Aug 17 2009

 

Today our essays were due.  The question that we needed to answer in the paper is as stated:

You have had a lifetime’s experience living “the complex social, cultural political, economic and cultural dimensions of the city”, in particular, the latest western manifestation of the city, the de-centralized sub-, ex-, urban peripheries of the world’s first mega-city, a condition which at first glance seems to defy Mumford’s characterization of the city across time.  You have spent the better part of a summer skimming through Rome, Naples, and Siena, three very different but equally ancient Italian cities, where you have been asked, as “present-day travelers,” to observe, document, analyze and, most importantly, propose.

For the last week or more you have been living in and mapping Siena, considering various aspect of its condition and your daily negotiations of its present-day life.  Please write about your emerging thoughts about aspects of Siena and its “living testaments”, emerging or ancient, and your studio project with explicit reference to 1) the condition of the present-day American city, and 2) the present-day in Rome and Naples as you experienced them.

This is what I came up with:

 

Later in the day, I went out to experience some places in Siena that I didn’t really get to experience my time here.  The Duomo was one of the main places that I really wanted to explore.  I went inside it for the first time and it was pretty impressive.  

 I thought that the approach to the Duomo was an experience in itself.  I sketched the approach to the west façade,

as well as the rear of the cathedral.

  The stairs elevate the Duomo from the street, stating its hierarchal importance to the city.  The archway frames the Duomo giving it a different sense of importance in a more picturesque way.

Aug 16 2009

Today is the long awaited Palio.  If you don’t know what it is, then maybe this will help:

THE “PALIO RACES” OF SIENA

A race which lasts less than 2 minutes, is the subject of debate and competition all year round and can cause men and women to laugh or cry; such is the Palio, the greatest traditional festival in Siena.

Siena is divided into seventeen contrade, or areas of the city. The Sienese people belong first to a contrada and then to the city. Each contrada competes against one another in the Palio, and rivalry and competition are an integral part of the preceding months before the event. Ten contrade are selected for each race, each contrada is assigned a horse, and the horses compete in la corsa of Piazza del Campo while thousands of people come as spectators and participants, transforming the main piazza into a teeming sea of people.

There are two palio races each summer; one on the 2nd of July, and the second on the 16th August. The festivities start three days prior to each Palio, although the anticipation is already evident weeks before. During this time, there are banquets, parades, blessing of the horses and celebrations of all kinds. During these days, there are events such as the assigning of the horses to the ten contrade the first, second, third and fourth trial, and the Prova Generale, followed by the dinner of the Prova Generale for each contrada. Contrada colors are worn by Sienese people, and music, singing and drumming can be heard on the streets at all times of the day or night.

On the day of the Palio, spectators crowd into the piazza from noon on, willing to bear sun, heat and sweat to witness this traditional event. The more sedate will pay for seats situated around the edge of the piazza, which are usually sold out eight months in advance.

The piazza is sealed off minutes before the Palio starts, and eventually (after a few false starts), the horses are off, and it is over before the dust settles. The winning contrada feasts and celebrates for weeks afterwards, with banquets, replays and much discussion, and the losing contrade can only hope that with much preparation, plotting and luck, they will fare better in the following race.

A wonder for all who see, this tradition is unusual in that it is of the people of the city – the Palio is a unique phenomenon, one that arouses much emotion, an event that the Sienese people hold dear to themselves, and as such is a strong authentic tradition that is a once in a lifetime experience to witness and enjoy.

(http://www.aboutsiena.com/palio-of-Siena.html)

Unfortunately the contrada where our dorm is located, Selva, isn’t racing so I have no one to root for really.  Even though our contrada isn’t racing, the neighborhood is still decked out with flags

 and light fixtures.

 The race took about two hours to start, due to false starts and the horses changing order at the start.  Steve, Ron, and I picked the primo spot where you can view the majority of the race without losing site of the horse and its right by the fountain in case we get thirsty.  We knew of the spot based on when we went to the Provas (trials). That was a little agitating, but the atmosphere made it worth it.  Each contrada that was in the race was represented with people throughout the Campo.

  The race finally got underway and the horse representing Civetta was in the lead from the start with Aquila not far behind.  Around a turn on the second of three laps, the jockey from Aquila was thrown off his horse, relieving some of the pressure on Civetta.  Civetta went on to win, with members of the contrada going crazy as the horse crossed the finish line, sealed with a shot from the cannon.  People were actually crying, which I guess is reasonable, since their contrada hasn’t won in 30 years.  Civetta would celebrate all night long, which was pretty cool for the first hour, then it just got annoying when you couldn’t hear a person right next to you talking in the Campo.

Aug 14 2009

Today we had our pop-UP piazza review, since the first time around a lot of people weren’t ready to present, including myself. The object of this project is to understand the piazza spatially and communicate that understanding through the pop-up that we create. The piazza that I was assigned, as well as Alex and Ron, is Prato di San Agostino.

 The guidelines for this project are that you can’t remove, sever, or add any paper to the single sheet of A3 paper using no tape or glue. The cuts and folds are meant to represent the full extent of enclosure of the piazza. Using every inch of an A3 sheet of paper to make a pop up isn’t as easy as it sounds, if it sounds easy at all. After many attempts and plenty of study models, I was ready to tackle the full A3, since I only had study models for the first review. After drawing, cutting, and rendering the entire piazza, I popped it up and it wasn’t quite what I wanted being that the creation wasn’t standing up by itself totally. The project didn’t do what I initially intended for it to, yet still gave the sense of the space very nicely. All three turned out really nice and said something different about the space that another one didn’t. The project was quite a pain and I’m pretty happy that it’s over. Here were my results:

This is what it looked like before it was popped up, as a single sheet of A3 paper:

Aug 12 2009

Today we all met up at 930am at Santa Maria Novello in Firenze.

 Jim and Andre were both supposed to meet us there, but only Andre ended up coming with the entourage of his family. We were planning on sketching the façade of the church, then entering it to begin to understand the interior of the space. Only one problem, it was closed. So all we were able to do were exterior sketches.

From there we went to San Lorenzo,

 where I wasn’t too impressed with the façade since I knew that it was designed primarily by Brunelleschi. Once I got close enough to see the detail of the coursework, my opinion changed.

It was definitely like no other exterior of a church that I’ve ever seen. After getting our admission tickets, we entered into the cloister of San Lorenzo.

 In the center of the courtyard there was a very elaborate shrub pattern, as well as a fruitful lemon tree.

 From the top floor of the cloister you get a clear view of the tower as well as the cupola of the Duomo.

 From there we went into the crypt, where most of the Medici family is buried. (the family who funded the construction of the building) Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in the crypt, which normally wouldn’t affect me but it was under very heavy surveillance. In the crypt, there was a bulky column where a member of the Medici family is supposedly entombed. After we left the crypt, we went inside the church. I don’t know if I lost my photos of the inside, but all I could find of the interior is a sketch that I did.

 Next, in transit to the Duomo, we passed the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The building was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo with the obvious influence of Brunelleschi.

 Nearly a block away was the Florence Cathedral aka Duomo.

 It is nearly impossible to take a picture of the whole building because of its massiveness. We did not enter the cathedral as a group, but instead just walked past it through the Piazza della Repubblica.

 We arrived at the Piazza della Signoria,

 which was filled with iconic sculptures that were familiar to me. I was pretty excited to see these sculptures up close, until I was let down with the news that they are all replicas and not the originals. The originals are well protected in museums, instead of outdoors where they can get weathered and corrode, as well as be vandalized. I still posed with the fake statue of David.

 The resemblance is crazy, right? We ended up going into the Palazzo Vecchio

 where an ancient amphitheater is located. I went as far as I could without paying money, and snapped a few pictures. We walked past the Ponte Vecchio,

 which was the only bridge in Florence to survive World War II. This was pretty hard to believe, since it’s the only bridge I’ve seen with livable spaces built onto it, making it seem like a target for destruction. We then trekked to the Chiesa di Santa Croce,

 which is the burial place of some pretty famous people from Tuscany: Michelangelo, sculptor Ghiberti, and Galileo to name a few. After that, we split up. Ron, Steve, and I, as well as many others, decided to go back to the Duomo and climb our way to the top of the cupola. The sheer size of the interior was impressive but not so much the design of it.

 We then paid the admission to go to the top of the dome. After about 2/3 of the way, it opened up so that you can walk around the perimeter of the base of the dome. From there you can look down at the pews

 or up and the design of the interior of the dome.

 Once we got to the top, there were some really spectacular aerial views, of the cathedral itself,

 as well as all the places that we recently visited throughout Florence.

 That’s about it for today.

August 10 2009

Today we had our review of the analytique, and as expected, mine was the only one that wasn’t a church with a piazza.  Jim seemed totally alright with it, being that he confessed that it was his fault for the confusion.  He meant to assign me a different church that wasn’t on the tourist map that is located a few blocks away, and realized that what he wrote was not clear in the least.  I wouldn’t have known this since the church wasn’t on Via di San Pietro, nor was it close to the Pinocoteca.  Everyone’s end result for the assignment was amazing.  Some even looked like they were done by people who had numerous years of experience with water colors.  Some extremely well composed, strategically locating the different drawings as if they were telling a story.  Jim really like the color scheme I used, and only had a problem with the fact that no drawing on my analytique explained where people gather outside my building even though it didn’t have a piazza.  Later, I added a perspective sketch depicting people sitting outside on the ledge, giving my composition an even stronger analysis of the space.  I’m glad that all the confusion and stress paid off.  Sorry, no picture today.

August 9 2009

I just finished my analytique of the Pinocoteca.  Step 1:  I took a site plan of the neighborhood, with streets and roofs of buildings. Then I drew in the floor plan of the Pinocoteca, instead of leaving it as a roof plan.  Step 2:  I mirrored the turning façade and drew it with its base meeting the wall in plan, as if it were a box and the sides collapsed to lay flat.  Step 3:  I drew a section cutting through the courtyard and stairs of the building to explain circulation through the building, as well as well as describing the spatial quality of the interior.  This drawing became an overlay onto the plan, starting where the section was cut at.  Step 4:  I drew a detail of a window on the façade of the building.  The Gothic arch with three relieving Gothic arches, forming three windows was innovative at the time and became a widespread design detail throughout Siena.  The Palazzo Pubblico (the main building at the base of the Campo) incorporates a similar design.  The Pinocoteca was designed so thoroughly since it was formerly a Palazzo, therefore it had extensive funding from the rich family that owned it.  Step 5:  I began to water color my composition starting with the site plan, using a wide array of reds, depicting the color of the roofs.  After that dried, I began to render the elevations of the front façade using shades of brown and red.  Next, I rendered the section using shades of brown and yellow to make it pop.  The last step was to render the window detail, which used a wide array of colors, introducing blue for the windows.  It was my first time using water colors to show transparency and overlays, but I think it turned out rather nicely.

 (Shown with the later addition of a rendered perspective sketch of people occupying the ledge of the front façade)

August 8 2009

This weekend, most of us are laying low since we have an analytique due on Monday. The theme is a church and their piazza.  Only problem is, I wasn’t assigned a church by name, only location.  What was written next to my name for the assignment was Pinocoteca/ San Pietro.  So naturally when I got the assignment, I went to the Pinocoteca which is on Via di San Pietro to find out which church was near it.  I saw a church by the name of San Pietro alle Scale

 and started to document it by sketching and taking pictures

as well as figure out what the interior looks like since it wasn’t open at the time.  Around Wednesday, I went to the library to see if I could find any information on the church since it hasn’t been opened for me to explore the interior every time I’ve visited.  I won’t go into detail, but it was a huge hassle to even get in.  For some reason, the people at the desk were giving me and Ron a hard time and wouldn’t let us into the library.  Why?  I will never know, since it’s called the Biblioteca Comunale, meaning municipal library, making it public.  Eventually, we just snuck in when there weren’t people at the desk and saw Wilson and Caitlin in a room with stacks.  We started talking about our assignment and it turns out that Caitlin was assigned the same church as me, only it said San Pietro alle Scale right next to her name.  I had to make a decision, whether to reinterpret what was written next to my name and search for another church, or just do the same one as her even though no one else was assigned the same church.  Thursday, I looked around for other churches in the area and found nothing.  I had to make a decision, since the assignment will easily take two days to construct, between drawing the assignment, as well as water coloring the layers of the drawing.  I took Pinocoteca/ San Pietro literally and documented the Pinocoteca on Via di San Pietro,

 right next to the church, even though it isn’t a church.  On Friday, I visited the building to document it thoroughly by taking photos of the façade and how people interacted with it, since there was no true piazza for the building.  The one guy working there was extremely helpful once I told him I was an architecture student by supplying me with a map of the building as well as letting me tour the place for free.  There was an admission fee since it is a museum for paintings, mainly Senese (from Siena).  The building is three stories with an open courtyard in the center, only enclosed by a roof.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed anywhere in the building, so I just sketched what I could.  One lady worker saw me leaning against a wall sketching, so she brought me over a chair, which was extremely nice of her.  She was very intrigued by what I was doing, so every now and then she would come by to peak over my shoulder.  This is what I came up with.

 She later showed me some amazing views of Siena, by opening a few windows in the gallery.  She told me I could take pictures as long as I made it quick, so I took up the opportunity and did.

 Now I’m off to start this beast.  Wish me luck.