Territory and Globalization

My travels began with a concept as opposed to a place. I discovered the term deterritorialization when stumbling upon the work of Eduardo Arroyo on the Levene House, located in Madrid Spain. This building fit to its surroundings allowing it to be formed with the environment as opposed to clearing space for the building. This led me to follow the concept of deterritorialization which was developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

I found an example of the cycle of deterritorialization and reterritorialization within history. During the Spanish Colonization of the America's in the late 15th century and through the 16th century, the Spanish would come in and deterritorialize the current culture by removing important structures and figures. Then reterritorialize by establishing their own culture where the original use to exist. This transitioned into the concept of globalization leading to discussion on how it has changed since the Spanish Colonization.

I began in Dubai with the Burj Khalfia. It is an example of Dubai's personal triumph yet at the same time a testament to what we as humans have accomplished thus far. It places Dubai as a player in the global market and allows it to reach out to all other places on the globe.

In light of my discoveries, I asked myself, in today's world do we define our territory or is a set of lines and boundaries defined by law or geography, or is it that territory is without definition? Can we simply accept architecture for what it is or do we automatically come up with ideas of how it should be based on our own knowledge of the culture and environment the architecture exists in?

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I am Vietnamese and I was born in Cincinnati, OH. I never left Ohio and did not get to experience the real culture behind my heritage. My family has taught me many traditions of the Vietnamese culture but I don't get to experience that firsthand in Vietnam. Some day I desire to travel to Vietnam (specifically Saigon, which is now called Ho Chi Minh City) to learn more about the country. Since I am an architecture major, learning the history of the architecture in Vietnam would be interesting. The building styles have evolved throughout the years according to whom was in power at the time in Vietnam. The Notre Dame Cathedral (upper left) is a well known catholic church located in the middle of the city. During the time the church was built, the French government was in power. The style reflects the traditional French with the intricate details. Another part that I discovered about Ho Chi Minh City is that the city itself is following the contemporary path and going towards the more "sleek" style of the generation. District 7 is the part of Ho Chi Minh City that is following the trend. They are more economically stable and have more money to spend towards these buildings. This part of the city is getting a new look compared to other parts of the city.

Hong Kong Education

For my travels I went to Hong Kong and researched the new developments in educational buildings that are currently underway. I traveled to Hong Kong because while researching a place to travel to I stumbled across the Baptist Roads Development in Hong Kong. I have always been fascinated with education and the architecture of schools so I thought this development would be a great opportunity to gain knowledge in the field and insight into the ways people across the world conduct education standards and methods.

I discovered the intense grading and test taking standards in Hong Kong and discovered the multitude of tests that are expected of students even before they reach the upper level college area. I also discovered that Hong Kong is an up and coming financial hub that is a very polished and chic eastern country.

Questions that have remained even throughout my research are:

Could the methods of building architecture currently happening in Hong Kong work for American Schools?

Does the type of architecture of building plans encourage and promote better learning environments with better test scores?

What does the interior of the Baptist University Campus Roads Development look like and how has this building and interior really benefited and satisfied the needs of the students, faculty, and culture.

Travels to Calais, France

My travels took me to a place on the coast of France called Calais. It is the place that hundreds of asylum seekers have inhabited in hopes to take refuge in Britain. The immigrants are from the Middle East and seek a better life in Britain. The situation involves three main areas: the Middle East, Coast of France and United Kingdom. All are linked together as the route for immigrants to get to a place of refuge. The problem though is that they cannot get to their final destination: Britain. Most of the asylum seekers do not have documentation and have had to be smuggled from country to country. Calais has become the filter for the immigrants to the United Kingdom; the problem is that they simply just stay in Calais since they cannot get to the United Kingdom. The result is the asylum seekers flooding the natural regularly inhabited areas beyond just the region reserved for immigrants. A forested area in Calais where immigrants would take up shelter was known as the 'jungle.' It was destroyed in September of 2009 and has left many of the immigrants to just live on the streets of Calais. This issue influences design and architecture because it deals with these people using natural environment and minimal materials to create a shelter. It also has to do with the globally people becoming more connected. The idea that people going from place to place in hopes to settle and find a new home; there is an inherent link occurring between those countries.

The Philippines

For my travels, I journeyed to the Philippines, the country half of my family is from. I began my travels by investigating an architecture project for the renovation of a school located in Metro Manila. The Santiago Syjuco Memorial School suffered from constant flooding and termite damage. The architecture team proposed a new design for the school that drew its inspiration from a traditional Filipino form of architecture: the bahay kubo or “nipa hut.” I found that though the country’s monsoon flooding, earthquakes, mudslides, and termites can destroy the bahay kubo, it is easily rebuilt using renewable indigenous materials like bamboo and nipa palm. The hut’s raised position on stilts and its slanted roof help effectively utilize airflow through the home. But the bahay kubo is not seen as an efficient form of architecture because it isn’t westernized: the plant matter and wood used to make the hut gives it a rough appearance, and the one or two room layout of the house goes against western ideas of privacy and separate rooms. But the architecture team’s use of building structure, stilts, and indigenous materials in their plan to raise the school away from flooding, increase airflow, and be environmentally safe show the bahay kubo’s use in modern architecture.

Are there architectural elements from the past that can be used in new innovative ways today?
What is the responsibility of countries to “go green,” especially poorer countries that may not be able to afford expensive technology like solar panels?

My project travel to Seoul, Korea

I decided to travel to Seoul, the capital city of my country, Korea. I studied and introduced cheonggyecheon, which has been arguably issued amongst almost every citizen in Seoul. In Korea, to consider the relationship between a construction and surroundings, even the current of energy. For political, economic, and societal matters, cheonggyecheon is evaluated as a big problem in Korea, however, it is quite essential and useful for the people in Seoul. It is recently one of the main tourism attraction and also a symbol of Seoul.

my travels

I have traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil because of the 2016 summer Olympics are going to be held there. I found out that this is the first Olympics that are being held in South America, which is a huge step especially since all the other countries already held the games before. Another reason why it is being held in Brazil because it is beautiful with the beaches, the sugar loaf mountain and the Cristo Statue or Christ the redeemer Statue. I have also discovered that Rio de Janeiro is a notorious place for favelas and dangerous street gangs. My question is should the Olympics be held in a place where there is corruption and high levels of crimes? Another question I had is since it is going to be held there, is this going to create a better, safer and cleaner Brazil? Are the Brazilians going to use this opportunity to make a positive difference in their country?

Mongolia

I decided to explore the country of Mongolia for my travel project due to a pre-existing fascination with the Nomadic lifestyle of the people who live there. I was convinced to do my paper on this country when I found that the only architectural project underway directly pertained to the housing designs of the Nomadic people, the yurt.
I discovered that the Nomadic people are actually changing their pastoral lifestyle in order to better acclimate to a city setting. In search of jobs and a better income, these herdsmen have sold much of their livestock and moved their yurts into city limits, primarily in Ulaanbaatar, the country's capital city. While the yurts were perfectly adequate for country living, they fail to satisfy the structural and sanitary requirements of urban life.
Some of the questions I found myself asking pertained to the amount of cultural qualities being lost due to this transition, the struggles of a population's transformation from a familiar life to that of a practically foreign one, and (after we did presentations) how my project related to those of John and Alexandra.

Calcutta, India Slums

www.flickr.com/photos/dev/4144542/

I decided for my project to travel to the Calcutta slums, in India. This region is full of unknown prospects to the outside world and in fact is one of the richest areas. The people in Calcutta go through so much on a daily basis; which these struggles are just normal items to them. The slum districts barely have the needed supplies to survive off of and because of that people have to contribute to illegalized acts such as drug use and prostitution. This sparked my interests and I believe that people should not have to donate to such operations to maintain a lifestyle. I feel that these ways of survival are wrong and something needs to be done. I also found that India has upcoming millionaires and rising housing and business developments. This was intriguing due to the slum conditions next door. If this is happening why can't those people use those funds to help out the slum conditions? Close to half the population lives in the slums, so wouldn't this be an important issue? We, as Americans take so much for granted, that we don't realize when everything comes down to the wire, what is actually important. We have so much these days with new and upcoming technologies that we become insatiable for more, while others are less fortunate trying to live off a dollar or less a day. Why is it that we constantly gain attention, when other nations are ignored?


http://www.spraquephoto.com/stock/images/4000_4218SlumsIndiaWomenwashingherchildinaSlumofMadaras.jpg

Dubya Presidential Center

For my travels I went to Dallas in the most American state Texas to learn about the George W. Bush Presidential Center. I chose Texas because I enjoy Robert Stern's designs and when I found out about this commission I looked into it and loved its contemporary take on a stalwart design style. I am sure many people don't even care about this building since it is for a President who wasn't liked by many, many people but I don't care. Some of my initial questions were: why this location, style and Architect. I learned about SMU's sneaky buy-ups of many homes and businesses in the vicinity of the Campus in order to build the Center. I also learned that Laura Bush had a lot to do with the overall design of the center and its grounds, along with making it environmentally friendly.

A pretty bad ass model.

Sports and their Stadiums

For my virtual travels I went to four different sports stadiums throughout the world. Because sports have played such a crucial role in my life, I wanted to learn about the places throughout the world that hold certain sporting events. I was fascinated by the fact that a single building can represent so much to so many people. I was intrigued in the fact that a stadium can hold so many people and their enthusiasm for the specific sport at hand. How a building maintains and embraces the power and energy that thousands of fans bring to each game is remarkable. I wanted to look at what is a good stadium and what is a bad stadium. And how these stadiums that hold thousands of people effect the environment around it. Were the decisions surrounding the building of these stadiums involving the environment and the impact or was it solely based on the chance of making a profit. I tried to pick four sports that have a universal audience. The first stadium we visit is the Estadio Municipal Dr. Magalhaes. This stadium is a soccer stadium in the heart of Portugal. This stadium honors its surroundings and takes a back seat to the medieval castle in the town. The second stadium we visit is the Happy Valley horse track in Hong Kong China. This stadium was built for the British royalty in the government during the 1800s. The third stadium I visited was the Shunyi Olympic rowing and canoeing park. This was a natural oxygen bar for the environment after it was built. The last stadium I visited was the Dallas Cowboys stadium. This stadium was absolutely massive and was a perfect example of Americas bigger is better mentality.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://z.about.com/d/horseracing/1/5/5/B/2/hkjc06-14a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://horseracing.about.com/od/hongkong/ss/aa120606a_8.htm&usg=__eCkhXj_L38JI6EpThgle5RMtfpM=&h=267&w=400&sz=46&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=rTSWVWRR8vCswM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHappy%2BValley%2Bracecourse%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.worldstadiums.com/

National Archaeological Museum: Athens, Greece

I web-traveled to Athens, Greece to explore the National Archaeological Museum and all the exhibits it held. I have always wanted to visit Greece, and yes, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants only heightened my interest, to see their amazing architecture and historic art. And what place holds more history of art than that of the National Archaeological Museum!
I am majoring in History of Art and Architecture and so choosing a building that hold artifacts that are of interest to me made it an easy building to choose. The museum is located at the heart of Greece, Athens, where 1 out every 4 Greeks live.
The museum was built in the 1800's by German architect, Ernst Ziller, that is held up by scroll columns, similar to ancient Greek temples. The National Archaeological Museum holds over 20,000 exhibits that ranges from Prehistoric Collections to Egyptian Collections. However, I soon realized that the museum holds a more significant meaning to the people than anything else. It is one of the hottest attractions for tourist, which makes the people of Greece proud since it holds their finest history through art.
Hopefully the next time I travel to Greece it will be by plane instead of a virtual web experience.

For my design project I decided to travel to Germany (particularly Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin) and study one of my favorite subjects, The Bauhaus 1919-1933. I wanted my main new source to be The New York Times because they have a fantastic Arts Section of their paper. It was discovered through my article, that perhaps one of the famous Bauhaus designers Franz Ehrlich was a designer for the Nazi's and helped them design the famous gate at the Buchenwald death camp that reads 'Jedem Das Seine'. After discovering the questionable career choice of one of the professors at the Bauhaus I decided to follow the other legendary Bauhaus figures such as Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius - which both moved to America and continued their architectural designing careers.

For my travel project, I chose to travel to Beijing China. I chose the city of Beijing because over the past decade, it has turned into a modern metropolis, sparking new architectural designs and concepts, creating a dense population of contemporaty architecture. Another thing that sparked my interest about Beijing is the contrast of the old and new architecture and how the "old" city is gradually being torn down to create the "new"city. The concept of creating a city of essentially state of the art architecture really caught my attention and inspired me to learn more about it.

Images of some of the newest buildings in Beijing:

Linked Hybrid

Chaoyangmen SOHO III