After our trip to Venice, a couple others and I decided to stay back one more day while the others headed home. Since the beginning of this program, we had talked about going swimming, so we headed to the beach.
About a 40-minute water taxi ride from Venice is a little strip of land named Lido. Lido is a tiny island that is well known for its beaches and resorts. We chose to stay in a quiet, tucked away hotel just minutes from the beach. We ended up having to sneak Kate in since the room capacity was 5, but there were 6 of us.
After we checked into the hotel, we decided to go eat dinner. On our way to find a place, we stumbled across the beach and saw this amazing view. I didn’t even remember the last time I went to a beach so I was very excited, to say the least.
The next morning we woke up early and headed to the beach. It was nice to just disconnect and relax. We were there for about 6 hours and we all got very tan. Celeste and Moira decided to find some seashells and ended up finding more than 50.
And before I knew it, we were back on the train heading home. This trip was a short one but it was a great way to end our last weekend here.
When I arrived in Zurich on Saturday, I needed to eat. A google search for “vegan” lead me to a cafe a few blocks from the main station, but avocado toast was 20 USD! Switzerland is expensive. I found a veggie burger in the area that was 16 with a student discount, but the prices were unexpected.
The brutalist-inspired structures were a nice break from the Milanese neo-classical buildings.
After eating, I had to decide if I wanted to spend the after noon exploring, or try to visit both design museums before they closed. It was three o’clock and they both closed at five, but I walked to Museum für Gestaltung in the Zurich University of the Arts. It was the smaller of the two spaces for the day, and they had an exhibition cover design from branding and graphics, to product design of pens and electronics, to a collection of William Morris print blocks and textiles. The other exhibition in the space covered the design of protest.
The museums had case studies of different types of design. Here is a pen progressing through prototype stages.
Next, I walked to the new Ausstellungsstrasse location. There, I visited the permanent collection, full of everyday objects from Braun Razors to actual sketches of fonts by the influential Swiss designer Adrian Frutiger (creator of one of my favorite fonts: Avenir).
This chair by Mario Botta was a great example of post-modern furniture.
I really enjoyed their collection showing the history of furniture in Europe. In particular, the collection of 80’s post-modern furniture caught my eye and I took the time to sketch a chair and a task lamp.
Task lamps are quickly becoming my favorite category of design object.
Sunday was my day to explore. I had a ticket to Basel in the northwest for any time during the day, so I woke up early, checked out of my AirBnB, and walked back toward the interior of the city. My first stop was MAME, a third wave coffee shop owned by a Canadian couple. My coffee was carefully extracted through a V60 and I made friends with a Portuguese man while sipping my floral coffee.
The Swiss National Museum was near the train station so I walked over to see what they had. They had an exhibition about design called “In Search of Style” which traced the development of the Arts and Crafts movement from John Ruskin and William Morris through the Weiner Werkstätte and Josef Hoffman. I took a few hours examining prints from The Grammar of Ornament and seeing important pieces of furniture and product design I’ve engrained into my memory from my History of Design studies.
I wasn’t allowed to take photos of the exhibit, but the gift shop was selling original prints of The Grammar or Ornament.
In the evening I took the one hour train from Zurich to Basel. Rather than taking public transportation to my AirBnB, I walked two hours along the Basel riverfront to Germany and then over to France to meet my host in Huningue. Along the way, I saw kids doing backflips off of a bridge into the river, and walked through a really interesting industrial area where people had turned the abandoned crates and pallets and used them to build small bars and art studios along the riverfront. Huningue was a cute small town. It was hard to believe that Germany was on the other side of a pedestrian bridge and that Basel, a city of 175,000 people, was accessible by walking through Germany for 10 minutes.
A photo of Germany and Switzerland from France.
My host offered to drive me to Vitra on Sunday morning, and I arrived on the campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany at 10am. Virta’s campus is a collection of incredible architecture hosting two museums, a 4 story showroom/shop, as well as factory space, a conference center, and a fire station. My day started at the exhibition space designed by Frank Gehry which tracked the interior architecture of night clubs from the 60’s through today. For me, it wasn’t that exciting, but it was my first encounter with Gehry’s architecture first hand, so I walked through the building and found the opening of spaces and surprised around every corner delightful.
The Vitra Campus used iconic furniture as outdoor seating.
I had an architecture tour of the campus that started an hour and a half later, so next I walked to Vitra Haus, a building designed by Herzog & de Meuron, which looks like a pile of houses stacked on top of one another. I’ve never seen such a collection of designed good in my life. Vitra’s flagship store, it housed tables, chairs, lamps, toys, and everyday objects. I walked through the store for an hour and a half and systematically sat on every chair of interest, including a ton of Eames designed furniture (Vitra was Europe’s manufacturer of Eames’s furniture and had good working relationship with Herman Miller). In Vitra Haus, I kept coming across chairs that I really liked, and on the top floor I found an exhibit about the designer Jean Prouvé — an engineer turned designer.
A weird display of Prouvé furniture in Vitra Haus.
At 11:30, I met my tour guide and two fellow tour-takers. My new friends were from California, one an interior designer and his partner a doctor. Our tour guide was an architect from Sweden and she brought us into the restricted interior part of the campus. We started at the Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome, then a prefabricated and modular building for a gas station designed by my new design interest Prouvé, then walked us over to the real gem of the campus: Zaha Hadid’s first structure. This fire station was a flying collection of heavy concrete magically suspended in air with no parallel lines and no obvious structure. It was absolutely incredible. The craziest thing about this building is that Hadid had her studio for 12 years before she was awarded a project, and this project was a building for a volunteer fire-fighting team that was funded by this private company.
Zaha Hadid’s first building was this volunteer fire station on Vitra campus.
As the architecture tour continued, we learned that the Vitra campus had burned down in the 90’s. Each of the buildings that were put up after the fire had the task of being architectural masterpieces, but had the task of not overwhelming the important building by Hadid. It was really interesting how architects approached the problem. One used a bridge to frame the station, and others used humble materials. Our group was great since we were each well-informed about design, and we casually chatted about our design interests as we walked through the factory and other buildings on campus.
The largest building, the community was worried about the size. The architect finished the building with this wavy fiberglass and used an amorphous shape to make the building visually smaller.
The tour ended at a conference building by Tadao Ando. Before the tour, I had a vague idea that he built with concrete, but I had no idea how unique and memorable his architecture would be. We entered the building through a narrow entryway and entered a conference room finished with warm plywood, board formed concrete, and glass. Our tour guide pointed out the level of detail; the lines from the concrete pour lined up perfectly with lights, windows, and other elements in the architecture. Nothing was left to chance. Ando dug a courtyard into the ground an designed the house from an elliptical base that allowed light to penetrate into the ground floor and basement. The floor plan was asymmetrical, unpredictable, and full of surprises. Natural light penetrated in all of the right spots and narrow entries between curved and straight walls opened up into voluminous spaces.
This room was a library that had natural light in the reading nook.
After the tour ended, I spend a few minutes picking wild cherries and exchanged information with my new friends to keep in touch. The last building to visit was the owners’ of Vitra’s personal collection of chairs. I started in the basement and found Charles Eames’s personal office reconstructed. When he died, a large portion of his estate was sent to Vitra and they have a great archive of his work. The ground floor contained stacks and stacks of iconic chairs, much the like that stacks of a library. It was ordered chronologically starting with object by Morris & Co, Frank Lloyd Wright, and moved through mid-century and contemporary designs. I couldn’t believe the collection. Any chair important to the story of design history was in front of me, and I took the time to observe and sketch.
Chairs on chairs on chairs on chairs on chairs.
The rest of my day was travel. I grabbed a soup from the cafe and walked twenty minutes in the rain to the nearest tram station. The tram took me over the border to Switzerland and I took the first train to Zurich. I had a few hours to kill before my train to Milan, so I walked to the old town and found a vegan hotdog vendor. I connected to the wifi and found that the birth place of the dada art movement was very close, so I walked to Cabaret Voltaire and walked through the space, imagining the shenanigans that probably took place over the years.
Classic Swiss design in the train station.
It was an action packed weekend, and when I arrived back to my apartment around midnight I slept.
After getting more comfortable with riding the metro and making my way to IES and back home, it seemed quite a bit easier to explore Milan without worrying about getting lost. In fact, I hoped to get at least a little lost so that I could get to know a new part of the city. During one of these adventures discovering Milan, we found a restaurant and bar called Chinese Box.
The day trip to Lake Como was one of the most beautiful starts to a week I could imagine. Climbing to the top of the War Memorial was exhausting, but well worth the exertion. The view of the lake and the surrounding area was amazing and the memorial itself was a beautiful way to honor those lost in the war.
The other personal highlight of the week involved the visit to the Alpha Romeo museum. Even though I do not have any particular interest in cars, the exhibit was quite interest to see. The transition in technology and style throughout the lifetime of the company involved so much more change than I previously though in such little time.
Within the tourist trap of Florence, we finally found the entrance of the Gucci Garden. The exterior of the place looked ordinary in comparison to other Florence buildings, and a large pink banner which helped us identify the place. I was surprised more people weren’t inside the Gucci Garden, especially after seeing how crowded the areas in front of the duomo were. I was also surprised this place existed in Florence, which, as a small town, felt like an homage to old design of the Renaissance. But after learning more about the inspiration for Gucci’s design, May Morris and Arts and Crafts era patterns, I guess it makes sense.
Although Gucci’s goal is to be a luxury brand, there is also emphasis on beauty and imagination in their products. My favorite aspect of the brand is their ability to transform their signature (sometimes the double-G symbol, sometimes the green and red stripe, sometimes both). Some of the bags and coats we saw weren’t vegan-friendly, so the materials become very pricey. I think the “luxury” of Gucci’s branding was made most obvious in the prices and surveillance throughout the entire museum.
I also liked the fact that they let us view the museum for free because we’re students (and they asked us before we asked them, because this was before we realized the EU prioritizes students’ education. I’m not familiar with this as an American student). I would have paid if we didn’t though.
After our trip to Venice as a class, a couple of us stayed an additional day for a beach trip to Lido di Venezia.
As soon as everyone left, we headed for a water taxi to Lido SME. We took the 5.2 and waited what seemed like 500 stops before we got to the island. Once we finally stepped out onto the street it was a shock of how different this place was from Venice. Similar to any other beach town, it was kind of relaxed although there were several people scattered along the sidewalks (but significantly less than in Venice).
the beach at sunset.
We took the bus to our hotel, got settled, headed out to look at the beach before sunset, got dinner at a small restaurant down the street and then went back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the next day.
The next morning we headed downstairs for breakfast and then headed for the beach right down the street from our hotel.
expensive cabanas on the beach.
Apparently they have these things called “private beaches” where you pay almost 80 euro to get a cabana, a shower in the shack, and some chairs on the beach. It was extremely peaceful looking and I have never seen anything like it. Unfortunately, we are college students already spending a ton on this trip so we couldn’t do that. We walked down a couple of minutes to Blue Moon Beach which is the public beach — that’s right folks, it was free.
This beach was not as busy as I thought it would be because it was 930 in the morning, so we got some good spots. We set up our towels in the sand close to the shore and headed out into the water. The water was not even that bad, definitely warmer than Barton for sure. AND it’s extremely clear, almost magical.
the public beach.
It was a really relaxing trip because I have been wanting to go swimming (one of my favorite things to do) this entire month while studying abroad in Italy and I FINALLY got to do it the last weekend.
I would definitely recommend visiting this beach at least for a an hour if you can.
The highlight of this week for me was definitely visiting Achille Castiglioni’s studio. His approach to design has a wittiness and economy that I want to implement in my own work. I also enjoyed the Armani Silos museum, the way the lighting enhanced the clothing and the way sound interacted with the spaces to form a seamless sensory experience.
Over the weekend, I went to Rome and visited the RedValentino Flagship store, the MAXXI museum designed byZaha Hadid, the Vatican museums, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The MAXXI museum was not the most inviting space, which I find to be a common motif in Zaha Hadid’s work. Because the museum is like a piece of sculpture and has such a distinct personality on its own, it was interesting to see how its exhibitions and art take on the challenge of complementing/ the space shaped by the building’s architecture.
Also the RedValentino Flagship store designed by India Mahdavi was cool to visit, I loved her use of color and confident use of pure forms:
I went on a tour to visit the Vatican museums and St. Peter’s Basilica in order to skip the lines.I kind of hate tours because of their strict nature, and so we basically strolled through the museums with rare and brief moments of admiration in probably under 20 minutes.
Jesse and I took an airplane to Prague for the weekend. It’s crazy that just under an hour of flying I can enter a country where people speak a different language (from a different language family), with a very different atmosphere because of its Slavic cultural history.
The first thing that struck me was the escalator in the metro station – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNvNy4bj0g . The posters on the walls were running parallel with the slope of the escalator, instead of their usual orientations in escalators, parallel to the axis of a standing person. It was disorienting, and in hindsight I think this first memory of Prague is a perfect representation of the city’s character.
As we continued exploring the city, we kept running into peculiar objects:
a sculptural water drinking fountain
and another fountain featuring threeelegant and relaxed dinosaurs spitting water with great force, in the middle of a small plaza with surrounding restaurants:
and instead of finding beautiful courtyards when peakinginto a doorway on the street like in Milan, I instead saw people drinking beers at bars (more like dimly litbasements with like one yellow wall lighting fixture on a deep mahogany colored wall).
The variety of different styles of architecture there also felt like an accurate description of how Prague is right now: there is an odd balance/coexistence in Prague of tourists from around the world and Czech natives (who speak a fairly small language and share a very particular culture). Likewise, there was an eclectic mixture of building styles, with new/international jutting up next to historical ones, next to Wes Anderson-like buildings, next to Cubist-inspired ones:
Maybe I’ve just had a previous idea of Prague and it made me look at everything with a lens (that everything is disconcerting and odd). But I really think that’s what Prague is about, from everything I described to the language itself (objectively, the way the letters form together in words clash).
This past weekend I spent in Paris, France with a couple of the girls.
paris pups.
I’ve always wanted to go just to test out my skills from French classes over the years. Apparently the Parisans speak more English than they do French… I’m not sure if that was a good or bad thing for me. I’m not that good at it anyway so it’s whatever.
The three days we spent there were glorious(ly expensive). I’ve never spent 20 USD on a meal just for myself but that happened in France. Here’s what I got:
– 3 blueberry pancakes
– 1 ham and cheese croissant
– 0 drinks!!!!*
This past weekend Kalissa, Moira, Celeste, Courtney and I went to Paris. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and took it easy the first night. We explored the area around our hotel which was near the Moulin Rouge and ate French food for dinner.
On Sunday, we woke up early and headed straight to the Louvre. I didn’t realize that the Louvre was as big as it was- you would need a full day there to get through it all. Due to time, we weren’t able to see everything but we did get to see the Mona Lisa. My favorite exhibit was the Islamic Art exhibit. I was fascinated by the level of detail and patterns showcased. Also, the ceilings in the museum were incredible, nothing but precise craftsmanship and sheer beauty.
Next, we headed to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. We saw a lot of Art Nouveau pieces as well as pieces we had learned in History of Design like Charlotte Perriand’s Chaise Lounge. It was exciting to see objects we learn about in real life, which puts things into perspective like the size of the object.
Within the museum, they had a special exhibit dedicated to Hérmes. The exhibit showcased the various innovative designs created by the brand.
We then headed to the Pompidou. The line was long so we weren’t able to go inside but we got to see the structure itself.
Our last museum stop of the day was at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. The building is not only a regular art museum that houses exhibits but it also has a section to showcase the process and construction of the building itself. I’m a pretty big Frank Gehry fan so to see his work in person was pretty amazing, to say the least. We took the elevator to the top and was greeted with this beautiful outdoor space that gave a view of the city. Visiting this building was the highlight of my day.
After we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, a must see in Paris. The monument is in the center of the road, so we had to go underground and then walk up.
To end the night we visited the Eiffel Tower. We got to go under it as well as see it sparkle. It was a great way to end our very long day.
The next day we explored Paris a little more before we went to the airport and came back to Milan. Paris is a wonderful city and I will definitely go back one day!
On Wednesday we had a trip to Armani/Silos to look at their clothes. At first, the museum had a series of paintings that told a story about a Jewish guy in Venice with his puppet. After reading the story, there was many mini stories, represented by pictures. They were kind of silly and I didn’t understand many of some of them; still they were nice to look at. On the first floor, there were many accessories laid down. Some of them were nice, but very few would I actually wear. I went quickly through them and headed to the other side where they had the outfits. At first, many of the outfits were suits for men and women, but not many of them were attractive. Some of the items were nice but most of them didn’t even go together. I moved to the second floor and Claire joined me while we went through the last two floors together. We went through every single piece of clothes and judged it: we either buy it, remodel it or don’t buy it at all. Many of the items wouldn’t have been purchased by us, many others were modified and redesigned and very few would have been purchased. For example, we’d either decide to change the material, the patters or the colors as if we were actual designers (we would make nicer clothes if we were.) After that, I watched some of the commercials that they were playing and left. After the museum, I went home, then to Éclair de Genie to have the best éclairs I ever tried. They were colorful and very tasteful. Finally, I got together with my group and we worked on the project together!
I was surprised more people weren’t inside the Gucci Garden, especially after seeing how crowded the areas in front of the duomo were. I was also surprised this place existed in Florence, which, as a small town, felt like an homage to old design of the Renaissance. But after learning more about the inspiration for Gucci’s design, May Morris and Arts and Crafts era patterns, I guess it makes sense.
