Budapest

For Easter John and I took a long journey to Budapest, Hungary. We took a 14-hour sleeper train on the way there and then a day train on the way back. The trains were quite an experience, in the way we slept, the people we encountered and the scenery that we passed.

The city is layed out along the Danube River. The two sides of the river, Buda and Pest, are joined by 7 different bridges, each with its own style and character. The city is full of amazing views and scenery, with two hills on the Buda side, overlooking the city. The city has a rich culture and history as it was once one of the great cities of the Ottoman empire and later was Communist under the Soviets.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was the ancient and lavish thermal baths which the city is famous for. John and I went to two different ones while we were there. I have included a picture of the lesser one, the Szechenyi baths, our favorite one, the Gellart baths was seperated by gender...so photos weren't allowed.

All in all the trip was an amazing experience, hard to describe the place by words. Also don't forget to check my flickr page.

Stockholm

Last weekend John and I ventured to Stockholm, Sweden, traveling on 5 euro per flight tickets. The city exceeded our expectations. It has a very clean and a had a grandeur to it, a royal feel. We spent the entirety of Saturday walking all over the city, which is built up on several islands, each with a varying topography. The city's grand architecture matched the feel of its natural landscape. As we walked around each piece of the city, we were able to glance back across the water to where we had traveled and what we had in store. The city's elevation change provided many amazing views of different perspectives.

Our hostel was crazy, being located in an old prison that had gone out of use in 1775. The rooms were amongst a museum for the prison and our beds were in the old cells. We saw a lot of the city over the course of the weekend and also had amazing weather. Both John and I have created flickr pages too, and we have more pictures on there: Will's and John's

on the Baltic Sea

Two weekends ago, John and I ventured north to the two cities of Lubeck and Travemunde. The city of Lubeck was filled with some amazing old architecture (which is hard to find in the area because much of it was bombed in WWII). The skyline of the city is filled with spires from massive cathedrals and the whole city is surrounded by a moat.

We then went even farther north to the city of Travemunde on the Baltic Sea. In the summer months this beach community is filled with tourists and vacationers. This time of the year though, the Baltic Sea was frozen over, at least a kilometer into the water. It was amazing to explore a new type of landscape, an extreme that neither of us had seen before.

Although we are enjoying Hamburg, it was a nice escape going to a smaller and architecturally rich city and then spending time exploring in the quiet and calm solitude of nature.

Very enclosed streets

Across the water to one of the many cathedrals...this one seemed to be barely standing, many of the buildings seemed to be slumping or leaning in their age.

The gateway into Lubeck

John reaches out to the sea...

These cliffs line the coast. There were pathways along these cliffs allowing one to travel through dense woods and open plains, having an amazing view of the frozen sea the whole way.

The gray of the sky and the large white expanse of the frozen Baltic creates an interesting horizon.

Elemental Stroll

The Alster Lake, central Hamburg, has frozen (which hasn't occurred since 1997). Now the largest open space in the city, hundreds have begun to stroll along this surreal landscape.

Elbe River Property

One of the projects that we have been working on at Breimann & Bruun is a private garden for a riverfront property on the Elbe river in Hamburg, Germany. The Elbe river was created by a glacier and at one point measured 2 km across, the back of this property is a part of this ancient riverbed and slopes drastically towards the current river. The site elevation changes a total of 25 meters from the house location to the end of the property. Along with two other interns, Marcel and Matthias, we constructed a 1:100 scale (1cm = 1m) model in order for the client to more fully understand the design intentions. B+B place a lot of value in high quality models when it comes to selling a design to a client.

After figuring the contours of the slope, the model was build up using styrofoam stilts and chipboard (two pieces were used for each piece to account for the vertical scale of the model).

B+B uses a vary defined palette of materials to create various different types of vegetation.

Just as the clients were showing up we were putting the finishing touches on our masterpiece an carrying it to the conference room, which is set daily with the finest coffee, tea, biscuits and goods that the port of Hamburg has to offer.

Fourth Reich

Go forth and learn!

B+B

A few pictures from the office. Preparing the daily fruit delivery. Preparing models for residential clients.

[this is the teaser]

exploring the Hafencity

Last Saturday I ventured out into the freezing winds along the Elbe River to the Hafencity, a massive construction site along Hamburg's shoreline. This area will increase the city of Hamburg's urban area by 40%. The city built a new and expensive (and controversial) new transit line for easy public access to what will soon be a center for activity in the city.

My first trip to this place was very cold, as the wind from the river was blowing right at me. But I managed to take a few pictures while I was out.

The first is looking down into the canals of the older part of the waterfront district. This is just one of many canals that is covered with ice right now. Hamburg actually has more canals and waterways than any European city (yes including Amsterdam and Venice, etc...), mostly because of it size.

This next picture is looking out into the Elbe river. On the left is the construction of a new PhilHarmonic Symphony Hall for the people and city of Hamburg which is rumored to be one of the best in the world called Elphilharmonie Hamburg by Hohler + Partner Arckitekten. The project will not only contain a symphony hall but also residences and other amenities.

The last is on the bridge between the old part of the district and the new.You can see on the left the red brick architecture that is the standard of the older area, while on the right is the new development which is drastically different.

ein cafe!

On a cold walk around the Alster (lake in the center of Hamburg) John and I ran into this little place, come to find Doc has been running a cafe on the side all along.....curious...

room with a view

John and I finally made it Germany. We arrived to a heavy layer of snow, which is actually fairly rare for Hamburg as it rains mostly because it is situated off the coast of the North Sea and the Elbe River. Moved in to a little student apartment near the center of Hamburg. The view from our room is interesting, in the distance you can see the cranes of the Hafencity, which is currently the largest construction project in Europe.