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So I know it's been awhile, I keep putting off updating and then the task just becomes more and more daunting.... So here goes. Since my wonderful trip to Western Denmark I've had several nice outings around København- Jeepers it's already two weeks since we've returned! Time is flying which makes me nervous, I know my trip will be over much sooner than I desire. The week after our study tour Sara's host family was on holiday in Austria so they invited me to stay with her so she wouldn't get too lonely :) Of coarse I obliged. We had a great week, just hanging out, eating way too much junk food, and finally got our tickets all booked for our spring break travels. I really had a wonderful time staying with her- although my kollegium is fine it's just definitely not as homey as it was staying there and I suppose the familiar company didn't hurt either. 
Here's a pic of their posh living room with a giant piece of contemporary art by some Danish artist. I found it pretty amusing, it basically makes fun of every other country around the world. 
Although the weather was pretty rough that week we did manage to go on a few excursions. One day before class we ventured out to find a furniture gallery which was over by the shipping docks. Rough looking place with just large warehouses all around, but it was pretty neat to see the wind farm out in the water through the fog.
Here's Sara with an awesome light fixture 
The next week started off with a few little field trips for our digital design class. We were on a mission for photographs and our first stop was the Round Tower. Here's the church connected to the tower which is actually right below the gallery space that is the site for our studio project. We are designing an Exhibition for Scandinavian design, anything and everything deigned by Scandinavians. There's actually over 200 pieces in the exhibit but we have a lot of freedom with the project and are allowed to pick and choose which ones we want to focus on. So far it's actually been pretty neat, not exactly like anything else we've done before. 
Here's part of the ramp that winds up and up and up the tower.
From the top: it does actually snow here. Believe it or not we got quite a bit this past week.
Trecking though the snow :) I get back to DIS ready to warm up a little during my next lecture and we're off on another little field trip. They sure do like those around here, but of coarse I'm not complaining. Ok well I was that day just cause of the yucky weather but I survived alright. 
Here's a dormatory... yea I wish I lived here too. 
Matty and I out in the tundra
So studio on Tuesday they took us on another field trip hahaha This time to an Exhibition all about restoration. They had people there actually working on pieces with lots of old artifacts displayed. It was sort of interactive, they had stuff to experiment with and you could discuss with the workers about the process. It was dark in the room so it was difficult to see but this pic's for Gma Gould: they had this giant old pump organ you would have loved. :)
This past weekend the Danes all celebrated Fastelavn: I believe the holiday originally stems from the pre-Lenten celebrations but since the reformation and conversion of most of Denmark it has become less specifically religious. It is often thought of as the Danish Halloween; children dress up in costumes and they have an old tradition where they used to string up a barrel with a cat inside and hit it like a pinata (this used to be a superstitious ritual to ward off evil) but now they just fill the barrel with candy. Sadly we missed the barrel whacking but we did get to see a bunch of drunk Danes riding down the street singing the hokey poky in Danish. 
Beautiful ponys. Sunday I was on a mission to find more photographs for my digital design project. It turned out to be such a beautiful day that I ended up wandering all over København. Many places I've already visited but had lost the pictures with my previous camera mishaps, but it was nice to revisit them and find new places to explore. I enjoyed just strolling around by myself, it really gave me a chance to quietly observe and absorb everything around me. My appreciation of this place just grows and grows as time passes. As ridiculous as it sounds, I almost feel like I'm in a constant state of euphoria. Everything here is just incredible!
Christiansborg Palace Chapel with silly bikers in my way. 
Next door is Christiansborg Palace now home of the Danish Parliament Folketinget
Royal Danish Theater at one of, if not the main square Kongens Nytorv which is right next to the picturesque harbor Nyhavn.
My attempt at a self portrait at Nyhavn. As you can see it may have been relatively pleasant weather, but it was still very windy. 
Frederiks Church in axis with the palace
The Amalienborg Palace where the royal family resides. 
The new Opera House by Larsen. I don't think it's anything too spectacular, but I'll hopefully get a closer look sometime soon and I'll let you know what I think afterwards. There was controversy involved throughout the design process, the designer and beneficiaries didn't quite see eye to eye, I don't think anybody was completely satisfied with the results. The project ended up costing over 500 million usd!
The Royal Danish Library's new addition, the Black Diamond
So I thought maybe ya'll would like to experience some of the places I frequent. Here's the metro stop at Nørreport, it's one of the largest in København: metro, buses, and trains all converge here. If you look real close you can see all the bikes, there's piles and piles of them.
National Cathedral of Denmark I pass by on my way to class everyday.
The University of København right across the courtyard.
Here's the square at the end of the block my classes are on. Right in the middle of Midieval København, could I have asked for a bettter location? Alrighty, well that's all for now. Hope you enjoy!
Well you wanted pictures, you got pictures! Beware this post may seem like an unending stream of them. Dad sent me a couple memory cards and although I have tried my hardest I doubt I'll ever be able to even fill up one. I did however come pretty close this weekend: over 600 pictures! Those of you who know me well enough may not be surprised but I think this was quite a feat even for me. The majority of the pics are buildings and details, pretty much anything design. I know this will probably bore most of you but that's my thing I guess. So here they are. I'll try to tell you all about the different places we stopped at on our wonderful study tour to Western Denmark.
We began at Jyllinge Hellig Kors Kirke a very contemporary church constructed mostly of fiberglass composite material. Those large windows at the back make up a huge sliding glass door that opens up the to the outside. Pretty sweet
This is me and my new bud Karen on the first leg of our journey. Bright and cheery-eyed for now, but it was a very long and exhausting 3 days. We weren't so chipper by the time we got home 
Our next stop was Århus Rådhus which was the town hall in Århus. It was designed by Denmarks beloved Arne Jacobsen. I honestly wasn't too impressed with the exterior structure and some of the interior spaces were a bit institutional, however this guy designed every square inch of that building, all the way down to the ashtrays. I may not cherish his particular development of this building, but I absolutely appreciate the attention to detail that Jacobsen was well known for: incredible.
Here's a picture of my attempt at a panoramic from the top of the tower that we climbed up forever and ever and ever... something like 12 floors, all stairs! I think I about died. 
This is the Aros Art museum, the dynamism is all held within. It was a pretty intersting gallery, holding multiple styles of art.
Highly resembles the Guggenheim by FLW, I think I like this one better though. The simple parti of overlapping geometries created more layers of hierarchy.
Playing in one of the exhibits: millions of Allys! There were mirrors all around you
Yes, a real Andy Warhol. awsome!
Okay this was probably one of the coolest things from this weekend. They call it "the Cave," and it looks just like a box. Well it is just a box, but a really cool one. Each surface is made up of these screens that 3D images are projected onto. You go in with a HMD (Head Mounted Display) which is basically giant 3D goggles, that have a sensor in them so the program reacts to your movements/height. You are surrounded by a 3dimensional simulation. The program they first ran for us was up in that tower of Århus Rådhus. You could walk right off the edge, and look down! It was so realistic they said occasionally people even fall down during that program, haha
Here's the Utzon Center, designed by Jorn Utzon (the creator of the Sydney Opera House, another very famous Danish architect) Much of his design influence is nature/ships from growing up on the water and his father working in a ship yard. Hopefully this image captures some of the obvious resemblance in the spaces. The building is a cultural center for students, art exhibits, theres a cafe and a library; quite adiverse building. We had a social here the night before with architecture students from Aalborg. The next day we got to come back and tour the building and check out the exhibits there.
Here is a picture of me from one of the exhibitions by Anthony McCall: Elements for a Retrospective. It was a fascinating display exploring light. These incredibbly dark rooms were filled with fog and projected slow moving beams of light in different simple linear patterns. The fog gave the light substance enough everyone kept trying to touch and grab it. It was such a mystical experience, just mesmerizing. 
Next was the art museum by Alvar Aalto (famous Finnish designer, not quite Danish but the Danes still claim him as an esteemed Scandinavian designer) Nordjllands Kunstmuseum. Yet again I was not particularly impressed with the structure but Aalto developed some extraordinary techniques on the interior to bend and reflect light so that none of the artwork was ever exposed to direct sunlight preventing damage to the pieces.
Ceiling shot in the large banquet room.
The Trapholt Museum of Art was our next stop. The site organization was all based on the relationship between some exhisting buildings and the new gallery. There was this huge wall seperating the new and the old, but the wall had breaks allowing a connection between the two sides to exhist while reinforcing there contrast.
One of the galleries with some creative skylights. As you've probably all picked up on, one of the primary Danish design principles is centered around daylighting. They really don't get much sun here at all (when this picture was taken it was completely overcast, and had rained a little earlier), so they appreciate and develop strategies to maxmize the benefits from what little they get.
So I'm obsessed with furniture, and they had an amazing chair exhibit at this place. I got to see several famous pieces I've learned about in my classes.
One of the older buildings: original thatched roof, half timber house.
Prefabricated design by Jacobsen, filled with all his furniture and again every detail worked out. 
Koldinghus is whats left of some 13th century castle ruins and the new restoration. They wanted to be able to decifer between the new and the old construction and highlight each in it's own way, I feel thy did this pretty successfully. It's definately obvious where the additions begin based on materials and patterns, but they mimic the older geometries and abstract some of the older techniques. 
I swear I've climbed more stairs since I've been here than I have the whole rest of my life.
We stopped across the street to check out the new Kolding Bibliotek (library) Here's the cool prisms in the middle of the space that reflect light all throughout the building. Again they used tons of skylights and windows. 
Our last visit was Vissenbierg Kireke, a traditional Danish church. It was a quaint little chapel. I love the history of places like this, actually all of Denmark. The mystery residing in these ancient buildings is so alluring. Back home we simply do not have the history that exists here. One of my teachers will tell us about a "young building" that's only a few hundred years old, that's older than our whole country!
So there you have it! I hope you all appreciate all my pictures, it took quite a lot of time and frustration to get this all together. Enjoy
Here's a pic of their posh living room with a giant piece of contemporary art by some Danish artist. I found it pretty amusing, it basically makes fun of every other country around the world. 
Although the weather was pretty rough that week we did manage to go on a few excursions. One day before class we ventured out to find a furniture gallery which was over by the shipping docks. Rough looking place with just large warehouses all around, but it was pretty neat to see the wind farm out in the water through the fog.
Here's Sara with an awesome light fixture 
The next week started off with a few little field trips for our digital design class. We were on a mission for photographs and our first stop was the Round Tower. Here's the church connected to the tower which is actually right below the gallery space that is the site for our studio project. We are designing an Exhibition for Scandinavian design, anything and everything deigned by Scandinavians. There's actually over 200 pieces in the exhibit but we have a lot of freedom with the project and are allowed to pick and choose which ones we want to focus on. So far it's actually been pretty neat, not exactly like anything else we've done before. 
Here's part of the ramp that winds up and up and up the tower.
From the top: it does actually snow here. Believe it or not we got quite a bit this past week.
Trecking though the snow :) I get back to DIS ready to warm up a little during my next lecture and we're off on another little field trip. They sure do like those around here, but of coarse I'm not complaining. Ok well I was that day just cause of the yucky weather but I survived alright. 
Here's a dormatory... yea I wish I lived here too. 
Matty and I out in the tundra
So studio on Tuesday they took us on another field trip hahaha This time to an Exhibition all about restoration. They had people there actually working on pieces with lots of old artifacts displayed. It was sort of interactive, they had stuff to experiment with and you could discuss with the workers about the process. It was dark in the room so it was difficult to see but this pic's for Gma Gould: they had this giant old pump organ you would have loved. :)
This past weekend the Danes all celebrated Fastelavn: I believe the holiday originally stems from the pre-Lenten celebrations but since the reformation and conversion of most of Denmark it has become less specifically religious. It is often thought of as the Danish Halloween; children dress up in costumes and they have an old tradition where they used to string up a barrel with a cat inside and hit it like a pinata (this used to be a superstitious ritual to ward off evil) but now they just fill the barrel with candy. Sadly we missed the barrel whacking but we did get to see a bunch of drunk Danes riding down the street singing the hokey poky in Danish. 
Beautiful ponys. Sunday I was on a mission to find more photographs for my digital design project. It turned out to be such a beautiful day that I ended up wandering all over København. Many places I've already visited but had lost the pictures with my previous camera mishaps, but it was nice to revisit them and find new places to explore. I enjoyed just strolling around by myself, it really gave me a chance to quietly observe and absorb everything around me. My appreciation of this place just grows and grows as time passes. As ridiculous as it sounds, I almost feel like I'm in a constant state of euphoria. Everything here is just incredible!
Christiansborg Palace Chapel with silly bikers in my way. 
Next door is Christiansborg Palace now home of the Danish Parliament Folketinget
Royal Danish Theater at one of, if not the main square Kongens Nytorv which is right next to the picturesque harbor Nyhavn.
My attempt at a self portrait at Nyhavn. As you can see it may have been relatively pleasant weather, but it was still very windy. 
Frederiks Church in axis with the palace
The Amalienborg Palace where the royal family resides. 
The new Opera House by Larsen. I don't think it's anything too spectacular, but I'll hopefully get a closer look sometime soon and I'll let you know what I think afterwards. There was controversy involved throughout the design process, the designer and beneficiaries didn't quite see eye to eye, I don't think anybody was completely satisfied with the results. The project ended up costing over 500 million usd!
The Royal Danish Library's new addition, the Black Diamond
So I thought maybe ya'll would like to experience some of the places I frequent. Here's the metro stop at Nørreport, it's one of the largest in København: metro, buses, and trains all converge here. If you look real close you can see all the bikes, there's piles and piles of them.
National Cathedral of Denmark I pass by on my way to class everyday.
The University of København right across the courtyard.
Here's the square at the end of the block my classes are on. Right in the middle of Midieval København, could I have asked for a bettter location? Alrighty, well that's all for now. Hope you enjoy!
