sam bouck

Tuscany

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0100

The first weekend of March we took a trip through Tuscany. The MAP describes a lot of where we went, so here are some pictures.

Also, if you are ever in Florence, you must eat at Gusta pizza.

Our next site model technique.

Sam, his shades, and Florence

Alex. Light.

Biblioteca Laurenziana Staircase by Michelangelo

Palazzo Pitti

Adam, Jacob, Drew, and James enjoying the view from Monteriggioni.

Il Compo #PeterBouck

The Duomo of Siena.

Inside the Duomo of Siena.

The view from behind the Duomo in Pienza.

Carnivale in Venice!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0100

17.2.2012 Friday

Before we get to Venice on Saturday, we had all of friday to settle some unfinished business. You see, Michael and Jordan, in true How I met your mother fashion, created a slap bet for which I was the responsible commissioner. The bet went like this. Two weeks before this Friday Michael bet Jordan that he could find a good quality 5 size soccer ball for 20 Euro or less. The bet was made at the end of the first week of February and Michael had until the third Sunday to find the ball and purchase it. If he found a ball and purchased it by that Sunday he would get to slap Jordan as hard as he wanted anywhere he wanted. If Michael could not find and purchase a ball for 20 Euro or less by that Sunday, Jordan would be allowed to slap Michael. No matter what, the slap had an expiration date of the end of February. The slap could happen any time unexpected or not, before that time.

This brings us back to Friday, the day we were to leave for Venice. Before we left that night Kyter, Michael, Jordan, and I took some buses up to north east Rome to a shopping mall - Porta di Roma. Here we found America. Or at least a mall that fit all of the American stereotypes: tweens, food courts, everything. Here we stopped at H&M where I picked up some a good Europe-trash jacket and coat for 10 Euro each. #steal

At this mall I also had my first ever Ikea experience. Wow. We picked up a few things inside and had lunch. What a windowless wonderland. All of this was well and good, but the reason we took the hour+ bus ride was to find that soccer ball. And at the Dick’s sporting good equivalent we found just that. A whole aisle of soccer balls and equipment. Not far from the equestrian and scuba diving aisles. #ThisPlaceWasAmericaBig

Michael purchased a great ball for 15 Euro (there were some for as low as 8 Euro), winning the slab bet and giving him the right to slap Jordan once from then until the end of February. To be continued in a later post…

The last event before Venice took place on our way back from the mall. Just as we were getting close to our stop on the bus, two ATAC bus dudes came along and asked to see out tickets. We had all purchased student month passes for February. But apparently these guys had a problem. They asked for ID and all. After missing our stop, they finally told us to get off the bus with them. Apparently we are not allowed to use student passes because we are not at a public university in Italy (not what we’d been told before). Because we were riding the bus without a valid ticket, the fine was 50 Euro each on the spot (which we didn’t have) or 100 Euro later at the post office. We talked to them for 45 minutes, we put them on the phone with our school and everything. Finally the guy said he would be willing to give us a group fine of 50 Euro if we had it on us. 12 Euro each is much better than 100 Euro each, so we paid up. The whole thing was very shady because they just pocketed it… no paperwork. #ATACisJank #BetterHaveTheRightTicket #AlwaysNegotiate

Once we got packed up it was time for the night train to Venice for Carnivale! The train left at 10:35pm (22:35) and after little sleep we arrived at 5:30am (5:30).

18.2.2012

Map of weekend of Venice

We arrived before the sun woke up and got to see the streets void of people (not the case for the rest of our time there). As the sun started to come out, so did people in beautiful, elaborate costumes. A ridiculous number of men with super nice cameras and lenses also arrived for the sunrise. The beginning to a really neat day over water. We walked all around the city as we waited for some places to open. The first place we went into was the punta della dogana museum, which was renovated by Tadao Ando. Saw some great Donald Judd along with other fantastic pieces of modern art by in a very interesting museum.

The majority of the rest of the day was spent wading through people in the streets of Venice. We eventually came across some work by Carlo Scarpa. He has very detailed work within his architecture. We even found the fertile detail. Throughout the day our group purchased some masks to blend in. That evening we joined in on the confetti throwing and dance partying. After a long day of being awake we took the night train back to Rome. Luckily we had tickets for the train and were eventually able to get on. If we hadn’t had tickets we would not have made it on. It was a regional train and there were a lot of carnivale goers wanting to get a ride home without pre-purchasing tickets. We waited for a long time before they even let us on the train. Once finally on, Kirsten and I were in a car with three lady Spaniards traveling Italy. I understood their Spanish about as well as I understand Italian… but that is not saying much. Eventually it was a quite ride home.

19.2.2012

The next morning we arrived at 6:30 in the morning. Success! So we took naps until 11:30 and had a lazy day.

Photographers in the morning.

In the morning all of the gondolas were docked before a day of use.

Some costumes try to look larger for intimidation.

Others just look ridiculous for the same effect.

Piazza San Marco

Steffs

The canale

Door knob

Santa Maria della Salute - Exterior

Santa Maria della Salute - Interior

This was a high key hole that was hard to look through so I tried taking a picture of what was inside. The result.

Water meet city edge.

The gang chilling on the edge.

Night party.

And then there was Carlo Scarpa, 1958

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:46:35 +0100

Here is a collection of animated gifs from our trip to the Island of Capri last weekend. A great time was had by all, though these gifs may make you sick.

Naples and the Island of Capri

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0100

Blitz post to cover past occurrences in Italy.

Map of weekend in Naples and Capri

10.2.2012

A group of us decided to take a two day one night trip to Naples and Capri. We took an early train to Naples on Friday morning. We arrived in Naples around 11 or 12. We took the subway from the train station into town. The subway had some of the most psychedelic decorations I’ve seen in Europe. I thought it was cool. We found our fantastic hostel (Hostel of the sun) to drop off our bags and continue walking around in the rain. As you can tell from the map, the hostel was right off from the harbor - pretty neat. We explored the city streets and got some great pizza from a popular pizzeria. For better or worse we did not have much of a set schedule where to go so we wandered throughout the day taking in the sites. It rained or at least drizzled the whole time.

This is inside the Duomo of Naples

This was below the alter in the Duomo. I’m not sure why was the only light in the room and so bright, but I liked it.

I have no photo for this, but we ran across a cool little place that made product from Neapolitan lemons. The old man there was really kinda and showed us around his shop and how everything worked to make some limoncello.

That night we found ourselves wandering around the docks and shore. We came across a castle or two. This is looking from the road that lead to a castle on a peninsula.

Later we met up with another group that was in Naples at the same time for dinner. We went to a restaurant that was suggested to us where we had a three or four course meal. A pretty crazy but fun atmosphere. A good time was had by all. We didn’t stay out to late for the mafia to catch us.

11.2.2012

Saturday morning we woke early with our gaze set on the Island of Capri. We took around an hour and a half ferry ride to get to Capri. After feeling a bit seasick, I was happy to see Capri. I had no idea what to expect.

This is what we found from an overlook in the city.

This is what a lot of the streets looked like. Very little if any vehicular traffic. This was obviously the off season for the Island. Many stores were closed and the majority of the people on the island lived there. I can imagine a very different scene for such a beautiful place durring tourist season.

We grabbed a bite to eat from a grocery store and sat down to let the rain quickly pass over us. From then on the weather was perfect. We took a hike around part of the island. Check the map. Here, at the beginning of our little hike, Laurence and Ashlynne take in the view.

Yep.

We found this natural arch, which seems to be a big attraction…

Some got closer than others.

The Island of Capri is famous for its blue grotto. A combination of the overcast weather and our lack of time meant that we could not go check this out ourselves. Perhaps another day. However, there were plenty of cool geological formations around the island. Here was a cave we came across on our hike down part of the island.

Blue water and a view of mainland Italy in the distance.

This is Casa Malaparte. A neat house built on a precarious peninsula. We learned about it in history class with Davide. The roof is made to be a flat lookout over the water. I appreciate the crazy stair access from the water.

The view on the road back. Basically this island is legit and I really hope to spend more time here someday. Possibly one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to. We took the ferry back around 4:30 so that we could catch our train back to Rome from Venice. Great trip and Go Vols!

Pantheon in Snow

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:27:00 +0100

3.2.2012 Friday morning it snowed in Rome. Kyter explains the reaction well:

We were fortunate to experience the heaviest snowfall in Rome in the past 26 years. Due to Rome’s Mediterranean climate, the last time it snowed at all was over a decade ago . The situation was very rare and everybody knew it. As an unspoken obligation, being both architects and humans, the instant the rainy Friday morning turned into snow we ran around our various apartments throughout Trestevere throwing on our warmest clothes and grabbing cameras. Then we ran, giggling and slipping in the freshly fallen snow and ice the whole way to the Pantheon. - Kyter Steffes

Many of the students in our program had the same idea, and everyone ended up inside the Pantheon to document this rare occurrence. Here is a bit of what we saw.

Go Vols!

It has been fun to Rome around through the weather. Similar to Tennessee, if there is the slightest threat of snow, the grocery store goes empty. So we are stranded without milk and cereal for breakfast for the weekend. The UT family here went out for Chinese food to celebrate the snow on Saturday night. Good times were had by all. It got even better when we woke up Sunday morning to receive an email saying classes are canceled Monday. I love four day weekends.

Snowing at the Pantheon… more.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:18:21 +0100

Snowing at the Pantheon… more.

Snowing inside the Pantheon on Friday, February 3, 2012. See it...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:03:00 +0100

Snowing inside the Pantheon on Friday, February 3, 2012.

See it in technikyter

Visit to the Colosseum+

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:11:00 +0100

This blog seems to be turning into more of a weekly update than I’d anticipated. But with that idea in mind I decided to do an update on some of my favorite things.

New favorite website this week: The Noun Project

Album of the week: Brothers by The Black Keys

Favorite product of the week: CineStar 3 Axis Gimbal

Video that reminds me most of my little bro this week: Hello White Boy Dance or this

Best way to wake roommates this month: Skrillex or this

Map of the week

25.1.12 This past Wednesday we made a trip with our ‘architecture of the city’ and ‘historic preservation’ classes to the old Roman Fourum and Colosseum for some education and sketching. Good times were had by all.

Arch of Titus

Our Historic Preservation professor used this arch as an example of how monuments have been preserved in the past. It is clear to see that all the original parts of the arch is made of marble, while all of the added parts are made of travertine. Travertine is apparently very abundant around these parts because it is used for the curbs of most all the streets in Rome.

Atop the Palatine Hill

Colosseum

This is a view that I have seen many times before in images and real life. However, this was one of the first for me to recognize that the end of outer wall is made of brick. This is obviously not original. This is a part of the preservation done in 1826 by Giuseppe Valadier. Its purpose is to structurally support the unstable exterior wall. When constructed it was made to continue the rhythm of the facade with its open archways. This is different from the preservation done before by Raffaele Stern, which can be seen on the other end of the remaining exterior wall. Stern’s solution is a solid brick wall, which angles toward the top. This too was done for maintaining the structure.

The Colosseum, with its depth and archways, creates many interesting framed views.

Arch of Constantine

View toward the Forum

Baileys

And here is Michael. He found one of the gates within the Colosseum not locked properly. Here you can see that the gate functions when not locked. _photo credit JMB

Wednesday night, with our History of Italian design class, we went to the MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) by architect Zaha Hadid in Rome. I didn’t take any pictures, but I thought it was a very interesting building. While we were there we went to the current exhibit RE-CYCLE on recycling architecture. There were some pretty sweet things that I want to make when I get home and have access to laser a laser cutter and supplies. After we left the MAXXI, our professor took us to see the Auditorium Parco della Musica by famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. Though it was dark out, the place was very active as a space. The complex holds three main auditoria as well as shops and restaurants. Inside musicians passed by as they headed to and from practice rooms. It was a neat space to be in.

This was the scene at our apartment that night.

Sam Adkisson and Michael passed out on the couch.

26.1.12 Thursday we had our preliminary final review for our competition board project in studio, and it went well. That night we went out to the Abbey Theatre Irish Pub with some of the Auburn and Philli students for open mic night. We had a fun chill time while Kyter played a few tunes.

27.1.12 Friday, in the morning, Michael, Jordan, and I went to the Piet Mondrian exhibition at the vittoriano. Well worth it. There were a number of works by other artist of the same time. The clear progression of Mondrian’s work was awesome. I really liked the last room of the exhibit, which had some of his better known paintings. Again, I wanted to be in a place where I could begin making artwork for my own crib like that. In that last room also sat a Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld.

28.1.12 Saturday afternoon we went to find the H&M and look at a lot of the other shops. We found the H&M but sadly were defeated when it only had women’s clothing. However we also go to stop and visit Piazza del Popolo, like we’ve been meaning to for a while now. There was something weird happening in the Piazza. There were people holding hands and walking in a big circle… then they came together and clapped and cheered. There were oodles of TV camera equipment filming it. We couldn’t make heads or tails of what it was all about. We also passed the Italian Rugby team or something on our way home haha. There was a marching band playing for them and a crowd. By now we all are getting pretty good at the bus routes and public transportation. We’ve been using it a lot to get around.

29.1.12 Ashlynne, Red, Michael, and I went to Holy Mass in the Pantheon. The sights and sounds of Mass in that building were beautiful. It was a fairly small service and a bit cold, but it was good. Then we went off to do more work in studio for the evening.

30.1.12 Monday evening we made our way back to the Palazzo Barberini for class. Over the next few weeks, our teams will be making detailed measured drawings of different portions of the facades.

Ostia Antica

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:21:58 +0100

Yesterday was our first trip outside of the center of Rome. We all woke early to take the train along the Tiber river to Ostia Antica. (map for the day) Ostia Antica was the port city of Rome back in the day because it sits at the mouth of the river. I was told that Paul possibly could have passed through here on his way to Rome, but I’m not so sure about that. At the height of the Roman Empier this city was heavily populated and very important for sustaining Rome. It was also a fairly wealthy city. But after the fall of Rome, Ostia Antica was practically abandoned, and now the ruins of the buildings remain. This is what we went to see as we studied its culture and classical Roman city plan. I visited this back on my senior trip in high school, and it was one of our best day trips. It was just as interesting going back again. A must see if you have a few days in Rome.

This is the back of the Roman theater in Ostia Antica. The reason it looks to be in such great shape is that it was one of many ruins that were reconstructed (to a certain extent) durring the fascist regime of Mussolini. Mussolini wanted to relate modern day Italy to the former greatness of the Roman Empire, and therefore he took on many projects to revive history in light of his fascist movement. #powerplay

Interesting fact is that elephants were some of the most enjoyed exotic animals of Europe. They would be brought in from Africa, and this is one of the many mosaics on the floors in Ostia Antica that depicts and elephant.

I was very interested to see all the stairs in ruin.

#TheseTreesAreBoss

The city forum at the intersection of the Decumonus Maximus and the Cardus Maximus.

This brick column appears to have been covered in plaster and painted so as to look like it was made out of marble. Oh man, those tricky Romans.

The theater from atop the back platform

Camera chicken. Whoever steps out of the other person’s shot first loses.

The theater

Enjoying break time durring lunch.

#sketchingswag

Go Vols!

After everyone else left we sat down and enjoyed the theater.

After our visit at Ostia Antica, Michael, Jordan, Kyter and I took the train to the beach. We no realize that we walked the only portion of the coast that is not a developed beach. At the time we had no idea where to see the beach. The little sand that we saw was black, which was neat. We guessed it was due to volcanos in the area or something. That or the sand was really dirty.

After we got back to Rome, a group of us to a trip to see the spanish steps. I’d never been before. Turns out they are pretty grand. Then we window shopped all the closed designer stores. Go Vols!

Kyter Steffes: Architectural Photography

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:10:00 +0100

Kyter Steffes: Architectural Photography :

Getting on one knee shows honor and respect for the landscape. In doing so, not only do you lower your horizon, but you also elevate the subject’s state of being.

View Kyter’s Blogpost

kytersteffes:

If you happen to follow any of the blogs written by us here in Rome, you may have noticed we take pictures…a lot. As a few people have begun to ask about how we get such great photographs, I thought I would take the time to show what goes on behind the scenes.

How to take pictures of…

Historic Preservation Swag

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

All of our classes have begun, and I’m excited for them all. They all will be a fair amount of work but it’s Rome.

Studio is going well with one week down in our time working on group competition projects.

In history of Italian design we have been covering some of the famous Italian designers and their influence in architecture, furniture design and art. We also spent the latter part of our first class talking about Italian cars. Swag.

With Architecture of the City we’ve already gone to sketch at the Pantheon twice. What a crazy building, and difficult one to get right first try.

Of the four classes, I was most excited after our first historic preservation class. Our first day (Monday) went on a site visit to Palazzo Barberini, the building we will be studying with regards to historic preservation and how its done. This building has a rich history and is currently continuing to undergo preservation as a museum. With the class we will not be doing the preservation work, rather we will be documenting a portion of the building while learning some processes of preservation. Our professors are highly knowledgeable and experienced. One of our professors basically runs Rome. She leads a lot of the important preservation work here. #totalarchitectureboss

Here are a few photographs from the first site visit.

This is a view of the back courtyard of the Palazzo Barberini.

Again, the East side, which is where we will be doing our documentation work.

A view to the fountain at the entrance from underneath the structure.

One of many rooms for the Princess

Understanding the construction of the building. The raised floor system was discovered as they renovations progressed.

A view of some of the mechanics that are having to be retrofitted to the building to bring it up to code for a museum. Electricity, plumbing, HVAC and the like.

Because of the paintings on all of the walls the best solution is to run all necessary wiring through the floor. They do this around the perimeter of the room because that is where the floors are thickest due to vaulted ceilings. The whole process that they go about for retrofitting as well as preserving is quite interesting. A lot of work goes into it all.

This is the oval staircase designed by Francesco Borromini. There is a rectangular staircase at the other end of the building that was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, I believe.

Window to the front courtyard.

More to come as I go on more site visits.

Look what I got last night, Alex Happ. Go Vols!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +0100

Look what I got last night, Alex Happ. Go Vols!

Italian lesson #1

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:12:00 +0100

A situation I came across today:

An Italian woman is briskly walking to catch a buss with a dog leash in hand and a dog on the other end (similar to the one pictured). Well, at least that was the beginning scenario. Quickly the dog stops to sniff a tree and the leash is off!

Solution:

Quickly the shocked woman turns around and picks the dog up by its scruff and runs to the buss. Oh, I’d love to have a .gif of that whole moment. It was awesome.

UPDATE: a later clarification by Ma:

“I think you saw a Bichon Bolognese. That is the little Italian dog that I would like to have. If you want to find one for me and bring it home, that would be ok! :-}”

Rome thus far.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:45:41 +0100

This is more or less my first blog post, so we’ll play catch up speed timeline style.

3.1.12 Tu. Left at 11:40 a.m. Memphis local time on January 3rd. Atlanta.

4.1.12 We. Arrive in Rome about 7:15 a.m. local time. Meet up with Sam A. and Kirsten at baggage claim. Onward to our small hotel to leave our luggage and wait for the guys, who were set to arrive around noon. We walked Rome. Ate brunch in front of the Pantheon. Michael, Kyter, and Jordan took an unanticipated extended bus ride around Rome. They showed after 4 p.m. We went out to dinner. Sam A. missed out due to his nap, however.

5.1.12 Th. Jetlag. We moved into our apartment just down the road in Trastevere. We made dinner at our place for all the UT students that night.

Tour of our place

Our kitchen’s yellow Dan Flaven original.

Kitchen with bedroom beyond.

Living room.

From our dining room.

The shower curtain only goes halfway around the tub…

Security is tight at our place.

6.1.12 Fr. More jetlag. We went out to shop for a few things. Google Lied about the location of Ikea, but we still saw some more of Rome. We ended up in Piazza Esedra as it was getting late and went into Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

7.1.12 Sa. Trip to St. Peter’s Square and a search for an apple store.

8.1.12 Su. Walk Rome some more and visited the Pantheon again.

9.1.12 Mo. Orientation. Met in Piazza San Cosimato in Trestevere to walk to school at 8:30. Welcome by professors. Overview of Italian regions and food part 1.

10.1.12 Tu. Orientation II. Sketched the Piazza Navona. Guided tour of the Campo Marzio area. Overview of Italian regions and food part 2. First home pesto pasta dinner experiment. Success.

11.1.12 We. First day of class. In our architecture of the city class we sketched Pantheon. That evening, in history of Italian design, we covered some contemporary designers and talked about car design.

12.1.12 Th. First day of studio. A group of us misunderstood our meeting location and ended up at school - a 25 minute walk from where we needed to be. All worked out in the end. We toured our site for the first time and met our team members for the project. Our project will be about four weeks long. After which time we will enter our projects into an international competition sponsored by the french government. http://www.arturbain.fr/

We have no classes on Fridays, just work days and field trips. Let the work begin. Onward.

Here is a map from the first week.

I don’t plan on blogs being day by day or extensive. We’ll consider this one as different, it turned out pretty long. A recap of the first week. As always, Go Vols!

This is the main meeting room for the UA Rome Center. Here is a...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:39:00 +0100

This is the main meeting room for the UA Rome Center. Here is a link to the arkrome website with information and archive photographs.

kirstenjreed:

Studio.

Palazzo Taverna belonged to the Orsini Family from 1286 and in the year 1328 the site took the name of Mount Giordano, the name of Giordano Orsini, Roman Senator in 1341. The palace was referred to by Dante in his literary masterpiece “The Divine Comedy”.

In 1688, after five hundred years of uninterrupted ownership, Flavio Orsini, sold the property to the Gabrielli Family. The Gabrielli, a very old and noble Roman family, completed the unification of the complex building. The great complex of buildings was sold to the Earls Taverna of Milan in 1888 and they are the current owners.

Palazzo Taverna has two wings: a Baroque one, and one in Empire style, decorated with mural paintings from Coccetti painted around the end of 18th century. The UA Rome Center is housed in the Empire wing of the Palazzo, where the historic headquarters of the INARCH (Istituto Nazionale di Architettura) were located for about thirty years. In these rooms the most important architects of the 20th century had their meetings and discussed their ideas.

sambouck

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:27:40 +0100

toast post.

Rome Blogs

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Check out these better UT Rome blogs:

Jordan Bailey - http://jordanmichaelbailey.tumblr.com/

Kyter Steffes - http://kytersteffes.tumblr.com/

Michael Nelson - http://michaelrobertnelson.tumblr.com/

Kirsten Reed - http://kirstenjreed.tumblr.com/

Ashlynne Camuti - http://ashlynneinrome.tumblr.com/