Saturday, February 12, 2011

Berlin: 2.04-2.06

Last weekend, all the full year architecture students went to Berlin for DIS's short study tour. My choice words to describe that weekend: EXHAUSTING, FREEZING COLD, and emotional. Exhausting because we were all running on about 3-4 hours of sleep (some of us less) each day when we were walking through the city. Freezing cold because of the winds that blew in our faces during our daily treks. And emotional because of the breathtaking Jewish Museum and Jewish Memorial.

Some of the food:

Some weird cheese appetizer to start that was awesome. Followed by fish for main course and cake for dessert.





Reichstag building:

We went to the glass dome at the top of the building (by Norman Foster):




It had some great panoramic views of the city.


The Reichstag building as a whole. See the glass dome?

Brandenburg Gate:



DG Bank by Frank Gehry:



Holocaust Memorial:





It was beautiful. Concrete slabs (which varied in heights) were arranged in a grid pattern on an undulating landscape. The level changes of both the slabs and the ground made for a pretty powerful walk-through. And underneath the memorial was an information center. The coffered ceiling had insets of the slabs, which in a sense made the memorial visible even when underground.

Sony Center:



Schnitzel= fried pork= !!!= me :D



Berlin Philharmonic:


We got to go inside for a concert and listened to Mozart and Beethoven.

Neues Museum:



Jewish Museum by Libeskind:
This is the building that made him famous.





Holocaust Tower was a dark room with only one source of light emitting from the corner. My favorite because of the silent, cold stillness. Made me think.


Garden of exile was the only part of the museum that was built orthogonally.


Axis of Continuity


The Memory Void had thick copper faces piled all over the floor. Walking on the faces makes you very conscious of each step you make because the clashing of copper against copper echo throughout the space. Kind of eerie and very affecting.



Garden of Exile, exterior view

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