Thursday 30 June 2011

30.06.11

The last day of the month meant the start of farewells to some of the most amazing individuals I have met in Vienna over the past few months. The experience of the Erasmus exchange has taught me a lot. It made me realise how engrossed I had started to become in the things that were not important in life and it made me realise that you can live in a different way to what you are used to.
When you find yourself in a strange country and you immerse yourself into a new culture it takes a period of time to settle down and it seems that the moment you begin to feel rooted in a community and place; times change and people must move on. The Erasmus exchange was a period of time I will never forget. The time that I shared with my family here shall never be forgotten but we must all move on in our individual directions and into the future. I hope to see my Erasmus family again but with people from as far as Australia, Canada and America I know this will be difficult; we shall see and only time will tell!
Thank you to everybody that made Vienna such a special and joyous experience, have a safe journey home!

Monday 27 June 2011

27.06.11

This morning we had our ‘Fog Illusion and Space’ final review with Will Alsop.
The past week has been a whirlwind with final preparations. The seven of our group had divided up tasks from our central design strategy to complete our presentation.

In Austria, students have far more freedom in how and what they present at reviews. There is no ‘set criteria’ or ‘boxes to tick’ and this allows students to be more free and flexible with the work they present. Our group tried to balance the more regimented side that we are used to in the UK, with a more free Austrian approach.
We decided that we would present a development booklet of ideas, three A1 sheets, a film, a 3D computer generated game, development models (1:200) and a final model (1:100).
We felt confident in the amount of work produced and aside from a few minor clashes of opinion within the group we were all happy with the final body of work that we were to present.

The first group presented a film which was made up of a series of illusionary experiments within the courtyard. This was an interesting approach and the film had some fascinating moments, but overall I felt they had not achieved a solid group design and aim and due to only presenting a film it seemed that there was a real lack of presentation material.

Our group began by playing our film on the projected screen. It is a film that explains our conceptual development through to our final design but is linked by the central theme of the ‘illusion of depth in space’.
Overall we felt the film was a success and was the perfect springboard for our presentation. After the film, we talked through our presentation sheets and development document, leading into an explanation of our process recorded through a series of models. I believe Will Alsop was happy with the amount of work the group presented and was surprised when we told him there was still another stage of our presentation. We had taken the computer generated model and turned it into a game; starting in the courtyard - the objective was to move through the installation and up the changing levels to the top floor. We created this to engage our tutor with the whole of the installation and not simply aspects of it. He enjoyed the game and was complimentary to the amount of work we produced.

The final groups concept was aimed at making Will Alsop’s offices more accessible from the courtyard. The idea of having practical connections was one of our main concepts but theirs was very much focused towards Will Alsop whereas ours had been for all the tutors and students using the TU courtyard.
The group then moved onto their models, where they had produced a beautifully made 1:100 version of their installation; as well as a 1:1 model that showed their experimentation with light and atmosphere.
I believe the work they produced was successful due to its simplicity and channelled focus. The models and film were very well put together but my only criticism was that there was not enough of a focus on the illusion they were trying to create within the space.

I returned home happy and confident that we had done well. We have to wait for the marks; there may have to be some changes made for our portfolio presentations but overall I was pleased with our group work and final review.

Our studio viewing the final group's model

Will Alsop inspecting the final group's 1:1 atmospheric model

Monday 20 June 2011

20.06.11

This afternoon I decided that I should venture to Schottentor to enjoy the beautiful weather and sketch an aspect of the Votivkirche. The 19th Century church was built opposite the Molker –Bastei where a tailor had tried to assassinate the Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853. The church was designed by Heinrich von Ferstel and had many chapels dedicated to Austrian regiments and military heroes.
In my opinion its striking spires are the most attractive of the churches in Vienna and the intricate detailing manages to flow seeminglessly across the facades. It was a stunning afternoon and it is always a pleasure to sit and enjoy the architecture of Vienna, especially in my last few weeks here.

A5 Sketch; aspect of east wing of Voltivkirche, Schottentor, Wien.

Sunday 19 June 2011

17 - 19.06.11

This morning Ellen Leanne and I had our presentation for Spatial and Environmental Planning in CEE countries. We had taken a number of documents relating to the EU Danube Strategy and chose to focus on Transport and Tourism along the Danube.
We focused on the stretch between Vienna and Bratislava and proposed a central transport route to help create a more efficient, environmentally friendly and economic transport system. We proposed this system would interlink with sites along the stretch of river to help draw more tourists of wider interests and age groups and therefore help improve the local economy and infrastructure. This focused study was formulated in a way that it could be applied to different parts of the Danube in phases and has the potential to expand across a much larger stretch of the river.
Overall the presentation went well as we received positive feedback from our tutor and other students. We now simply have to make a few adjustments to our work and this will be presented in the form of a document. We were all able to return home feeling positive.

Later that day I left to meet a group of friends at the Urban Art Forms Festival in Wienneustadt.  This festival is Europe’s leading audiovisual festival and attracted many of Europe’s and some of the world’s best Dj’s, producers and bands.
The atmosphere of the festival was fantastic, the people were friendly and the setting was breathtaking. We set up our tents in the camp site and made our way over to the festival. The music venues were held in a complex of old Aircraft Hangers. The huge hangers filled with people and music created a special and unique atmosphere. We had a fantastic time together and were able to see all the acts we had planned to watch and apart from the rain on Saturday we were overjoyed with the experience.
Thank you Urban Art Forms!

Wednesday 8 June 2011

08.06.11

Once again a fair amount of time has managed to fly past; the weather has been beautiful and work wise it has been extremely busy!
I now am starting to feel that I am on my final stretch here in Vienna. Flights home have been booked and conversations keep arising with friends as to whom is staying, going, for how long etc.

Today Ellen Leanne and I had to present our Informal Market proposal for 7Km Odessa, to our group. We had come up with a design proposal and concept that was presented onto two A1 sheets and was based on separating public shopping and private servicing areas. The concept was clear and we had identified the problems that we were trying to resolve from the start; overall the review went well and we left feeling confident. There is work still to be done before presenting to Portsmouth University but overall I am hoping this medium scale design project will fit nicely into the portfolio.

After the review session I managed to finish off a sketch of the Otto Wagner Karlsplatz Pavilion. I was unlucky as there was a major thunder storm, so I had to take refuge in the adjacent pavilion to finish my sketch with a nice large beer. Overall it was a good day and I have my fingers crossed that all my reviews all go well!

A5 Sketch of the Otto Wagner Pavilion at Karlsplatz. (I will replace with a scan soon)

A5 Sketch of the Otto Wagner Sunflower Motif at Karlsplatz. (I will replace with a scan soon)