ending with genève

Le Jet D'eau | celebration on the eve of Switzerland's birthday
Vielle Ville | Dinner at restaurant Les Amures

Switzerland is an amazing country and I'm glad to be ending my trip in Geneva. On the eve of Switzerland's birthday, the shops are all closed and tourists and residents have crowded the promenade around Lac Leman to enjoy gelati and rides on the carousel.

The Swiss really have a great lifestyle. The air smells delicious, the human beings are friendly, and the water from the public fountains tastes fantastic.

After enjoying a delicious dinner in the old village of Geneva, I made some quick sketches on the napkin that took no longer than a minute. Its the actual act of sketching on the napkin that makes it so enjoyable. For a medium that costs almost nothing and is so ubiquitous, I find it to be so fun and easy to draw on.

fingerpainting hamburg-altona

| Hamburg Altona

The sky had just cleared while the sinking sun broke through the horizon. Altona is a fantastic area of Hamburg. There are always street artists, hippies and panhandlers giving the cobblestone streets its own characteristic different from the rest of the city. This is an intersection close to the office where we often walk by whilelooking for a place to eat.

After drawing the lines, I realized that I forgot my brush back in the office so I found a clean puddle and used the water to help mix the colors with my fingers. It was messy but there is something in spontaneous methods that may not give the sketch a great appearance but the different types of last minute experimentation makes sketching fun.

hamburg's good beer

Alsterwasser | enjoyed on a beach located by the deep sea ports

In N. America, we have Budlight lime which is really watered down beer but Hamburg's own Astra creates a refreshing mix of "sprite" and beer. Perfect for the Hamburg's recent hot weather. Their old school bottles have pretty funny looking proportions.

Rathaus | Downtown Hamburg

The streets are wide, the buildings are low, and the beer is good. This is the city hall located in front of a large public plaza where everyone has ice cream or a cold bottle of beer in their hands.

tour de suisse

Geneva | Cathedral St. Pierre

Geneva is very much like Vancouver but probably much better. Water, mountains, tourists, great living environment... but Geneva's history is much more exciting. The way the old city streets twist and turn with stairs haphazardly shoved into the topography really provides a fun experience.

Ronchamp | Boulangerie... something

The highlight of the entire trip was being in the Chapel of Ronchamp. The process of getting to the Chapel helps build up the drama of being in the Chapel. It's hard to fully understand LeCorbusier's work until actually seeing the fine details and experiencing the physical spatial dimensions.
Bern | Tibits Cafe

With the expensive swiss rail passes, Ali and I could travel anywhere and whenever we wanted. After Basel, we went to Bern and just sat in a coffee shop by Tibits. It was awesome to not be on any schedule.

die schweiz

Cafe Fortuna | Basel, Switzerland

After seeing some high caliber quality architecture I've noticed that composition makes everything. It is not a technique or strategy emphasized only during the modern period but a regulation that helps control the small and large scale.

This is one of the many "caffeine" sketches. I was hoping to upload 2 napkin sketches as the first Swiss post but I think I may have accidentally misplaced them on the wet cobblestones of Geneva's old city.

thanks to R.Petrie -the Stillman Birn sketchbook is great! I'm guessing they had to use coils cause of the papers thickness. Having filleted corners and flat binding would be easier but the quality of the paper is pretty top notch.

geneve

I've sketched lots. I might wait till Hamburg where I may or may not find decent scanners to help publish the sketches. But for now, images may be best to describe a decent experience in Geneva so far. 3 of the most exciting places...

SANAA |Rolex Learning Center, Lausanne

This sleek white pavilion is quite the trek from Lausanne's train station.

An amazing characteristic of this "one room" building is that the gentle sectional changes adequately separates the different programs where ten meters from a bustling cafe is a quiet and lovely nap time area. As gentle and clean as the building seems, there is a lack of consistent language on the interior... Ramps are shoved into the curved floor plates to allow for wheel chairs to pass through... figural kiosks break the experience of the visual clarity.

L.Corbusier |Rue de Saint Laurent 2

They say that there is a Corb building in Geneva and when I accidentally strolled by this guy, I instantly noticed the massive thresholds similar to the Carpenter Center's. This residential/office building doesn't appear to be fully a Corb work because of the marble veneer, choice of dark steel and heavy shutter machinery.

Eglise de Protestant? |Rue de Madeleine

I snuck into the bell tower and attic space above the vaulted ceilings. It was thrilling.

note taking

It has been awhile since I've placed the nib down on paper but now that design studio's final is over, there should be a lot more ink/color/graphite/various stains on paper. I flipped through my sketchbook today after having a very enjoyable lunch with R. Petrie and realized some notes in between drawing pages. -Thanks for the cookies and sketchbook by the way.

I've also been urged to post something new...

This is an angry page. I'm not often flushed with anger but the process of taking a wet brush over the inked surface is actually quite therapeutic and helps with relaxing the source of anger.

A quick and simple coffee research done in Ambienta Cafe, Tsawwassen.

An example of my father's brush work in my sketchbook. This is my original name in mandarin (ma-duo-zen) that my grandfather came up with. Every character was delicately selected and juxtaposed beside each other because they pose multiple meanings. Great emphasis was placed into understanding the number and direction of strokes as they form a type of reading into the possible personality of the person which is a belief that comes from an integrated traditional Chinese and Buddhist view.

symphony

Civic Center: Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. I forgot my sketchbook but I conveniently found some napkins by the bar.

-Last show of this season featuring conductor Joann Falletta and guitarist Eliot Fisk.

For the last couple weeks, I've thought more about my education and I've decided that Architecture schools scares me. Maybe its just the school that I'm in but there is such a strong sense of false pride and arrogance in what we do and who we are. We've overlooked the most important part of our education, the part that should be the easiest to master without the help of an educator with a Harvard GSD degree. We don't think critically about anything.

-Why is it that Syracuse is ranked number 2?

-Why do firms such as REX (who we are all so in love with) claim that they strive to "do" and not "represent"? Could it be a way to charm a naive generation of students and clients?

-What is the difference between a "designer" who makes beautiful images and an educated architect who actually makes intelligent propositions?

It is scary to think about being a part of a superficial realm where thinking is guided by the latest and most poorly informed trends or the most seductive and pointless rendered images.

siracusa

Syracuse was extremely wealthy at one point because of a dense transportation system comprised mostly of trains and boats. But even in its current deteriorating condition, there is a lot to study and enjoy in the layers of history.

Station SW of Armory Square.
An engine sitting and waiting on a beautiful day.

denver omelet

Located on Larimer Street, The Market is a cute place to eat, coffee and shop.

View towards the entrance drawn last week. Entry through a welcoming bar before steps lead up to the groceries and seating.

Part of the interior seating/shelving area drawn in January

cambridge

Carpenter Center| Harvard, Cambridge

-Charles-Edouard Jeanneret's only built work in N.America

“There is a part of our world that is playing on abundance, on glitz and glamour and there is another part that is concentrated on refinement, and basically making beautiful objects.”

-Patrick Thomas, Hermes chief executive who is now trying to hold off the monstrous LVMH from purchasing family operated Hermes.

Architects aren't that different from fashion designers. In the world of architecture, there are numerous architects who act as prostitutes. The willingness to compromise design ideas/morals and disregard context just to ensure a project is built and sold for maximum profit is shit.

Cafe Pamploma | Harvard Square, Cambridge

-Cute little cafe

Delicious coffee served in a tiny basement with a ceiling height of 5' -11". Floor plan is roughly a square of maybe 18' by 22' packed with many super duper smart Harvard undergrads. Ha.

deluded thoughts

Ladner, BC

The most valuable thing universe-ities can teach individuals is to think. An observation of my peers and myself is that we often link our own personal emotions to thoughts which results in us unable to be critical with our egotistical selves.

deluded minds

Anchok Rinpoche, a 24 year old lama, spoke about love and compassion at SU's Hendrick's Chapel. The talk began with the idea of happiness from a Buddhist perspective. The source of happiness comes from our inner peace. It is the true source of happiness and the search for the external is the constant well of suffering. When we search for happiness in the material realm, we will only find satisfaction in a temporary form -external or superficial things cannot bring true happiness into our lives. The single challenge to understanding and obtaining happiness is our own minds. Having the new macbook pro, sailor pen or even the latest coach product only provides happiness in a temporary and fake form. However, the Inner Peace cannot be bought but obtained through individual training.

With regards to the sketch, not every composition within a sketchbook is beautiful or considered a "good" sketch. Sometimes I am more content with composing a sketch with numerous inaccuracies. The sketch tells a story where the state of my mood is reflected in the quality of the drawing. But because there are so many errors within the lines, I can understand that I still lack the construction of proportion and scale.

lines of thought

2nd story cafe, Westcott St.

Every single line within a sketch reflects a characteristic about the author and the entirety of the sketch should tell a story from the lines collectively.

Before this sketchbook, I naively viewed art as only a way of bragging or displaying artistic techniques but I've come to realize that anybody could master certain techniques with time. However, forming a particular interpretation or representation of the object being drawn requires thought. It is displaying the thinking process through sketching that I try to improve upon.

a good mate

The Laughing Goat, Boulder CO.

Unsurprisingly, architecture school is an extremely dramatic place. Studios packed with 70 students spending at least 16 hours a day together leads to some ridiculous hearsay.

The thought of friendship came into my mind and I think it is unrealistic to have an abundance of close friends. A person cannot genuinely care for and maintain intimate relationships with everybody and, not to judge, but there are people who appear to be able to do so. But realistically, they're just as honest as the grip of the soles of Uggs.

Friendship comes in at least 2 categories, real friends and friends. The former category is most likely the ones who will consistently champion and criticize. I believe in being honest and loyal to the real ones.

Don

People study
Don, 2011
Don and I in Nick's Tomato Pizza from 2010.

A year ago while I was working on an urban studio project, I met a very interesting man named Don. He is a 50 year old bottle collector living in East Syracuse who ended up being the main character of my narrative for the magic box project. The project itself was not that interesting but getting to meet this guy might've made it a more enjoyable assignment.

Last Friday, I biked to Recess Coffee and I was surprised to see Don sitting in a corner looking through the community news letters and furiously circling different articles. I assumed that he probably wouldn't recognize me since it was a year ago when we had our interview in Armory Square. But he looked up and gave me a warm nod of recognition and returned to his papers. We chatted for a little and it was extremely exciting seeing Don so cheerful and well. For a person who seems to have very little, I admire Don's ability to find happiness in the little moments that my friends and I take for granted every day.

the mountain

This is Mountain Baker in Washington State as seen from the bay window of my parent's lovely house in Delta. I never actually realized how colossal and elegant Mt. Baker looks from miles away. After waking up and staring at a parking garage every morning, in Syracuse, I think I might've taken the view of Mt. Baker for granted while I was growing up.

a throw back

These were done more than a year ago during the first semester of Architecture school.

a start

Sketched during an afternoon of riding around in the snow with B.W. and A.K. Freedom's coffee is much better made than Starbuck's -maybe one day people will understand that corporate coffee never tastes as good as the local coffee shop's.

-MMa