Spring Break = Switzerland

So Daniel and I booked a sweet deal for spring break. We are flying to Geneva, then heading around Geneva Lake about 62 km to Lausanne, Switzerland. Some interesting facts about Lausanne:

• Lausanne is the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (I don't know if you'll read this Maxi, but thought you might like to know that.)
• It lies in the middle of a wine region
• The founder of IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad) resides here
• Population: 126,800

Who's Excited?

Western Denmark

Thursday morning to Saturday night Daniel and I were traveling all throughout Western Denmark. It was an experience to say the least... I guess I will list the highlight in chronological order.

• Trapholt Museum of Art - Kolding Denmark

• This museum was one of the best museums we visited. It was full of modern furniture from the likes of Wegner, Rasmussen, Volther, and of course Jacobsen. It was a beautiful museum overlooking a fjord. We only had about an hour and a half here, but there were several other exhibits that were interesting, including a paper cutting exhibit. 
• Koldinghus - Castle Restoraing - Kolding Denmark

• The second stop was a castle from the 13th century that has been renovated from 1978-88. Honestly, it looked funky on the exterior facades where wood shingles were used as the renovated exterior rather than brick. The interior, however, was very cool - as the architects didn't touch the existing ruins. Clearly a difficult thing to do.
• Børnekulturhuset St. Nicolai - Kolding Denmark

• This children's cultural center was really colorful and cool, consisting of an auditorium, gym, art rooms, and a sunken floor filled with plastic balls. This entire complex included a college for art & design and some other schools. Most of it was cladded in cor-ten steel. From here we headed north for Aalborg.
• Aalborg Universitet Cave
• For dinner that night we went to an adaptive re-use building, named NordKraft. Italian food. Yummy
• The next morning we went to the University. I am not going to say it was a complete waste of time, but it was definitely not a good use of time. We could have been at an Alvar Aalto designed museum, but instead we went to a department in a university that specializes in virtual reality... I am still not clear why. 
• Utzon Center - Aalborg

• After wasting the morning at the University we went to the Utzon center. He is mostly known for designing the Sydney Opera House. This was a beautiful cultural center full of nice details and inspiring spaces. "The center is a place where architecture, design and art is combined with exhibitions, teaching, conferences and culinary pleasures."
• Haverslev Kirke

• The last stop for the second day was Haserslev Kirke that was built c.1200. That's about 500 years before the States were formed. It was very quaint and nice. There is a Nordic tradition of painting a hull of a ship on the ceiling of the chapel. We found one here. The chapel could fit about 40 people probably. I particularly enjoyed the deep set windows.
• Åarhus Krematorium Kapel

• This was perhaps the most beautiful chapel I have ever been in. The lighting conditions, the shadows, the clean lines and symbolism in every piece of furniture, door handle, floor patterning, etc. It was spectacular. I would have liked to have stayed there much longer, but it was on to a Gehry building, I know, a Gehry building.
• Hejmdal Cancer Center

• So I really wanted to dislike this building, but the longer I was in it, the more I liked it. The building is a center for cancer patients to escape - work out, paint, talk to councilors, and just hang out. While the interior was somewhat spectacular, it was completely unsustainable. It used huge logs of Douglas Fir from Canada. It would have been fine with me if this building was in Canada, but the fact that they transported them to Germany, had them cut, some hollowed out for mechanical systems, and then driven to Åarhus. 
• Åarhus Rådhus

• Next we went to the city hall designed by Arne Jacobsen. It was a logistical design but extremely outdated as the same curtains were on the walls. The real highlight here was the modern clock tower that we unknowingly were about to climb. Something Daniel and I both have in common - we don't like heights. I think he is a little worse off than me, but at 60m ( ~ 200 ft) up with the wind swirling, the floor covered in a sheet of ice, and the noon bells about to wail, we were both more than ready to descend back down. 
• ARoS Art Museum

• Our final stop on the trip was the ARoS Art Museum. This was a very neat museum with a large collection of modern art. The exterior is a large brick cube with a pedestrian way that is always open to the public. The interior is completely white concrete. The design is incredibly simple and organized. There was a huge architectural exhibit with very awesome models. My favorite thing I saw here was the James Turrell light sculpture here. It was unlike anything I have ever seen.

So we saw a lot of different things all over Western Denmark. We are still tired.