{Seoul} City Adventures

I have never been to Seoul before this trip, so it seemed natural for me to stay a few more days after the installation was completed; this way I can explore the city a little bit. The way the city has preserved the heritage buildings fascinated me, because unlike Beijing, the palace is quite humble in Seoul. Its walls are lower, and the paint less shiny. When walking in Insa-dong, one can also see traditional houses juxtaposed immediately next to modern galleries. It makes a very interesting walk. My mind was traveling through time as my eyes wandered on the street. The rest of Seoul seemed quite homogeneous--condos and office buildings make up most of its urban fabric. The major streets are four to six lane wide, making it very difficult for the pedestrians to cross. Though when I turned the corner and find myself in a neighborhood lined with little stores and cozy cafes, the scale of the city suddenly changed. I felt comfortable and the city around me seemed tangible and relevant to my tiny body.

animated space

This is my first attempt in making a video...for a studio assignment to explore the idea of creating a participatory play space at the heart of Toronto's financial district. The beginning is kind of boring but I promise it gets better at abour 2:40!

Summer

There are so many things happening in the city everyday in the summer, and I've been too busy enjoying all of it. The last ttwo photos are of the R.H. Harris water treatment plant, a beautiful art deco building by the lake. It's amazing how much people valued infrastructure back in the days, isn't it? Who would care to design a plant nowadays?

On a bright note, I'm heading to LA and Vancouver in a week! I will be spending a lot of time with family and friends. Although I've lived in both cities, I'd love to hear your suggestions on where I can go. Do you know of any gems in these cities?

"high tide"

We put up this installation, inspired by West 8, at the school courtyard about 3 weeks ago for our landscape class. We flooded the pit in the courtyard creating a man-made pool and over your head there's a series of "clouds" hung. Guess what the "clouds are made of ?

The installation was a big hit! It quickly turned into a pool party!

See how the day went by here, and a sweet video made by Fernie.

a landscape tour

Our landscape class went on a field trip last week, to Toronto, to look at some new landscape architecture projects in the city. We got sent to the city by a yellow school bus, which I have not been on for years!

The weather was blazing hut that day, and we were walking along the waterfront without any shades, I can't tell you how much I loved the A/C after we got back that day.

If you live in Toronto, you should have already known about the various projects down at the waterfront. The wave decks are my favourite. We also went to see Canada's sugar beach, and the green roof of city hall, both are newly finished projects. I'd say the green roof is a must see, if you haven't already. There's a lot of pretty plants worth seeing up there.

reflections

Seeing Toronto in the reflections of a few contemporary buildings in Toronto. The first is AGO, and the second is the controversial ROM.


I just moved back to Cambridge, Ontario that is, for a new school term. I've already unpacked most things and had my first class today. Seems to be a good start.

studio is over!

It's the deadline day. Most people pulled an all-nighter. I had 4 hours of sleep the night before. I was working on a model to wrap up the project.

I'm happy it's all over now. Everybody is. Time to catch some sleep.

p.s. I'm going on a trip in a few days, and after that..I'm going back home!

a church

I hope I'm not boring you with all these pictures taken on my architecture tours.

This church is really unique, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's a baroque church done by Borromini in the 1500s. It's got a elliptical plan and down in the cripta, there's these interesting openings and niches that reveal to you the underground space.

***
I won't be posting too often next week. I might not get to post any. It all depends on my progress on the studio project.

I hope you're a little more relaxed than I am : )

St. Peters

We were at St. Peters Catheral today, to visit the place, and also to catch up a few sketches.

Again, I was attract to the light.

this and that

Rome is great, but I hope I don't need to attend school while I'm here. I hate sitting in a classroom for too long.

We've been visiting a lot of museums. The two images you see above are taken in Palazzo Massimo. I like the interior space a lot, especially the grand stairs.

I have a lot of work to do this weekend. It's a different world when I'm at school. Weekends are really work days!

Hope you'll have a better weekend!

Rem would be very proud

I couldn't resist to post this! Someone in LA opened up an architecture inspired ice-cream shop and named it after Rem. Oh what??!! ..Yeah that was my question too.

Coolhaus is said to be some sort of new sandwich ice-cream: instead of using cookies, they use bread for the sandwiching part it looks like. I'm sure it taste good, cuz duh! all ice-cream related deserts taste good! But it's the fact that they have a architecture twist to their branding that has gained them popularity.

I love how they named the flavours. "Umm, I'd like to try the Frank Behry please!"

haha.



(via Oh Joy!)