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.