my picture taken with the photo of them. If people at school questioned my age before . . . it was clear then.

There is a surprising amount of sculpture in Denmark, of this exact thing.

We do like our creamy dressings.

My first hostel! It was super nice, even if it was a four km walk to the bar. Each way.