Post 3: Field Trip to San Francisco

The third and final fieldtrip I really liked because I feel like if Rafael saved the best for last (excluding the naked people we saw). I had a really good time because it was the last day of intersession and all the buildings I really enjoyed seeing. The buildings that we visited were the De Young Museum, the modern federal building, a library and The Asia Museum.

One of the buildings that I enjoyed overall was the Federal building because from the outside I didn’t like it at all but once we entered and gave ourselves the tour I was completely astonished by all the marvelous things it contained and especially that it was a very green building. I enjoyed seeing the “memorable stairs” which were split in two, the right side were normal stairs and the left ones were double its size and I really thought those were very memorable stairs, I really liked them especially how the sun would hit there and one could be there.

Another thing that I liked about this building was how it had,  what I believe is called a “garden sight” because it was open and fresh air would come in and you can see the city from a long distance and it felt refreshing and calm and amazing because of how open it was.

Furthermore, I also loved the part of the building where it had a huge window, steal benches, and a glass floor. It felt like if one was floating and it felt amazing the feeling of the sunrays hitting you and the feel of stepping on a glass floor.

Overall, I have to say thank you Rafael for taking us in this field trip I enjoyed it very much and I know that the rest of my classmates did as well.

Post 2: The Guggenheim Museum

One of the documentaries that we saw that I thought was astonishing both good and bad was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank Gehry. What I liked about this museum was its design and that the material it was made out of which is titanium and it sparkles with the rays of the Sun shining upon it which it makes it look very beautiful. I also like that when the visitors would enter a new place in the museum to see art they would get surprised because the rooms would be a different color than the walkways. Another thing that I really liked about it is that it’s on the tip of what seems to be the ocean next to it and I think that that makes the building stand out even more and so makes it look very beautiful.

            Some things that I didn’t like about the museum was that half of it is empty space and so I think that that is just a waste of space because in my opinion that space could be used for something else like more art. I understand that most people use that space to do whatever they want but I think that since the museum is a valuable museum it should be considered like one in the inside as well. So I think that at lease a quarter or a sixth of the building should be used as a blank space and the rest to be filled with more luxurious art.

            Finally, I really liked the shape of the building because it is unshaped and that’s what I call architecture because to me architecture goes beyond than what we see everyday and the Guggenheim Museum is a beautiful piece of architecture.

Week 4 Post 1: Lecture about Symbolism

One of the lectures that we had this week was about “Symbolism” and I thought that it was very interesting because when an architect is going to build a building he or she must have a reasoning or significance behind the design of the building.

            Some of the reasons that people have significance’s towards buildings are maybe because to symbolize power, king’s wealth, entertainment, ancient/old, democracy, love, eternity beauty, strength, efficiency, and/or a new nation.

           Some of the examples of building’s that symbolize power are the Egyptian pyramids built in Giza in 2500 BC and the Colosseum in Rome that was built in 80 AD. We have also the Taj Mahal built in Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, Agra in 1653 that symbolized enduring love and beauty because there was a queen who was the most beautiful of them all and died young so they wanted to preserve that beauty and love.

   The symbols are the ones the drive the beauty of the buildings and so to me they are very powerful.