Working in Europe

Gallery: sama and rama pay us a visit!

melly027 — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 09:49:00 GMT

doing dutch stuff

Gallery: switzerland in a camera phone

melly027 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:07:00 GMT

large architecture firm amsterdam

melly027 — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 20:33:00 GMT

benthem and crowel architects.

riding to work at 7:30 has become one of my favourite times of day. I love the peace of the cool blue of the morning before the swarm of low-panting high schoolers: I love the piercingly cold air, bakery-lights and red traffic lights to run.

my attire of choice is typically architecture-wear (having fallen victim to black attire since for practical traveller’s reasons) leather boots that I bargained the op-shop down for and a cheap market jacket with an Eskimo hood that has become my best friend.

in holland the word for internship is ‘stage’, which is how I sign in every morning, I am agent 001. there are five of us at the moment, my favourite collegues being 005, from denmark and 003 from spain; bram and marian, respectively, with whom I ascertain thoughts about the projects we have, the quality of the free lunch, going out in amsterdam and dutch etiquette (we are such expats)

i have been employed for a month and have two stuck my hand into two exciting projects, amsterdam’s beloved stedelijk museum and a competition for a bridge in heilbronn, design to be decided tomorrow, a team of four with a respectful head-honcho, the lovely mr wassman, of germany (I seem to have a knack for lovely germans, with a previous fe-german supervisor and an energetic fe-german housemate, with whom I run my lap of the amstel) I appreciate the highly technical component of the design work, having had almost no experience with this, and am content to be taken along for a ride in the design process!

otherwise I enjoy a conversation every so often with a director, who might take a beer with us for a friday borrel or pour us a cup of soup! despite the hierarchy such occasions, once again, that great architects are highly compassionate and caring people, which gives me hope after having folded serviettes with highly-strung and sarcastic Dutchmen who want to put you in your place (somewhere I never went, thanks to language limitations)

i still have difficulty with dutch, particularly concerning vowel combinations, only made easier by quietly amusing english associations. I work with a ‘moon’ (moan) a job (yup!) and end the day with a catchphrase from the selection of ‘DOEI!/DU!/DACH!’

conclusion: work in big firm: have more jobs and share more food but need big boots.

…10am. must go take shower.

DOEI!

celebration of the swiss box

melly027 — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 18:28:00 GMT

there is nothing so clean as the swiss box
no corners so perpendicular
no pine boards quite so even with lacquer and no knots quite so ‘knotlike’
i love the cultural pragmatism and logic that is infused in swiss architecture
simple geometries that bring attention and respect to materials
the way sharp concrete edges frame the warmth of timber
in the zumthor baths: delicacy and solidity is embodied in slices of rock
slicing edges of accuracy make you consider your step. the pace of the world is slower, whether wading through water or enjoying the sensation of temperature contrast.
the building is approached from a traverse path up a slope. a phugly hotel pops up from a concrete driveway, forming the unexpected entry. a black vein-like tunnel terminated by a reception clot allows a space to think before entering the baths.
guests are filtered in on a long axis, through red timber dressing rooms and showers to a long ramp, the most un-h+s, non-non-slip surface I have ever seen in a place for water (my one claim to a zumthor oversight )
leading to a very well sequenced experience of bathing, at each room discovering a new group of pink-skinned guests entranced by a low humming music and the echoes of lapping water. there is a high-ceilinged cave, entered by a stone tunnel; a black set of saunas increasing in temperature to a focal stove of red coal, rooms for showers of different pressures, hoses, wells, and 4x4 rooms with eight metre high-ceilings.
the selling image and most important space is experienced last: a steaming open-air bath, misty in winter and in summer, open to a clear mountain view framed by a gigantic hole created by the building itself.
in the thousand words of the postcards I was obliged to buy, you should see the baths described: an exposed but simple detailing of chinks, slab-edges, lighted lines from the ceiling, a place of peace, but also of reflection: the world slows down, you can escape the thoughts of your usual day and enjoy the essential, sensory experiences of hot and cold, wet and dry, humidity and clear mountain air.
wow, i sound like a guidebook. …just go there!

Gallery: switzerland round 2

melly027 — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:19:00 GMT

photo marathon

Gallery: a swiss franc in a swiss bank? not a chance!

melly027 — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:46:00 GMT

family visit, zumthor, liebskind, wedding

about grossvati

melly027 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:08:00 GMT

i’ve been lucky enough to have attended only three funerals. so it was very strange to think I was the representative for my entire family at my grandfather’s ceremony.

suddenly, the stubborn grandfather I have always so respected, loved and sometimes been afraid of, slipped away. he had a nice ceremony. people came in to see him, thin and clean under lights, like in a wax museum, glossy and garnished with bouquets of fresh flowers.

he left with twelve white doves and a flourish of organ, whilst grosie held a strong, almost tearless fort, a courage unmatched by the remaining party.

death makes you think about family, and how crucial it is in such times, and the delicate balance held by all types of similar and conflicting personalities. with the death of my grandfather i begin to catch his manner in my uncle, my father, my cousins, and myself;

the somehow considerate but selfish determination, the firm acknowledgement of our own importance and own regime, for better, for worse, an established ‘buettikofer’ – we must thank the others who willingly marry into it and temper our fiery natures.

alongside my inner ‘buettikofer’ i also think, as grossmutti would say, ‘to my mother’. i have often thought of the way mum would have reacted in my place. mostly i have been successful in conjuring some sense of her unique moral justice, coupled with some kind of sensitivity and a good tomato pie. i wish i could convey the love in which grossmutti refers to her as a daughter, from the moment at which she arrived in gurbru, as grosie has said; standing in the driveway, at a distance sizing up the meaning of the situation, a dark, slight asian woman in a foreign continent, with an embrace, suddenly part of a new culture and belonging to a new family. there is something in the way that she speaks of ‘liebe julie’ that gives me so much comfort and assurance: for my mum, that she has never done the wrong thing by her svirigier mutter (the family joke about having a difficult mother has stuck) and for myself, to think that i have such a stable foundation upon which to build, and that i continue to do, whilst surrounded by relatives in this complicated time.

with more time in gurbru i see the dynamics of my own family and become increasingly involved in them. i am glad we can all see the bigger picture, that this is the time to remember grossvati, and i wish that we could always keep the bigger picture in mind. i know i come from an easy place, and without having to organize anything for the ceremony or much for myself, seem to be a focus of attention, which almost makes me uncomfortable, aside from which I can see a role to be filled and can fill it: it is of compromise, attention, gratitude and giving just a little more than is expected: it is the moderating role that my father and mother would have filled had they been in switzerland. had we been in switzerland: sometimes i wonder: would that have made it all more or less complicated?

there has been a lot to think about during this time, and the beauty of family has given me hope for another chance in my academic pursuits, a job perhaps, an option for study:

tomorrow i will send mail to a distant relative who knows Herzog de Meuron (aiaiai!) and call the ETH in Zurich.

i hope that tan is well and feels comfy about her exams. whilst realizing it has been my choice, i miss her so much and can’t help feeling like i’m missing out on some of her last character-building years. like some kind of possessive-arrogance, it pains me to think i am no longer responsible for her! with the passing of grossvati i see the necessity of companionship in abundance: it upsets me to think grossmutti should be alone, i have a greater appreciation of the bond i have with my sister, and i realise that i hate being alone, even if i need silence, i love to share it with someone.

i have begun to realise why i am here, but i will keep quiet a little longer in hope that i’ll have a clearer answer.

for now, i am calm, i eat and drink well, exercise, sleep. i am trying to come to a certain peace with my body, after neglecting to hear it over two semesters of study, trying to listen to what it needs and collect the loose ends that make my study and my future.

so back to my portfolio and soon to bed.

this has been an enlightening session, if only for my own sake!

Gallery: friesland

melly027 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:36:00 GMT

sailing holiday

Gallery: vrije universiteit

melly027 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:45:00 GMT

interesting architecture

day as a dutch chick (by an aussie chick who presumes to know)

melly027 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:47:00 GMT

you get up in the morning and put on your finest scungies (male audience: old-school name for lycra-style undies equal to colour of skirt) to counter bicycle-flashing (because you can ride a bicycle in any attire, and make the high-heeled practice of riding home from a club look like a breeze!) breakfast: consume healthy sunflower-embellished bread with margarine, or if of the not-so-healthy persuasion, hagelslag (dutch code for chocolate sprinkles on toast) departure: wrestle bicycle from heavy duty chains which you have so aptly tripled-locked to the rack last night and take ritual second-shower, because by this time it is raining and will only stop as soon as you arrive at your destination.

work….not really mine to comment on yet! (presumably one of bar job/Mexican restaurant/hostel options will have followed through enough to elaborate soon!)

dutch ladies appear to be outwardly practical, direct, if not a bit blunt, then lacking the ability to bullshit. i am trying to educate myself in the adaption of this quality, and ego-resilience that will assist my architectural professionalism (dutch medical student friends profess that a high degree of bullshit is necessary to be a respected member of society)

lunch for a respectful dutchess (i’ve always wanted to be a dutchess!) is a small affair, which may take the form of a roll picked up from your friendly Albert Heijn (supermarket shopping is quite revered, Albert quite conveniently always seems to be on the corner) which is probably pretty healthy, of seeded bread variation 2, and gouda/haring/salad/small deli extravagance. from a streetside vantage point, you are likely to have a large selection of entertainment from an array of highly intoxicated and enthusiastic tourists trying to ride bicycles/transvestites peeing in open-air urinals/road-rage and near-miss incidents, incited by the clash of such a diverse, multicultural, multilingual, multi-spiritual crowd. by the end of lunchtime, you are ready to go back to the practicality of your job with a respectful feeling of context, perspective and comparative calm.

as a dutchess you are liberal in your use of language, and are fully practiced in the use of english slander, to the extent that ‘shit’ is almost something you can use in the workplace. duco assures me that ‘shit’ is a very mild term in the netherlands which is to language as mayonnaise is to chips, spread thickly and easily consumed

(if the dutch have a fat problem, it seems to be averaged out by one’s daily cycling regime)

as a dutch woman, you might go home to cook, or your children, or to your lovely wife (same-sex marriage has been legal since 99) but I prefer my running group, which meets at amsterdamse bos (bos = forest), a training program for those committed to the ‘dam-to-dam’ (dutch are even blasphemous in their naming of cities) or for the aussie tourist who can’t get motivated enough to run 10ks in the rain without other crazy fools. a few laps of mud-splattered fitness makes you feel like a livid dutch Olympian, my soiled outfit takes on the appearance of an army uniform, and i feel ready for the ride home. shower no 3 ensues before meeting at a friends’ for dinner, where one dedicated member of the group is cooking falafels and pita bread for ten people. rose makes a regular appearance at such gatherings alongside a local variety of beer, which surprisingly doesn’t often include Heineken, one person drops the taziki, the naked wooden table is christened, the meal begins.

on a friday night the crew forms a cycling entourage at midnight headed towards the city, my favourite spot being ‘el cantinero’ a salsa bar which has a respectable old-style salsa room in front and reggaeton room out back, (packed with mildly perverse dancers led by the centrifugal force of their own rhythmical bottoms to not-so-intelligent lyrics)

3am day ends, hard life in the story of a dutchess, what can I say? will write more after my sailing holiday in freisland : )

ps. have contacted architectural office building dutch embassy in canberra, who are considering my application. if there is anyone out there with links to construction work in holland, please let me know. you might laugh but my dreams of neon shirts and hard hats are quite genuine. and i’m really quite a muscular person.

Gallery: sailing

melly027 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:17:00 GMT

three guys, a girl and a pretty place

Gallery: if you'll let me indulge in the word, 'diversification'

melly027 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:01:00 GMT

appartment housing in amersfoort

for the architects: small housing, density and diversity in holland

melly027 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:49:00 GMT

i'm pretty lucky to have some cluey artist friends who are updating me on their favourite building projects. these are mastering the art of diversity in spite of 'the module'

http://www.kattenbroek.info/en/index-en.htm

www.vathorst.com

dutchification complete with bicycle purchase

melly027 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:28:00 GMT

I always knew that bicycles were used in holland, i just didn't realise that bikes are essential, practically obligatory, in the dangerous tournament that is daily life in amsterdam.

My godmother should be pleased to know that her patronage is the reason for my newfound sense of belonging in this city, with the purchase of a ripper second hand bike i have called 'beatrix'; because i like the idea that god might save her, even if i do something stupid.

Otherwise I have a few other dutchification techniques

1. Consume drop with expression of extreme satisfaction in public

(drop = salty licorice, which eating is like inhaling an ocean)

2. Frequently. Punctuate. Sentences. all the dutch, and especially the females, i have met are extremely to the point

3. Grow taller, lankier, and more blond hair (yes the stereotype of the beautiful dutchperson is true! still trying to coordinate this one)

4. Be more liberal, find coffee beyond the coffeeshop, marry another woman for fun, change to male genetalia, oh and forget trying to design handrails...

(this list is exhaustive, i'll stop)

Gallery: duc's family

melly027 — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:48:00 GMT

'gezellig' - 'nice', 'cosy', 'comfortable'

Gallery: i amsterdam

melly027 — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 09:14:00 GMT

welcome with a gay parade