Nothing but Workshop

I have to be honest, in the lasts months I became a full-time architecture student, and my life goes around college and the infinite things I have to do for my other subjects. So my past weekend was about working in my workshop project, because the class is working in teams, and I reunited with mine and dedicated all the Saturday and Sunday afternoon in prepare and finish the project, because the next class to that weekend I had the final evaluation of the work. It was very stressing and me and my partners had to work very hard to reach the goals we proposed us to the evaluation, and I think is important to explain a little bit about what is the work and how we made it. So in workshop we are working in the form and material, and researching about a material and the development of this material in an specific way of working, experimenting with this and pushing it to its limits; finally we had to propose a covering and develop a program for that covering. We had a lot of design complications and material changes but finally we found a design based in a piece and the articulation of this piece in one point by a pivot, and this allowed the construction of a covering for an agricultural market.

Architectural Plant

Cross Section

Longitudinal Section

Bittersweet Memories with La Bombal

I have to recognize I am not a fan of the books, actually in my school period, reading was not an activity in my list of “things I enjoy” so always when my language teacher gave to the class the monthly reading I used to drop in a little depression! But before people start thinking I am a bad student, I must say that I am not the kind of student that does not understand anything while reading, actually I classified my condition a few years ago as a “lazy reader” which is a person who understand in a good way what he reads but who takes a while to end a book. Anyway, if I have to talk about a favorite book, I think many titles comes to my mind, but today I would like to talk about Chilean literature, specifically about María Luisa Bombal, and her book “La Amortajada”. This book is not hard to read, actually is a teenage/adult reading very easy to digest, with a simple structure but with many details in the reading, something characteristic of this author, and is about Ana María, a death woman who makes a self-examination about the people who come to visit her in her coffin. She is a very romantic woman who lived in the disappointment and in the unwanted love, always with a big sadness in her heart and trying to understand why the love she wants is not the love that wants her, and all the memories she has in her coffin are surrounded by her own sadness. What really catches my attention of this book is the very close relation that the novel has with the life of the author and actually many of the facts in the reading are inspired in the real facts of the author life, so we can say the self-examination that the main character does in the book is actually a self-examination of María Luisa Bombal. She lived her best years in the 1940 decade, a very male chauvinist age in Chile, and she was involved in many tragic situations like trying to kill her own first husband, or being married with a homosexual painter who never loved her and who inclusive has parallel relationships with men while they lived together. I think I can relate this book with the world current situation, and the gender inequality that many people is fighting for make it disappear, and I also think is very sad to think that a novel that tell the life of a woman who lived in Chile like 70 years ago and who passed through several bad situations because the male chauvinism, is something that still happen in our days, and that is something worriant.

fragment

"María Luisa in the stancy" watercolor of Jorge Larco

(her gay husband) 1930

An interest that grow with the time

Since I was a child I always admired people who had the natural talent, and I mean really talent, for dancing. I think not everybody has the needed skills to make the moves that professional dancers does, but if there is something that life has teaches me is about working hard to reach your goals, so in the last months I have been really interested in taking classes of Ballet. I know in my country practicing this beautiful discipline is something that people joke around when it is practiced by men, but since a long time ago the opinion of people about whatever I like or I try to do is something not relevant for me. Ok, returning to Ballet, I think the most I like about it is to put all your weight in only one finger of your foot, I mean, can you imagine how difficult might be to develop the precision and the correct technique to finally can do that beautiful pose. When I started the college I made really good friends, and one of them lives in one of the San Borja Towers, in front of the Alameda Ave. and with the view of the Cultural Center Gabriela Mistral, and the last year when I where in the balcony I noticed people practicing Ballet in one of the practice rooms that the center puts disposition to the public. I automatically thought how great would be to practice Ballet with that spectacular view of the main avenue of the city, and I researched a little bit about this classes and I finally found that they are all students of the Municipal Theatre and they practice two days per week in that place, and the rest of the week they do their normal classes in the theatre. But I wanted more, so I continued researching and finally I found the website of one school of Ballet here in Santiago, and they offer a part-time class for people who wants to learn in a non-professional way the art of Ballet. Anyway, I feel really attracted to this and I am planning to maybe take some classes the next year, I think this is something that is already in my “2017 to do list”.

A classic of the Ballet, "Swan Lake" of Tchaikovsky.

This picture is from the presentation of the National Ballet 

of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago

Friends, Party and Sun at Los Vilos

To be honest when I talk about my holidays, it is not something so current in my life. Well there is another curious thing about my holidays, since I am in college, except in my first year that was the only one when there were not stoppage on the classes, I have not free summer! Whatever, fortunately my last holidays were on 2015 summer, and my Boyfriend and I went to Los Vilos, in the 4th region of Coquimbo. We were invited by a good common friend we have, because Los Vilos is her hometown and she offered us to pass a week in her house. It was very fun, we met her friends of her childhood, and went to a few parties in the seaside together, and also enjoyed to swimming in the beach, because Los Vilos is a seaside town. In the middle of our stay  our friend invited us to known a Natural Reserve called Humedal Laguna Conchalí, and it awesome, because the landscape was amazing, very natural and quiet, with a beautiful lagoon full of native animals of that zone, and later the same day we did a picnic in a beach near from the natural reserve with a friend who also studies architecture with us in Fau that was with his family near from Los Vilos and met with us that day. That holidays are only good memories for me because it was my first experience of traveling with my boyfriend and doing it with our friends makes it even better... Oh and I totally recommend you to visit Los Vilos, because there are so much activities to do in the town during the summer, and the landscapes are another reason to go. Los Vilos is a town full of love for me.

The Town Seaside, and Isla de Huevos 

in the background

The view of the lagoon at the 

Natural Reserve Laguna Conchalí

Train Tracks at the other side of town

My boy and my friends

The sunset on the hills, in our last day there

Tumblr is my alter-life

This first post of the second part of my blog is about a website that I like, and if I have to be honest I thought first in Youtube, but the teacher already did a post about how much he enjoys that website so, to do not do the same thing, I chose Tumblr. I think this is my favorite website after Youtube, well I can spend a lot of time in Youtube, but then comes Tumblr, because there you can find everything you want, and when I say everything is EVERYTHING... Lol, ok as I was saying, I enjoy the social networks, I like Instagram a lot, and Facebook too, but Tumblr is the best because in that website there are no boudaries or censure, and I think there you can let your mind be free and unleash the imagination to post whatever you like, every topic is available and the possibilities are infinite. The website is a good tool to make known your works, in photography for example, or maybe in graphic design or simply just taking a picture of whatever you do and posting it there, and instantly it goes around the world to be seen by anyone. For people who enjoy interior design, pets videos, funny videos, erotic photography or anything else, Tumblr is the best website to find what you are looking for.

Here I let you the link of a Tumblr that I like a lot, because I am now very interested in interior design.

http://thecozyspace.tumblr.com/

It's a Second Time Here!

Hi everyone, this post is very special because this is the mark of the beginning of the second semester, and it means a new adventure in my career and my life. Is good to start new processes in life and I am very glad to do it, recording a weekly post in this blog. Hope this time everything goes even better than the last one. So let's get started!

Utaku Zone Fanzine

Ok if I have to talk about fanzines, this is something kind of new for me. My first meet with a fanzine was at university, when the Workshop teacher assistant asked the class to make a fanzine with some magazine clippings, and it was very funny and an easy way to understand what a fanzine is. So now, as a teacher request I have to talk about a fanzine made by students of the Anime & Manga Translation & Betrayals CFG, it is called Utaku Zone and is related to Japanese pop culture and manga and anime topics. I liked a lot actually, I never had read a manga book, I know what it is because some friends use to read them, but I never tried to choose one and read it, actually once I were in a manga store, located in the Lyon Gallery in Providencia but I did not feel attracted to one in special. Anyway, the fanzine is very good, I like a lot the fun facts about Japanese culture in Chile, and the places where you can find some information or food related to the Oriental traditions. I hope the production group can keep doing this project and publish more editions of the fanzine, because I feel really attracted to the Japanese Pop culture and having this materials available to read any time is good to keep knowing more about this interesting culture.

The cover of the fanzine

The fanzine includes some tips about several ways to 

learn more of the Japanese culture in our country

This post interested me a lot, I think I will

visit this coffee bar.

Classmate’s Blog Review

The post of today will be a little bit different than the other ones, because the teacher requested to the class a review of the blog of one classmate, and by the list in the teacher´s blog I have to review the blog of Francisca Rojas. By the first sight her blog is very feminine, the colors she chose makes the blog’s appearance looks very light and calm, and she is very methodic with her posts. The blog has 10 publications in total, and every post, excepting the first one, have a picture associated, and two of the posts has three each one, so it counts with 13 images and some of them I think may be photos took by herself.But what catches my attention is that she always try to fit the images among the text, as a newspaper publication, and I like it, but I think sometimes it makes the blog looks a little messy, but I think it is because the tools that blogger gives to us to work are not the best ones for publications, and another detail is that she uses a different typesetting in each post and I think it makes the blog looks messy too. However the blog is very interesting and the posts are very dinamics and I like the way she explains her point of view of the things, that makes the blog very authentic.

The Blog!

Vegetables, Juices and Holm

My experience in Holm starts in something like this. It was a difficult morning, I where angry with my boyfriend because we had a little discussion, we both did not have classes that day and also had to go to Providencia to buy some things. So we decided to leave behind the anger and eat something in a restaurant, and I remembered that in  a book about interesting places to visit in Santiago, I read about a salad bar located in Providencia, very close to where we were in that moment, and we decided to go to lunch there. The salad bar Holm is a very interesting place, it owner is a hyperkinetic man who goes to buy to La Vega all the vegetables he uses to prepare the salads he sells at the bar. The salad offer is also very interesting, because so far away of the classic lettuce with lemon juice, you can pick one of the several exotic options in the menu board, or if you want to take the risk yourself can fix your plate with the ready-to-serve salads in the bar. The juices are also a wonderful excuse to visit Holm, because I do not want to do spoiler but my favorite until now is the apple-ginger-celery "Fresh Green Juice", and my boyfriend chose the "Powerful Energizing Juice" of beetroot-carrot-tomato. Holm is a perfect option to eat in a sunny day, or simply to drink a healthy and delicious juice, and the prices are very affordable, that is the best part!

The main entrance

The fresh vegetables are in full view of all the customers

The juices and salads at the bar

The place where the sea, wind and quiet meets

If I have to talk about beaches, this is all about a bittersweet experiences for me. First, I am from the seaside so spending some time in beaches near my house is something common for me, and I have been in other beaches along the country, and I have to be honest, I enjoy beaches but always something happen that makes my experience a little bit rare. But I do not want to talk about rare situations, so I have to say that I do not go to beaches  just for swimming or sunbathing, actually I prefer to walk  on the sand, observe the scenery and the marine wildlife, that results more interesting for me. But now I remember a visit to a beautiful beach I did with my family a few years ago -when my parents were still together- and it was a really good afternoon walk because that beach was very special, I do not know why but I think I am still in love with that place, the hidden essence it has and the quiet you find there, I am talking about the Matanzas Beach. This popular destination for surfers is located in the VI Region, at the north of the Cardenal Caro province and it belongs to the Navidad commune and is easy to arrive there by buses you can take in the nearby locations, for example from Rapel Village, La Boca Beach - which is a beautiful beach too- or also the Navidad Village and from Santiago it takes two and a half hours of trip. When I went there, in the bus I were watching the scenery and the lot of houses built around, actually this region is famous by the modern houses that people built there, even some TV personalities has its holiday homes there. But I think what most caught my attention was the quiet, the feeling of being alone, away from the hustle of the city, that unique opportunity of find yourself, and I think that is something you do not find anywhere. Matanzas is an special place, I have been in a very few places like that, and feels so sad let pass 7 years and still not go back there.

The view from the edge of the beach

The sea hits the rocks and produces a sound

that brings peace to my mind

The Rapel river mouth, nearby the beach, is

another visual spectacle

Amsterdam with Love

Since I was a child, I have been interested in visiting new places, I am not pretty sure why, actually if I have to be honest I do not enjoy too much to spend some time in a car or a bus or any conveyance. Anyway, back to the above, I have an special interest in visiting new places, of course is even more interesting if the culture of that place is different than mine, but until now I have to recognize I am not a big traveler, and I have never been in another country (it sounds so sad) but I feel lucky to have visited cities and villages in the North, Center and South of Chile. Now that I study architecture, my interest in new place is more related to the discipline too, and countries in Europe are more suitable for the development of my career, and Netherlands have been in my wish-list since a long time ago, specifically Amsterdam. This beautiful city is a romantic tourists destiny and a perfect mixture between the old architecture of the XVI and XVII century and the modern culture of Europe. Talking about architecture topics, the sustainability has been an important element in the development of the city and nowadays the people and the city authorities are very educated in the subject and disposed to continue with this development as a way to construct a society more friendly with the environment by the balance among the architecture, the life quality and the natural resources. This subject is something really interesting for me, and Amsterdam is just one of many cities that are already working with this sustainability parameters, in Europe and other continents. In a future I would love to travel to Netherlands, know its places and have a pleasure stay, but of course it would be nice to settle in Amsterdam, and work there as an architect in the sustainability area or in the town planning, and it would be great to move there with my boyfriend and work together. Anyway, the gay culture in Amsterdam is also a good excuse to move there.

Front of the Rijksmuseum and the iconic 

"I amsterdam" sign

The Amsterdam Canals at night

The Tram is part of the transport system of the city and a 

good response to more sustainable alternatives

The bikeways are also part of the transport system and the 

bicycle culture and its education starts at elemetary school

Inari's Million Red Torii

When I decided to study architecture, I never thought the huge imaginary around this beautiful career. At the beginning I started learning about my environment, from the architectural point of view, but now, when I am in my third year on this career, is necessary to question what is beyond that environment, beyond my limits -or the limits of the society that around me- so in this point my mind starts to thinking about what is out there, what is the architectural environment of another people, what is the matter or the important things in another countries to have in consideration. In the last time, I have been very interested in the Japanese culture, and of course, in the architecture of that beautiful country, and here I can say something very relevant for me and for this post, I do not have a favorite building to show in this post, because when I introduce myself in this amazing Japanese culture, I realized I really do not like what around me, because I see all that history of those beautiful temples in the Nippon Island and then I can not feel attracted by anything else.

So in this post is very glad for me to talk about a place I heard about for the first time two years ago, in my first year of college, in my class of "Architecture Theory", because my teacher traveled to Japan and came back with lots of histories, and among those she talk about the Fushimi Inari Taisha. This is one of the most popular sanctuaries in Japan and is the place dedicated to the Inari god, who used to be at first the goddess of rice, and then the patron of business. And that title of the god was the reason for each Japanese grateful of the riches given by Inari to donate to the sanctuary a Torii, which is a kind of arch, and today the Torii's quantity is amazing and it forms part of the constitution of the sanctuary. The principal building inside this huge place is the Inari's Temple, but there are many other buildings that sell food or souvenirs. Every year lots of tourists -Japanese and from the world- come to visit the beautiful buildings in the sanctuary, and of course the rest of the place, which includes the footpaths delimited by the Toriis and the alternative footpaths through a bamboo forest, and all those footpaths guides the people to the little sanctuaries present inside the complete Inari's sanctuary.

For me is fascinating this place, and all the details that compose it and is even more interesting to know the histories around this, and what it represent for the Nippon culture or why it is so important for the people of that country. I think that is something important for an architect, to know why is important the old places, the old buildings or parks or sanctuaries,  and only after correctly understand that, we can try to construct the continuation of the history.

thousand of Torii in a footpath

the figure of a fox -Kitsune- the messengers of Inari god, 

present in all the sanctuary

a big Torii, and the Inari's Temple background

the main entrance of the Inari's Temple

souvenirs are sold in many points inside the sanctuary,

these with the shape of a fox -Kitsune-

The Pop of Roy

If I have to talk about art, I think I can not decide for one or another piece of art or a painting. So for this post I am going to talk about some works of an artist I had to research a few years ago, and he is Roy Lichtenstein. I have to recognize I feel really attracted to the pop art, and when I was still studying at school (around four or five years ago) I had to do a work for the art class and I decided to research about the complete work of the American artist Roy Lichtenstein. He born in New York in 1923, and dead in 1997 in New York too. He dedicated his career to the pop art, graphic art and sculptures , and he is known for his large-scale interpretation of the comic art, and also the re-interpretation of figures of TV commercials and advertisings. So here is where I feel more interested, because I love the works he did with this techniques, the simplicity he apply on his paintings and the way he got a perfect mix between the interpretations of different figures on comics and publicity of that age. The color he used are so vibrant and attractive and I personally think it is a plus to all his works, because that is the essence of pop art, the bright colors present in every painting or sculpture. I also think the work of Roy is a good reflection of the lifestyle of the age when he created most of their pieces, is the golden age of New York City, when people started to feel more attracted to have good art in their own houses, and talk about more interesting themes, to show their high life status. I can even say the Snob People born in those years and it is very present in this art, but that is another theme and I will not talk about that in this post.

"woman in bath" - 1963

"stepping out" - 1978

"interior with mirrored wall" - 1991

"interior with red wall" - 1991

"girl with hair ribbon" - 1965

Coexist

Sometimes when I want to be alone, or quiet or simply when I want to listen to music, I listen to music.

A few years ago I discovered a British band called “The XX”, and their music is perfect for me, because is that kind of music that helps you to concentrate (something really hard for me in the last years) or just feel good by the rhythms and sounds they mix in their songs. They have two discs so far, one from 2009 called “XX” and the other one from 2012 called “Coexist”. The last is the one that I discovered the band, and the songs contained on it are my favorites, like “Angels”, the first song released from the album. But there is one song that I like more than the other ones called “Reunion” and I do not know really why I like it more than the others but when I hear it I feel good, quiet and I like the letter too. I do not remember exactly the date when I heard the song for the first time, but it was when I discovered the band, actually it was among the first songs I heard.

A while ago I read in a music news website, that the band is in a recess and the members are dabbling as soloist. Jamie Smith (one of the members) released a disc in 2015, and the music style is very close to the band. 

But from now, I still enjoy the two discs they have, and I wait in the future they release more music projects, because they are very good doing it.

Red Escape

Since a few time ago I started taking some photographs of things I like. It started when I realized how good is the feeling of take a photo and freeze in the time the moment you are capturing. So now I want to share one I took in the past November, in an exhibition of the Chilean Visual Artist Ivan Navarro, in the Corp Artes Center 660, in Las Condes. I went with my boyfriend, and the exhibition was amazing, it was about the light, and started with a big room with an installation of a kind of crystal doors but with a double surface and with light tubes between so the effect produced was stunning, and the rest of the exhibition was still better. But in this post I have to talk about the photo I took, so I choose this one because the way I took it was so spontaneous, I just saw the piece of light in the exhibition, and my boyfriend watching it, and I just captured the moment with my camera and now when I see this photography I can feel all the light present in that room, all that red light, so alarming and it is like if the photo wants to warn me about something, and the stair (because for me the sculpture present in the photo is an stair) makes me feel like I can use it to scape of all that alarming red light. Is very special for me to feel this kind of things when I see some pictures I took, because I think that that is the peculiarity of the photographs, to rummage in our deepest feelings and bring a past moment to our minds, sometimes to make us feel happy, sometimes sad or angry, but it is good in any way because that is what photographs do, and I like it.

A Green Place with History

Since I arrived to Santiago, to live here, I discovered a place that makes me feel good. It is the Forestal Park, and is located in the north of the historical center of the city, and every day many tourist and families go there.

I come from a seaside town in the V region of the country, and there people do not use to go to parks and plazas because there are not many ones to go. So when I arrived to the big city, I went out to know the neighborhood and I found this place full of trees and grass and it is rounded by so beautiful buildings and if you walk to the west side you can visit the Bellas Artes Museum. Here is the relation of the park with the history, because the park was originally built as the gardens of the museum in the XX century, but now it is an important urban park that is part of the few green areas of the city center. I sadly do not go there very often because I have not much time during the week, but when I am free I like to go there with my boyfriend and with my mom when she comes to visit me, and actually the last month I went there with she when she came to Santiago. I like to go there to walk and sit on the benches to smoke a cigarette or just talk, and is good to breathe the pure air that big trees produce there. I recommend you to visit the park, it is so near to the city center and the Lastarria neighborhood and is a quick good scape to the daily hustle.

The architecture of who makes me want to be an architect

I think I was not prepared to write about the architects who inspire me, because until now I never questioned me about this theme. So now I have no idea about what to write, but if I try to make some sense about what inspire me and what makes me feel more interested in my career, I am pretty sure I have some names who comes to my mind and makes me want to discover more about architecture every day. Maybe for the works they have done throughout their careers or the way they project their profession, whatever, I am able to expose three personalities of the architecture who I consider my favs.

1.       Roberto Burle Marx

This Brazilian landscape architect and plastic artist is the creator of some of my favorite projects in the world. I heard the first time of his work in my first year of college, talking about some referents with my workshop teacher. I felt in love with the landscape work of this man, and the way he project the space, taking care of every detail as a geometric form, having as a final result spaces of pure nature architecture, so colorful and always trying to show the respect he have to the environment and the nature.

2.       Alvaro Siza

The way I started to search more of this Portuguese architect is a little bit funny. I was looking for a friend in the design building in my campus, so then I saw some pictures of a house (a really white house) in a work of a design student, and I read the name of the house´s author and he was Alvaro Siza. I like the work of this man because I personally love the white color and he uses this color in a perfect way. Contrary Burle Marx colorful works, I like Alvaro´s projects because he combine the use of white color with simple forms, resulting pure spaces, that makes the human feel in a place that is projected for the human, and sometimes that is a goal so hard to reach.

  

3.       Isamu Noguchi

This man is not an architect, but since a long time ago I am really interested in his work, and in many occasions I felt inspired by his projects. He is a U.S.-Japanese designer and sculptor, son of Yone Noguchi, a Japanese poet. He is the only one in my list who is not alive, and his death was in 1988, in New York. I feel really attracted to his works because I like the way he used the geometry to construct several of his more famous sculptures, and the result are pieces full of simple lines and an interpretation of the form so unique. Isamu has a Museum now, in New York City, where people can see part of the work of this talented man. I would love to visit it one day, to know  what it feels to be in front of a piece of this incredible artist.

 

About Me

I am the son and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar, I am the son and heir of nothing in particular. So the people shut their mouths, and I do not know how they can say "I go about in the wrong way". I am a human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does. 

There is a club people should like to go, where they could meet somebody who really loves them. So people go and stand on their own, and they ley leave on their own, so they go home, and they cry and just want to die.