Vigevano, Italy

Visited an old mansion with modern art installations and collections of art of the family. The grounds had unbelievable gardens and I found the place where I want to get married. The green house had some of the most beautiful and delicate flowers I've ever seen...they probably don't  even grow in the US.  We had a pretend wedding in the hallway of trees. The day away from our studio competition was perfect.

Lucarno/Mogno, Switzerland

Went to a Mario Botta Chapel on top of a mountain and played on the hill...racing, cartwheels, spinning...ya know- adult things. Went to a Max Bill sculpture museum and walked around the lake to eat lunch in the sun. Got a little car-sick on the windy road....I'm turning into my mother. [sorry]

Switzerland Tour

[Vevey] 

Sept 24 - drove a 32-person bus for 16 students, 1 professor, and Lucy Ferrarri (founder of the school and amazing tour-guide--also 75 years old); drove through the Alps on mountain roads- unbelievable views; went to a Da Vinci museum; explored Chateau de Chillion - castle formally used as a prison; enjoyed Vevey's city + lake in the evening

[Bern]

Sept 25 - tour of USM furniture factory in the morning; outstanding 4-course lunch provided by USM (fish, salad, white wine, veal, red wine, dessert) - the best meal of my life; went to the Bern bear pit in the city and fed the bears; walked around the town and arcades that line the streets; ran through the fountains in the middle of town

Sept 26 - toured Naef factory (hand-made toys); visited the Paul Klee museum by Renzo Piano

[Solothurn]

Sept 27 - walking tour of Solothurn (Lucy's hometown); sketched around town

[Basel] 

Sept 28 - walking tour of Basel via Frank's architect friend; visited Herzog and deMeuron brain-injury recovery clinic, some other Herzog projects, as well as a Gehry and Diener&Diener project for a college in Basel

Sept 29 - art exhibit at Foundation Beyeler; Schaulager building + the train switching station (Herzog projects- their firm is based in Basel so a lot of their works are here + they're one of my favorite architecture firms)

Sept 30 - went to the Vitra campus (Vitra reproduces designer chairs once the designers no longer manufacture - there are also many buildings that are by well-known architecture designers (Herzog, Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and others); we toured the compound, some of the buildings, and show-room/museum; drove to the Tingley museum (artist that uses many components and mechanisms to make his junk pieces interact) 

[Ronchamp, France --> Zurich]

Oct 1 - sketched and visited Notre Dame du Haut in France (Corbusier's well-known chapel)

Oct 2 - IWC Schaffhausen watch factory tour; private showing at the Kunst modern art gallery with exhibitions by Sol leWitt, Bruce Naumann, and some other cool artists from the 60's until now; what was especially cool was the fact that some of these paintings (directly onto the wall) or exhibitions have been there since the 60s and will now move from their position as the world changes around them

Oct 3 - walking tour of Zurich via Lucy (in the rain); walked around Zurich to see a few buildings and see the Freitag factory store (company that recycles shipping bags into side bags, wallets, etc; ate an amazing turkish kebap (which the guys lived off of while we were traveling) - better than Greek food

[Bregenz, Austria -->Vals, Switzerland]

Oct 4 - Kunsthaus by Peter Zumthor for a ridiculously perverted art installation (we did not know about); visited a sweet waterfall on the way to Vals;

drove on barfy winding roads and I got wicked carsick and put my head on the seat the entire time; reached Vals Thermal Baths (Peter Zumthor project); went into the baths (which are tucked away in the Alps) until a 4-course dinner at 9 pm

Oct 5 - awoke at 7 am to go into the baths for a few hours (the baths consist of--for example--a lavender bath, a fire bath (107 degrees F), an ice bath, a meditation room, open showers with different heads, and a bath that goes outside with jets places; it was basically the most romantic, relaxing, and absolutely fantastical place I've ever been; it was a crazy feeling being in the water in the outside bath and outside in 40 degree weather IN the Alps with snow all around us; relaxingly drove to Sumvitg on the way back to Riva to see a chapel as well as more of the Alps countryside; the day was perfect and it was one of the best views yet on the trip; I found a patch of sunflower plants and spent some time relaxing on a rock

drove home through the Alps again...beauty at its finest.

Swiss Ambassador Visit

The Swiss Ambassador came for a formal event with wine, hor d'oeurves, and a very boring speech afterwards.  It was nice to see everyone dressed-up and enjoy the beautiful garden that is part of our property next to the Villa. I think the Swiss Ambassador was drunk during his speech. Actually, I think all of the adults were. Tsk Tsk.

Luzerne, Switzerland

Four of us girls + some of the guys went to Luzerne for the weekend. We walked across Switzerland's oldest timber bridge, went into a few beautiful churches, and explored the medieval wall that surrounded part of the city. We also checked out some contemporary projects by Diener & Diener. 

By far, my favorite activity of the weekend was visiting the KKL performing arts center where we girls saw a symphony orchestra concert (which was unbelievable).  When I was sitting in my side balcony seat in my jeans and north face jacket (while everyone else was in extremely nice attire) I couldn't help but get extremely emotional missing the art that is music. When you go to a school like I do, sometimes you get caught up in focusing on one aspect of something artistic, whether is is drawing, painting, graphics, architecture, etc...and I started to forget how music used to be my favorite of the arts.  After the performance, I had a newly-born appreciation for classical music--actually I guess realized that it had never left, but enticed me to keep exploring why it's so much an integral part of me. 

above: view from the top of the building under the cantilevered roof

Munich, Germany

A bunch of us went on a long-weekend 3-night trip to Munich (no, it wasn't Oktoberfest- though I wish).  During the 3 nights we went to an outdoor beergarten in the English Gardens, Hofbrauhaus where we sat with large beer steins and amazing apple strudel, and a crazy techno discotech. I will not go into those details, but the Munchens really know how to have fun.  During the day we visited historical sites like the building where Hitler recited his first haiku and the glockenspiel.  We also saw some contemporary pieces like a Herzog and deMeuron project that is now a major shopping area (mostly internal work), and a church whose doors (30'tall and the width of the building) hydraulically open at the conclusion of the service.

We also went to the BMW dealership/headquarters which is right next to the Olympic Park which was having a BMW rally that weekend.  Both projects are very progressive (olympic park more-so because it was conceived in the 70's).  

We went inside the Olympic swimming arena (which is now used for recreational swimming) and were a little awe-struck thinking that this was the pool that Mark Spitz set olympic records.  We pretended each of us had to be athletes from an olympic sport...mine was women's gymnastics...obviously.

Botta House

One morning we had a private tour of Mario Botta's first residence he designed. It overlooks Lake Lugano and has a winding driveway leading up to the house (which we walked).  The house is not built into the side of the mountain, the area around the house is actually layered and the house is built onto one of the steps or layers.  The core is a central winding staircase and different planes of floors rotate off of this staircase. The main entrance is the red steel bridge connecting the driveway plane to the top level of the house. In my opinion, one of his only pieces of work that I like...and I dig it a lot.

Como, Italy

We traveled to Como, Italy which is about 30 minutes South of Riva to see a few buildings by Terragni (a well-known Italian architect) for a day-trip...one was a modern, modular building built in the 1930's called Casa del Fascio (house of fascism) directly across the street from an old cathedral (dichotomy at its finest). 

above: sketching while standing b/c we weren't allowed to sit inside

Another of the buildings was a kindergarten he did for the area....wraps around a central courtyard, layers of windows allow natural light from floor to ceiling. Teeny tiny baby chairs everywhere. We stopped for gellato along the water.

Lugano, Switzerland

Lugano is a 15-minute train ride from Capo Lago (Riva's train stop) which is another 15 minute walk from our town. Lugano has a lot of restaurants, shops, gellato stands, water activities, and a fairly good (yet expensive) nightlife. Of course there are beautiful churches and markets, and it's nice to get out of a ridiculously small town at times, especially for a little people-watching.

School Schedule

Studio: M,T,W - 9:30-12:00; F- 2:00-6:00; discussions, pin-ups, work-time
Italian: M,W - 3:30-4:45; I pretend I know how to speak Italian by saying every word in Spanish but adding a different accent (and then the professore telling me I'm wrong)
Seminar: T - 8:00-11:00 pm; talk about philosophy, presentations on cool stuff, conversations about the books we're individually reading, talking in general
Sketch-i-ness: W - 8:00 pm-whenever when we check out our sketches, talk about what we've seen, and talk about how horrible i am at sketching

Thursdays/Weekends are free days...we take day trips to Lugano, Bern, Zurich, Vigevano, Bellinzona, Locarno, etc to see museums or art exhibits or something cool and/or our personal travel

Of course, all of our waking life is split between studio work/reading/being ridiculous, so we try to balance as much as possible.

Meals are cooked by 2 chefs daily and are freshly delicious. Breakfast is self-serve from 7-9:15 with yogurt, fruit, cereal, bread, and nuttella . Lunch is 12:15-1 and 1-1:45 which is salad + a pasta almost always. Dinner is 6:15-7 and 7-7:45 which is a soup and a meat/potato or meat/rice etc. And then dessert. The food is outstanding. We've had different kinds of fish, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, etc. I'm going to be 400 lbs...except the only snacks we have are fruits and yogurt, so it can't be thattt bad.

Our boys and girls showers are next to each other and bathrooms are shared (a little bit weird).

Riva San Vitale, Switzerland

Finally home!

Aug 21/22 - orientation, the realization that I live in the Alps, the realization that the church bells go off in two separate bell towers within rock-throwing-distance approximately every hour (including 6 am); practicing my sketching around town. I can't explain what it feels like to awake every day to something so beautiful out your window; nor can I explain how I can look from a sketch on my studio desk to the Alps to my right (my studio desk is by the window). I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream really soon, yet it keeps being real.




Aug 23 - went to Lake Lugano all day. Attempted front flips off the diving board into the lake...failed miserably every time - my back is still sore. My cannon ball is pretty good, though. Swans frequent the Lake...they're mean- the locals love to torment them.



Aug 24 - hike Monte San Giorgio - gain of 2700' over 3 miles...2 1/2 hours ascending, 2 hours descending (tripping and sliding a lot on the way down); bruises the next day; probably the most physically demanding thing I've ever done, but it was one of the top 3 things I've done in my life; major realization that I just hiked in the Alps but never yodeled at the top.

Koln, Germany

stayed with Danett's family Gisella and Ulli and their three boys 15, 16, 18...

Aug 15 - took the train into Koln and went to the Dom (cathedral that survived WWII), enjoyed the street fair with venders, music, beer, watched Danett eat bratwurst and got wicked grossed out, and went through old town



Aug 16 - went into Koln with Ulli and Gisella, entered a building with a panoramic view of the city, went into a few beautiful churches, and tried great beer typical of Koln called Kolsh [very good]. It was the opening of a new modern-architecture mixed with old buildings in the port so the festival was that weekend and we ate great food, drank great beer, and listened to some live jazz music in old town and dually saw impressive new/upscale architecture in the port




Aug 17 - Ulli and Gisella took us into Dusseldorf which is about an hour away to see the new port they were renovating. We saw some sweet new buildings including three residential towers Gehry had recently designed + some awesome art shops (and obviously fantastic ice cream). Mom/Dad Severing were so hospitable and really adored showing us the beauty of Germany.




Aug 18 - We took a train a few hours to Stuttgart for the day to see the new Porsche museum designed by an awesome Austrian architecture firm [not finished], visited the housing/residential project that Mies van der Rohe, Corbusier, and Walter Gropius and many other sweet architects of the time produced to study minimalistic/modern architecture in the form of different residential dwellings. I thought this was pretty amazing.



Aug 19 - relaxing day in Koln store browsing, explored the Koln chocolate factory, buying cheap pashmina scarves for 3 euros [duh]. We also got to watch some Olympics/Olympic highlights in English (thank god).

Aug 20/21 - overnight train (people snoring, uncomfortable seats) + 2 day trains through southern Germany and Switzerland (absolutely ridiculous views)

Germany rules because : Gisella's cooking was outrageously good, Kolsh+cola is an amazing drink, progressive architecture in normal areas jives me, we had conversations in Spanish, Germany, and English daily in the household, I looked a normal height around taller people
Germany sucks because : the language is extremely difficult to learn/speak/understand