Catch up time!

Alright folks, its story time!

So, leaving off from our one short, relaxing week in Scudellate, we journeyed into Ticino that weekend, seeing our site for the first time and finally getting a full introduction to our project. We journeyed into Locarno, a near by (relatively close, only four train/bus transfers...haha) city that boasts an active cultural scene fueled by the city's music festival and cinema festival that take place each summer. Before leaving, we were given two things - one was the floor plans for our site, which turn out to be quite minimal and very confusing, and the other was the general vision that this was to become some sort of cultural/art center. Arriving in Locarno, it was hard to know what to expect, so when we approached the site and saw the castello (castle), we got really excited and started snapping photos, following the crumbling wall under an nearby underpass and into a grand circular plaza. It turned out as we finally gathered from our photo splurge that what we'd just photographed, the main castello, the old wall, the underpass, and the big circular piazza, we not part of our site at all. Go figure.

Our site was, as a matter of fact, much more complex regardless of its smaller scale. The owners, two affluent intellectuals, brothers from Locarno, owned three buildings on the block next to the castle. To give you some perspective, the piece of the castle they owned is a small triangular, underground chunk that used to be an old battlement against invaders and used to be completely above ground before the city grew around it. So standing on the top of it to begin with was very misleading. From the top, you can see the courtyard below where the gabled building that they own (which at first seems to be one story) goes four stories down to meet the cobblestones of the courtyard. They also owned another building, fairly plain from the courtyard side, that actually has a decorative, curved, and historical street facade. The actual castle chunk, named Il Rivellino, was supposedly designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and was commissioned by the Duke of Milano back in the early 16th century. Access into the large stone walls that rise to a sharp point on the corner is from the courtyard below. Inside is a series of cave-like chambers, which appears a little bizarre when so surrounded by an eclectic mix of bland-looking buildings around, almost a secret urban grotto. Going inside was like stepping into another time and place, dark, gloomy, damp, and thrilling. After our brief site visit through the courtyard, the Rivellino, and the gabled building, called The Vernacular, we met with our clients again, but this time over risotto, to discuss what they envisioned. The brothers were very excited to have us working on this project, a dream they've had for some time now. Currently they'd been using the largest room in the Rivellino and three of the stories in the Vernacular as Gallery space for both local and famous artists (one of whom, Peter Greenway, a famous cinematographer, we would latter meet). So they wanted to expand the project they'd begun to include some sort of student studio and housing complex, preferably with the use of the existing built infrastructure. It turns out this program was actually geared towards supporting a group of architecture students, like use, to use the site as a home base to study abroad. The tables had turned, making use the end users - a very unique possibility indeed. Along with viewing the site, we got a brief overview of what issues Locarno faced, including social class divide and a cultural monopoly so to speak by the cinema festival.

After our visit, the brothers turned over the Vernacular building to use as a place to crash so that we could stay in Locarno for the night and get a taste of the culture firsthand. And, of course, as proper American college student, Locarno Culture meant finding cheap wine, and lots of it. Which we did. Quite successfully actually. Its amazing to think that for about 4 franci (about 3.75 ish dollars) we could buy a bottle of Italian wine that actually tasted good - even better than two-buck chuck (not hard to do I guess). The group of 23 of us split into a few fractions, two groups on a quest to find a good bar to watch the world cup match that was on, a group bent on finding a good meal, and then my group, three lone students stuck back at the Vernacular watch the bags. Good times. Soon though, we were relieved to go get dinner, which included of such exquisite fare as a cheap block of cheese, a loaf of bread, and bargain bologna. Yum (don't worry, i was getting quite used to it after our Italy trip). But at any rate, one of the groups soon returned to the vernacular and we joined forces and bottles of wine to find a good place on the lake (Locarno is along the bank of Lago Maggorie) to go skinny dipping. Wine in hand and gathered together, we set forth, leaving our valubles in the hands of a few more timid classmates. After an adventurous walk (aka semi-drunken stubble), we found a good spot and all hopped into the cool water sans clothes. It was great fun! Of course, returning to the vernacular wet as the buzz of the wine and cold water wore off wasn't as much fun and I soon was very much ready for bed. Getting back to the building, I managed to pull together my bag and a random drop cloth for a bed over the hard tile and fell asleep right away.

The next morning, I woke around four, to find myself sore from the tile, surrounded by people sleeping away - on mattresses none the less (where they found them was in the next room I found out later) - and urgently craving a way to get comfortable. After several positions and re-layering of the drop cloth, the most comfortable position I managed to find was sitting up against the wall. But by that point I was too sore and too awake to fall asleep again, so pulling myself up, I wandered about the town, managed to scrounge some breakfast up from a near by convenience store, and return to the Vernacular a little loosened up. We were asked to help set up for the Peter Greenway exhibit that was going on the following week, so the morning meant painting, lifting, moving, ect. After which we got another healthy dose of risotto and were sent off back to Scudellate.

Okay...Its Been Awhile

Alright, so I know I've been MIA, but lets just quick recap what's happened since my last post - I went on a ten-day field trip of Switzerland with my class, details to come, I returned to Scudellate for three weeks of intensive work on our design project, which was an addition/reuse of an old stone battlement of a castle and the buildings around, again, more details to come, then after presented to our clients + famous architects of the Ticino region, we traveled for a week in northern Italy, seeing the Palio in Siena, Florence, and Cinque Terre. Now I'm in Lyon with my french cousin Neyla and just finished seeing some amazing work from the architect Le Corbusier. Tomorrow I'll be heading back down to Italy, first to Turin for a few hours, then back to Ticino, Lugano to be exact, to stay the night in the same hostel as a few of my friends from the Swiss program. Then Wed. I head out from Milano in the evening to Berlin to meet up with my Godmother, Hannah and her family. On Monday the 30th, I fly in the morning down to Rome where I'll attempt to find both my apartment to throw my stuff in and also my class, because supposedly we start the same day. Okay, whew.

Sorry for the speed, but I felt I needed to give you something for your patience! Anywho...I promise to give details soon, including more pictures and a synopsis of my project. For now, I need some sleep before my trip on the TGV tomorrow - woot high speed!

Ciao - er, Au Revoir!

Relaxing in the Scood

Returning to Scudellate for three days was like returning back to bed after a long day - much needed and well appreciated. Though it was a great five day trip through northern Italy, I was beat and ready to be home. Back in Scood, I was able to return to some familiar pastimes, like going for runs and hikes, relaxing in the main room, enjoying some food lazily out on the front porch, practicing some watercolors, and filling in my sketchbook. We began to really start classwork, with a watercolor workshop and design critiques for our Rivellino redesign.
Let me take this opportunity to explain a little about where we live, because its quite unique. Scudellate is a very small town with an average population of 13. Its a border town, with the path behind the church leading through the mountains to Italy, which is only a 20 minute jog away. The town in perched high up the Vale di Muggio (a large valley facing south towards Milano). We're the second to last town up the road, with tight switchbacks and steep trails between it and the next town down, Muggio. Our ostello, Ostello Scudellate, is right in the middle of the small cluster of buildings, facing down the valley with a perfect view of the series of church spires, denoting towns dotting the hillsides. To get to the nearest city, Chiasso, we have to take a small bus that fits 14 down to Muggio to catch a bigger bus down to Chiasso. Now, this doesn't sound too bad, but the catch is that the small bus only runs 5 times a day on weekdays and three times on weekends, making any traveling very difficult. None the less, we still manage to make the trek down the valley for fieldtrips or to visit the local Coop in Chiasso for cheap snacks or booze (the nearest big grocery store, the only one besides the tiny Dispensa in Muggio). Being near the top of our valley, we're a hour hike or so from the peak of Mt. Generoso, from which you can see both Lago (lake in Italian) Lugano and Lago Como. The green hills stretch down from the rocky peak in all directions before ending abruptly at the water's edge. Needless to say, we're in quite a magical little spot.

Brion Family Tombs and Vicenza

Hopping on a water bus without a ticket, the day of travel started a little sketchy, aka worried I was going to get thrown off the boat. But it turned out luck was in my favor and the group and I arrived at the Venezia train station with all 23 students still dry. The goal of the day was to venture out to the distant little town of San Vito in Northern Italy to visit one of Scarpa's greatest works, which also happened to be his resting grounds. Any architecture student who's spent more than a quarter in any modern design studio know the grace, elegance, and seeming perfection of Scarpa's Brion Tombs. So though the day was full of train transfers, catchings buses, and traveling from small towns to smaller towns, it was well worth it when we finally passed a corn field and stumbled upon the carefully detailed gate to the tombs. What a treat it was to walk around and enjoy the craftsmanship, the careful layout, and the peaceful stillness that was so calming after a day of travel and the busyness of Venice the day before. After thoroughly photographing every square inch of the complex before my camera finally died, I just sat and took my time steching interesting details and pieces of the building that were the most interesting. If you haven't checked out my pictures yet, I would definitely advise checking out the Brion album. Its pretty stunning even though my pictures didn't do it justice.
After the amazing hour or so soaking up the Scarpa-ness, we regrouped at the bus to decide what our next move would be. I thought it would be a great idea to, instead of go back to Venice and stay up all night, to go to Vicenza and find a cheap room to stay. 14 or so of my classmates agreed with the idea and we headed off. Getting there was an easy train ride, and finding a hotel was just as successful. We broke off into a couple groups to search for hostels, groceries, and maps and all went with out a hitch. We got our hotel rooms, dropped off our stuff, and went to the local Coop (one of two chain grocery stores in Italy and Switzerland, but its the one that sells alcohol too). Each of us emerged from the store with a bag full of picnic supplies in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Wandering down to the park, we found a spot and proceeded to destroy the fine spread of breads, cheeses, meats, olives and other such goodies laid out in front of us. Needless to say, I did my fine bit of damage to the feast and sat back quite content.
We went for a round-about walk after dinner and returned to the hotel to take showers and gather together to play another round of drinking games, without the speed or amount of wine as in Venice though. The night ended with a good round of truth or dare, which of course meant one of my male classmates wearing a beautiful dress and scarf and being paraded down the street. Luckly, I wasn't as drunk as the night before and after a block or two of laughing, took my cue to head back and crash.
The next morning we had some time to kill before catching the bus back home, so we wandered around, exploring some of the Palladio that dotted the town. If you know much about art or architectural history, you'll know about Palladio. His writings and buildings revolutionized architecture and the evidence was quite clear in Vicenza. However, by the time we covered most of the Palladio, we were starving. My friend and I decided that the fried fish stand in the middle of the near by piazza smelled too good to pass up and for 5 euro purchased a kilo and a half of the best fried fish I've had in years (well, I was really hungry, which might have altered by taste buds a bit). Washing our hands and grabbing our bags, we rushed off to the train station to make it back to Muggio in time to catch the last bus up to Scudellate.