Classes

Well today was a pretty good day. I am pratically over my cold (thank goodness!) and I made it to all my classes. I got up and ate some lunch at the Menza and decided to go ahead and head over to my first class of the day, photography. I ended up being a little early, but noticed some people went in, so I followed in suit. It turned out the class before wasn't quite done and the teacher advertised his class to us and convinced a couple of us to take it. The class is an Ornament Class, so basically I show up each week and make some sketches of different ornament designs like gates, stained glass, tile floors, etc. and the final project is just developing your own design. It sounds like a fun class and that makes 21 hours if I decide to go with all the other classes I am interested in. So after waiting a while, I found out that the Photography class was actually in the room next door, so we wandered over and went in. It turned out that the class really doesn't start till next week, but I talked with the teacher and found out that we can basically do anything we wish to do. And later in the semester he'd show us how to make little booklets of our photos. He even mentioned maybe a class project of taking pictures inside and outside of the Architecture building and making some sort of exhibit of them all, which sounds like fun too. So after I was done asking the questions I wanted answered I headed back to my dorm room, since I didn't have class for another 4.5 hours.

When I got back, I just found out my roommate just got up, she ended up going out until 4 last night and was pretty tired, poor Varie. So I decided to check up on some e-mail and write some hellos on facebook to some friends back home. When it was time for studio, I packed up and headed out. I was a little early and decided to head in and start to write some notes/questions for when the teacher showed up. Eventually he showed up and so did the other students (all five of them). I have to be in the smallest studio ever, but I kinda like it. I will be able to talk to the teacher often and get more feedback when I need it. It turns out that two other K-State girls decided to take the class, MacKenzie and Allison. So we waited for the teacher to talk to the other three Czech students first about their projects, then he got to us and we discused our project (yeah we decided on the same one).

The Project
The project I decided on is in Old Town, next to the Astrological Clock Tower of Old Town Hall. Plicka, out teacher, the program was not important at the moment, but we would do a gallery, or some sort of cultural center. The site sits presently over a now small green area, kinda like a park. 120 years ago it had a building there and was damaged, and later during WWII Nazis destoryed it completely. So this site is very historical, and the architecture is old and beautiful in the entire square. So I have to work with historical type buildings surrounding the site, tower of old town, and a couple of churches along with the stores and old facades. I will probably go buy some architecture supplies at a couple of stores our teacher recommended and then probably do some site work on Wednesday morning. He wasnted us to look at the site and do a little analysis, and form any quesitons we may have or some ideas of what to do. I have never had this much freedom when it has come to design, so it's going to be nice for a change. He wants us to consider Urban design, and the buildings place Architecturally instead of the program at hand. The program will fall into place as we go along this semester. Well I'll put on a couple of pictures of the site and a map, so you all can see what I have to work with. Ahoj!

Old Town Hall (My site is -> of The Tower)

St Nichols Church next to my Site (my site is the area with the trees on the left)

Site Outlined in Red