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The 4th and 5th Week

6/16/17 Today we said goodbye to Dortmund and traveled to Berlin, the Capital of Germany. This city has so much history that happened as recent as almost 30 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell and of course the experience of the 3rd Reich with Nazis. So after arriving to our hostel, we walked a tour through the central city where all the important government buildings are. You could really see and feel the power of the German Capital with its massive structures and long axis roads. It was a grand introduction to the city of power and change. 6/17/17 Free day! We got the opportunity to rest after a long studio week and I think everyone slept in till noon. So what do we do on the free day? Find the closet park to lay on the grass under the warm sun. We went to Berlin’s largest public park called Tiergarten. The park style consisted of overlaying landscape garden with long aesthetic pathways and some small bodies of water. 6/18/17 History Lesson: After WWII, Nazi Germany was defeated by the allies United States of American, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Prior to the Allie victory, the 4 allies met at the Potsdamer Conference with the intentions of splitting up Berlin into 4 zones where their militaries lined up along in the city. After the war ended, USA and USSR went back to disagreeing with each other's form of government. USSR learned about America's massive weapon the A bomb and America was terrified of communist influence and espionage entering the country thus creating the Cold War. So why is all this history important to know as a landscape architect? We today we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial and Mauerpark. Preserving the history is another key feature when designing parks to remember the lost lives as well to serve as a reminder to never let it happen again.

 6/19/17 

Prior to this trip, I went last summer to Berlin and saw the International Garden Show being built. At that time, there were still many projects needed to be built and completed. It amazed me to see how much progress was in a year. The workers somehow finished and built the garden show. The garden show is a big deal for Germany to showcase many firms Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Firms to show off their work. The show was built in an already existed park in East Berlin in the center of a huge housing development that was built during Communist government. It was actually impressive how many apartments they built for the housing crisis after the war. So the garden show consisted of a sky gondola lift that transported guests from one side of the park to another with an aerial view of the entire park. there was also a middle stop that on top of the man made hill that had a view of the entire east Berlin housing development. The show also had mini gardens of the world to show the different landscape cultural designs. It was a very hot day so by the end of the day, we were wiped out from walking all over the park. Thank goodness for ice cream. 

6/20/17

Today was an early day to go visit a famous palace in Potdams. We visited Palace Sans Souci. It was built in 1747 by Frederick the 2nd who became King of Prussia in 1740. Sans Souci translates from French to Without Fear. It was the King’s Summer Estate. He enjoyed inviting intelligent scholars of the time period to discuss life and science topics. The architectural style of the palace is Baroque with an interior design style of Rococo. King Frederick believed in absolutism in which everyone must obey with obedience and order including nature, thus creating the symmetrical garden along with pruning the tall trees into a completely flat facade. Overall the palace and its garden were beautiful as it transformed for baroque style to a landscape garden with curved pathways through patches of trees and open fields. Later in the day, we saw the palace that held the Potsdam Conference of the Allies. We went on the last tour of the day to learn about every perspective of the Allies during the conference and agreement to divide Berlin into 4 zones. One interesting fact about these gardens that we visited today is that they are built for art displays and leisure. There were not any sport fields or playgrounds for recreation use. I assume that without the use of recreation, these gardens can be preserved easily without much human interaction walking all over through the landscape. 

 6/21/17 

We had a busy schedule today of visiting 3 parks in Berlin. The first park was called Sudgelande Nature Park. This park was first used as a railroad yard with multiple railroad tracks lying through the area. It was a major train yard during the war to import and export coal and weapons and other efforts for the war. After the war ended, Berlin didn’t have enough money to do anything with the area so they left it long for almost 40 years. So what happened? Nature took over and began over growing the train yard, hiding its history under leaves and tree trunks. In the 90′s, the Berlin Government along with nature preservation groups decided to convert the area into a park and try to preserve as much as the plant overgrowth and relics as possible. Thus they made pathways from the existing train tracks. I was impressed how well the width of train tracks can serve as a pathway. It fit 2 people side by side comfortable and the tracks acted as boarders. It was cost efficient and required little construction by filling up the track gap with gravel. A train track width is about 4 ft wide. This park serves an ecological preserve allowing students and residents to stroll through the park and learn about different plant species as well as animals and learn the history of the site prior to becoming a park. I enjoyed this park very much because nature designed the park itself. Nothing was taken out and replanted. I also enjoyed the shady trees protecting us from the hot sun. The 2nd park was Berlin’s first airfield in the 1930s called Tempelhofer Fled Park. It used to be an airport but shut down after the war. The airport terminal was the largest structure in Germany but was never finished being built. So the airport park now serves as a recreation area for bicyclists and even parasailing on a skateboard. I thought this was a cool park because it literally is an airport field open to the public. It is very simple and left untouched for a bird preservation area in the fields between the air strip landings. The 3rd park was called Gleisdreick Park that used to be another train yard in the past but it was rebuilt as a park for recreation and leisure. It had a good mix of urban park design and preserving the aesthetic landscape. Today’s lesson was basically about 4th nature. 4th nature is the act of nature taking over man-made design and revitalizing it with plant overgrowth. I will be doing more research on the topic of 4th nature because it is still new to me. Overall A very interesting day seeing how nature works in its own slow ways to create something beautiful again while incorporating existing structures.  

6/22/17

Today we saw how two different forms of government solved a housing shortage crisis after the war due to the majority of buildings being bombed. In East Berlin, there is a large street way that used to be called Stalin’s Allee but now called Karl Marx’s Allee. This street portrayed the influence of Soviet Union Communism under Joseph Stalin. The communists gather architects and sent them to Russia to study communist architectural style and ideology. This consisted of having stores and shops on the first floor of the apartment buildings with the living spaces above. The facades were beautifully decorated with ceramic tiles to show case the wealth and greatness of communism. But some reports said that the interior of the apartments were cramped and poor quality living spaces. People were assigned housing by their rank and how much worth they contributed to the society. So high ranking people got better housing and more wealth compared to the average pool of citizens. This project took 8 years to complete but had some complications. There were riots and protests from the citizens against the communist government that had hundred of people arrested and even executed.  All of these complications for the communist government lead to the government building the wall to keep West Influence out of the city. It was quite the scene to see how this form of government worked together so quickly to provide cheap housing for the citizens. Then we went to West Berlin and saw how the democratic government built its apartment complexes during the housing crisis. There was a design exhibition to showcase famous architects their work and provide housing for the people. All the buildings had their own style and the shopping centers were in the center of the complex with the close enough distance to walk. Both forms of government eliminated the use of automobiles because not too many people could afford them at the time. Even present day, the Berlin government tries to eliminate the use of vehicular transportation and use public transportation such as buses and electric trams to help the environment. 

 6/23/17 

Today we went to see the Bauhaus Museum. This museum used to be part of a famous art school that taught students how to reach their full potential of artistic expression and construction. In the museum we saw how students built their models and sketched their ideas as well as designed furniture such as chairs and tables. The most interesting part of the school is how the professors taught the lessons. the professors believed that students needed to be healthy and exercise well before they could produce the best work. Also breathing was the main focus on how the students performed while doing their work. A Swiss Professor, Johannes Itten once said that the way we breath is the way we think. This is very true because I know when I am trying to draft or sketch, I am too focused on the drawing and forget to breath well. I tried breathing more while sketching and produced better work. It was an interesting exhibit. In the afternoon, we explored the Tiergarden and saw memorials of the war for the Holocaust, the LGBT community, soldiers and victims. The Tiergarden had a crazy history of surviving the bombing and preserving a green space for the city along with memorials of famous musicians and the war.   

6/24/17 

Today was a free day to rest and do laundry because it was the last night of the program. It was surreal that 5 weeks had gone by so quickly. At night, my class and professors had our final dinner together and ended the day watching the sunset in Mauer Park. The perfect end to a great trip. 

6/25/17

Today was a bittersweet day to say goodbye to everyone but students were happy to go home or continue travelling to other places in Europe. My trip in Germany was not over. I made plans to visit students that I met last summer during my study abroad trip to hangout and say hi as well as finish visiting the places I could not make the summer before. I took a train from Berlin to Osnabruck and continued my Landscape Architecture Experience abroad in Germany.

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My group decided that our concept would represent the Emscher River with its accomplishments and future design projects. Thus our paths within the wheat field mimic the actually river and we planned to put in mini gardens showing small representations of the landscape architecture company Emschergenossenshaft future design projects that they plan to complete within the next few years. There will also be a mine themed playground on the elevated area of the site to preserve the mining history of the region. Overall the project came out great and I couldn't have done it without my two partners. This project proved to us that so much can be accomplished within 4 days. Hopefully the company decides to consider some our concepts for the future park!

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The site visit for our studio project. The bridge is constructed to support a canal for cargo ships above the Emscher River. There is a large wheat field that will be the area for the garden/park. At the end of the park there is a tower that has a view of the entire wheat field

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3rd Week

6/6/17 Today we leave Düsseldorf for Dortmund. We took a 30 minute local express train and made it with ease. We dropped our stuff at the hostel and then Work Time began. This day started off our studio week with the company Emscher Genossenschaft on a huge site called the Wasser Kruez -> Water Cross. This site has the intentions to revitalize nature, convert open sewage system to an underground system, and celebrate the engineering acomplishment of constructing a water canal bridge that goes over the Emscher River!! This site had so many potentials that it was intimidating at first look. 6/10/17 PRESENTATION DAY Today we had to present our concept and ideas to the clients. Unfortunately the major client was not able to make it due to being stuck in rush hour traffic. This helped us in our favor because it took the stress away of presenting. So we presented to one of the clients and she enjoyed hearing our ideas. The best part was at the end of it all, she wanted to take our work to her company and maybe use our ideas for the future garden show in our site area. Talk about a resume booster😎 6/11/17 Free day! And what did I do on the free day? I found a big park and spent majority of the day in the Rose Garden and enjoyed laying in the grass under the sun.

6/12/17 Off to Zeche Zollverein! It is a coal mining factory that was converted into an historic museum that showed the history of the mining period in the Rurh Region. It was quite informative to learn how coal is produced from organic fossils such as plants and animals. Coal was an important fuel source for Germany so they made sure to take advantage of thwir natural resource. It was interesting to learn how the workers were the community around the mining factory. Everyone knew each other because they were job relations at the factory. Housing was provide for the workers nearby. As a result of mining, the ground underneath the surface lost some layers and this caused the land to deform resulting in houses have cracks due to the foundation being shifted. Afterwards we went to a man made hill from the leftover coal mining dirt and rocks. This wasnt a small hill, it looked like a mountain fit for skiing at Pocconos Mountains. At the top of the hill, there is a 115ft tall structure that is an observatory for the surrounding Rurh region. The highest viewing platform is a circle that slopes down 8 degrees. It has a view of the last functioning coal mine that will be closing down in 2018. The last park to visit for the day was BernePark. It used to be a sewage treatment center that is now converted into a small park. It is a quiet park but the catch is that its right next to the smelly Emscher River. So if you can resist the smelly river, it is quiet nice. There are also single comparment 8ft diameter pipes that can be rented out to camp at the park. Im not sure where the bathrooms were for those pipes. 6/13/17 Dortmund used to have a steel mill outside of the city center. A chinese company bought the entire mill and literally took it apart and shipped it to China. So now there was a large area with polluted soils. Solution? Dig out all the polluted soils, bury the soil onto a big hill and then seal it shut so no radiation leaks out. Then fill in the big hole with water and make it a new lake called the Phoenix Sea. 6/14/17 Continueing the post-Industrial landscape parks and revitalizations, we went to see Landscaht Park in Duisburg Nord by Peter Latz. This park had a huge steel mill factory that is now converted into an adventure park with climbing attractions, the steel mill itself, and the action of cleaning up a polluted area with nature 6/15/17 Bike tour! Today was our second bike tour in Germany. Before renting the bikes, we saw a coke factory. Now this factory isnt making coca cola drinks, it makes another material that makes coal more fuel effiecent. Many by products were produced by coke factories such as benzine and tar for cars and construction. What interested me the most about the factories and all the other factories we visited is that they are now called sculptures and pieces of art. These factories are sculpture of 4th nature and technology since nature is taking over by growing over everything. It strikes me because I dont think anyone ever thought that these factories would become parks after being built. They were built for the purpose of producing and manufactoring steel, coal, and coke. I doubt the engineers and architects fully thought about the after-useage when the factories would close down. But it interesting to see the transition of the mining purpose to an historical preservation purpose. These places are used to teach the history of the industrial era and to provide a 4th nature asthetic. So yes back to the bike tour! One student said that we rode about 14 miles along the Emscher River. Not bad for being the only 2nd bike tour. It was a beautiful day to ride. The best part to experience riding bikes through our studio site area by the water bridge canal. It helps to see how to actually access the site through bike transitway. It was pretty smooth until you have to cross a busy road into the site. Hopefully the company Emschergonessenschaft can figure out a way to cross the road easier when they build the park garden. But it was a great way to end our time in Dortmund after working quickly and hard with our studio project.

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1. Frank Gehry designed Aluminum department. Residents complained that the rain drops were too loud when they hit the outside material. 2. Inspired Apartment by Frank Gehry 3. Inspired Apartment by Frank Gehry 4. Düsseldorf Tv Tower 5. View of the city from the top of the tower 6. Water Canal in the popular shopping district of Düsseldorf 7.Colorful sculptures climbing the building 8. Castle Benrath 9. ICE Train 10. Rough Sketch of the train

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More Pictures from Munich: The man-made lake at Reim Park and the last picture is Petuel Park

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2nd Week in Germany

5/31/17 Off to Düsseldorf! Today we left Munich to go to Düsseldorf, one of Germany’s post industrial cities with a rich history of coal and steel factories along with other industrial exports. The Rhine River flows next to the city so a sight of hundreds of cargo ships crusing up and down was to be expected. First and foremost: how did we get to Düsseldorf? By plane? Nah too boring. We took the ICE Train !!!! Aka the Inter City Express Train. A beautiful super fast train that can reach speeds of 236 mph!! It was my dream to ride aboard this train ever since I was a young kid. It made a 5 hour ride seem like nothing. Extremely comfortable, Amtrak couldnt ever compare to this luxury train. So back to Düsseldorf… At first glance, the city seems kinda bland from the color and textures of the surrounding buildings. But as we kept walking through the city, it slowly unfolded its characteristics. The social scene is very different compared to Munich. Everyone stays outside on the sidewalks on the closed off streets and have a good time talking and drinking. Very different from the Beer Garden style of Bavaria. It was a nice change but I still prefer beer gardens more. 6/1/17

Today’s agenda consisted of attending a planning board presentation by the Düsseldorf Urban Planning Administration. The first cool/not so cool thing was that the building did not have air conditioning. This is good because less carbon fumes from the building but not so good when it is hot and humid inside the meeting room. But its okay because this shows the city that its government building pushes for green infrastructure. The presentation consisted of learning about how the North Rhine Westphalia applies for its funding throughout its region along with the whole country of Germany. Its a progressive movement of pushing for funding towards areas of priority with the focus of making life better for residents to have more green space and better facilities. Its also not an easy process but they make it work. An interesting regulation is their nature compensation for developers. The rule is that a project must have about half or more land used for green space compensentation if an apartment developement is built. This helps the landscape and also gives its residents green space to use. 6/2/17 Castle Benrath Today we visited a very pink palace called Castle Benrath. It was built as a summer get away for Bavarian elector Carl Theodore and his wife Elizabeth Augusta. It also nicknamed as Pleasure Palace. This Boraque style castle feature modern advanvements for its time such as secret passage ways for servants and a washroom since bathrooms werent common at all. Elector Carl Theodore only spent 2 nights in the palace before becoming Duke Of Munich. The garden surrounding the back of the castle is boraque style that was mostly used for hunting. The garden is symetrical with its main walkways but there is a wandering circular path that makes the garden seem endless. 6/3/17- 6/5/17 Today is the start of the short 3 day break! So my group and I were off to Amsterdam to explore the mueseums and nightlife. I was in charge of holding the tickets so making sure the group made it was top priority. We made it and went of to explore one of my favorite parks -> Vondel Park I spent majority of the time in the Rose Garden enjoying the beautiful bloomed flowers and their fresh fragrance. Its located alittle outside of Central Amsterdam but its worth the walk. After spending a relaxing weekend, We traveled back to Düsseldorf and everyone made it back. My professors were glad to see no one got left behind.

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These are pictures taken throughout my first week in Germany. Pic #1 The Wall Entrance to Munich's Inner City Pic #2 Munich's Townhall Pic #3 Hofgarten in Munich Pic #4 The Crematorium at Dachau Pic #5 Gas Chambers at Dachau Pic #6 Olymipa TV tower Pic #7 A pole in Munich's city center describing the Purity Law of making beer with the 3 ingrediants: water, hops, and wheat.

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First Week In Germany

Arrival in Germany was smooth and exciting. The day was gorgeous with bright blue skies and a warm breeze with the sun shining. Couldnt have asked for a better day… oh wait I forgot to add that there was beer too! I got the oppertunity to meet up with my group of students attending the program and show them German culture of how to enjoy the beautiful day 🍻

5/23/17 Today’s agenda consisted of visiting Munich’s Inner City Center at Sendlinger Tor within the pre-existed wall before the city tore it down because weapon technology became too advanced; thus the wall was useless. The city of Munich was established around 1158 so its one of Germany’s older cities. It was astonishing to visit an old aged city because no building was taller than the church towers. I think the tallest building consisted of 4 or 5 floors. The architecture was beautiful and the streets were filled with people and flea markets. It was quite the rustic city sceneary. In the afternoon, we walked towards the Englisher Garten. It is considered to be the oldest public park in Europe and the landscape was astonishing. I’ve been to this park before with my family in the past but I got to experience it this time with a new angle of looking how this park was a focal point in history to start making open public green spaces within cities and give the citizens a place to enjoy outside. It was an incredible journey walking through the north side of the park. This side is more for locals and it left unmaintained to give it a more natural wild feeling. Truely beautiful! 5/24/17 Today consisted of attending a planning authority meeting. We learned how the Germans handle and process their regulations with urban planning. It is quite different from American regulations but it seems to be more beneficial with their methods. In the afternoon we began training for the Tour De France! Actually it was a 4 hour bike ride tour along the Isar River. It was a beautiful scenic tour of the water rushing down the river but the most intetesting part is that the bike path is a major transit way for transportation. Everyone rides their bike in Germany and it was a great experience joining on their prefered method of transportation. All of us difinitely felt the soreness the next morning. 5/25/17 Today’s agenda consisted of a more serious topic. We went to go visit the Concentration Camp in Dachau. Prior to getting to the camp, I felt unsure of how the experience would be. Horrible things occurred in those camps but when we arrived, it seemed unreal that such torture and suffering happened due to the beautiful German scenery outside the camp. It was difficult to comprehend how such bad things could happen in a beautiful place. But the camp is historically preserved well and makes sure to never forget what happened and make sure it never happens again. Walking through the camp was an intense and solem experience. I cant say it was a good time visiting the camp because of the terrible events that occured but it was informative and served as a good memorial for those who suffered during that time period. After the camp, we explored the town of Dachau and had a discussion of why things like the Holocaust occured. In order to have power, there must be fear. Thats what the Nazi Regime presisted to do and thousands of lives were lost. But what happens if that fear stops? Thankfully not everyone was afraid to stand up and fight back to gain their freedom and end the terrible tragic events that happened during the Holocaust. It was a serious topic but it helped me have a better understanding of the past with social issues involving power. 5/26/17 Munich had an old airport during the 50s and then decided to abandon it after the 2nd World War. In 1992, the city of Munich decided to convert the airport into a new city urban developement with numerous apartment buildings and a huge park called the Riem in the airfield. It was enormous with the scale of the park. The park also had a man-made lake that was seemed to look as if it were completely natural with its light blue color. It was a hot day so we all wanted to jump in but there was no time. Next we were off to an art museum that had the first ever Landscape Architecture exhibition. It was called OUT THERE, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ON GLOBAL TERRAIN. This was great to show what Landscape Architects do as a profession on a worldwide scale. The exhibition consisted of 10 different projects that focused on cleaning up waterways in major cities with poor water mangement and green infrastructure. It was quite informal and impressive to see how much effort and work there is put to try and come out with a sustainable solution that will help thousands of people having the best quality of water and better lifestyle. It was a great reassurance that I have choosen a major and a field of focus that actually helps people and benefits us for a better future. 5/27/17 Today consisted of a less intensive agenda of listening to speeches and meetings. We had the oppertunity to see 2 parks! I dont know about you but parks get me hyped up!! Petuel Park is the first park we visited in the morning. This park was revolutionary of how to address a big issue that is faced in many cities throughout the world: how do we connect neighborhoods with a major highway spilting it through the middle? The solution was to dig a tunnel underground for vehicular traffic to pass under a park that connected two neighborhoods. This was a risky solution because no one knew if it would work but the results were astonishing and served as an icon for future parks to connect neighborhoods. Petuel Park brought more income and inverstors for apartment complexes because the park was a green space, safe to walk across, and eliminates noisey traffic. Quite an incredible solution. I enjoyed visiting the park very much. The next park was Olympia Park. This park was originally designed to hold the 1972 Summer Olympic Games. This was a big deal for Germany because they wanted to show that they changed their national mindset from WW2 and show their acceptence for everyone. They wanted to redeem themselves and show the world that they changed for the best. The intentions of the design was to keep the park open to the public after the Games ended. Truely a spectactular park with its unique architectural design and elevation changes. 5/28/17 FREE DAY!!!! Today was a well deserved day off. It was a beautiful day that consisted of doing absoluting nothing but relaxing. Remember the Riem Park and the man-made lake?? We went back there to enjoy the refreshing cold water and soak up the sun😎 5/29/17 Today we went up to one of Germany’s oldest town Freising. This town is a holy town that has major religious influences because a monk assisted by a bear found a natural spring flowing from top of a hill. This town has miniture bear statues all along their streets. They are painted different colors. Freising is known to have the oldest beer brewery as well producing beer as from back as the 1100s. The monks were master brewers and the traditions are still kept today. 5/30/17 Today we didnt travel too far to visit the Nyphemburg Castle. It was about a 10 minute walk to its main entrance but the main entrance walk took about 20 minutes because the entrance is a long gateway to the castle to shows its importance and power. The castle resembles Versailles and has some of the same charateristics. Its a massive structure that was for the Bavarian Kings until the first World War and they got kicked out. The garden was absolutely beautiful. Walking through it made you feel as if you transported to an Alice in Wonderland World. I felt as if the nearest sign of civilization was miles away. The landscape design was carefully designed to create rolling meadows and stretching out long forrests with open grass and water ways to divide up the space. A beautiful garden for the beautiful castle. Overall Expereince In Munich: So being to Munich a few times before, this city still never seems to be boring. I learned so much with my program and realized the true aspects of public design and urban planning. Bavaria has a unique lifestyle where there is always progression but at the end of the day, you end it with a beer and your good family and freinds🍻😀

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So I say to you PROST! 😀 This means cheers in German. I wish to find the key that unlocks the magic of people and space.

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Today I leave for Germany! I am beyond excited to continue my study abroad journey. Last summer I had the oppertunity to meet extraordinary students and professors that showed me how to look at the specific details and safety concerns when designing. Their influence helped me to improve my design style that I developed during my sophomore year of Landscape Architecture. Now its a clean slate. I am looking forward to a new experience that will include working with my current classmates from Rutgers and hope to learn more from their experience as well because everyone sees things differently. So it will be exploring more design styles and gardens from German culture plus learning things from their points of view. My main focus on this trip is people and space. I want to learn how people interact with a space or design. I want to know what attracts people to gather together in an area and feel like they belong and cherish their experinces. The Germans have a word: Gemütlichkeit. It is a difficult word to pronounce but it defines as a state of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer. This is what I want to find out. What makes a place feel warm and comforting enough where pleasant experiences can occur? What are significant attributes when designing an area and thinking about the considerations of human interaction with that area. I really hope I can discover the connections of people and spaces. To help me with my goal, I am researching and will experience Biergartens (Beer Gardens). These are significant gathering areas of German tradition and culture. In a brief description, a beer garden is an area usually under large shady tree canopies where tables and chairs are set for people to come enjoy beer, food, and stories from friends and strangers after a long day of work. Beer Gardens unlock the magic of Gemütlichkeit (happy, cheery, well-being setting) and I want to figure out what key unlocks the magic.