WEEK FOUR

"Looking back at the past month, It feels as though I have finally made a home with my three other roommates. We rotate cooking family dinners and dish-washing duties, but we sure have impressed ourselves with our Betty Crocker skills in our petite kitchen.  As for outside of our apartments, Lille has been quite a place to call our home.  Walking past highly ornamented buildings on a daily basis is quite different from even walking down the streets of downtown Fargo and was almost over stimulating when I first got off the train.


Other than staying in Lille, traveling and taking note of other countries and cities has been quite an ordeal.      Each destination has their own spin on their urban development, preservation of historic buildings, as well as how to incorporate modern designs within the existing city.  Having now been to Paris a handful of times, Lille (France), Caen (France), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Roubaix (France), Rouen (France), and Liege (Belgium), I feel as though I have only begun to fathom what Europe has to offer and I can't wait to continue my travels to compare city to city as well as culture to culture.  


This past weekend was the first trip where we ventured more than just a few hours away from Lille, but rather 14+ by train to Berlin, Germany.  Uffda to say the least, but well worth the trip.  The German way of life was a completely different experience from that of the French lifestyle.  Definitely a more forthright and outgoing culture compared to the more so reserved culture of the French.  The architecture was quite different from that of the many cities I have visited since being here.  With most of its historic buildings being destroyed during WWII, there was a definite contrast between the new(er) and old buildings of the past.  It seems to be a city with big plans to continue to grow and develop architecturally in the future.

This has truly become a whirlwind of an experience and with plans to tour Norway, Ireland, Italy, more of France and Germany, and who else know where, I can only imagine what I will see, who I will meet, and the experiences that I will make."   - Sara Kolpack

Notre-Dame: Paris, France

View from the castle's fortress walls: Caen, France

Calatrava train station: Liege, Belgium

Grande Arche: Paris, France

Normandy beaches  outside of Caen: Caen, France

Holocaust Memorial: Berlin, Germany

Reichstag which serves as Germany's seat of Parliment: Berlin, Germany

Olympiastadium: Berlin, Germany                                                                      

"So far in Europe I have been to Lille of course, Paris, London, Brussels, Marseille, and Rotterdam. They all have their similarities as European cities, with the layouts of the cities dating back centuries to when needs were centered around walking, horses, and eventually carriages and cars. This past weekend was spent in Rotterdam, surprisingly the newest city we’ve been to yet. It seems that 70% of the buildings we saw were new, most likely at least partially attributed to the Rotterdam Blitz during World War II destroying large parts of the city. There was a decent mix of the old and the new, and numerous old ships in the harbors alongside newer buildings. We stayed in the cube houses, and one of the other highlights of Rotterdam was the Erasmus Bridge, a large cable stayed bridge spanning one of the canals.

So far though, my favorite cities have been London and Marseille. London for its vast history, and its huge white stone buildings, pubs, and people; and Marseille for its cafes on the harbor, where people flock to have their lunches outside, and buildings built from the edge of the harbor up into the hills.  One of the charms of staying here in Lille is the ability to walk through the plazas of the city, down pedestrian streets of old buildings with the lower levels turned into shops, step into the boulangerie and buy a dessert, then sit down at an outdoor café to enjoy it with a drink or some coffee.  The biggest problem lies in communication… We are slowly starting to learn a some helpful phrases thanks to once a week French lessons, but I still meet with problems. Such as trying to get the time schedule for the trains to Rotterdam, attempting to tell the ticket man what I need in French and being met with- “English?” …Yes… and then being led to someone can communicate with me. Quite embarrassing, and unfortunately not an isolated incident, but it’s most certainly a learning experience… So far it has been difficult to organize schedules to work with the French students, but we just started a seminar with a mix of students from other countries, and there is an open invitation from their professors for our students to pop in on their studios whenever, and I know some students are planning on that. I know I hope to see how the French students approach design myself and meet some new people."   - Lisa Ostlund

WEEK THREE

- Luke Schneider

“Traveling has become somewhat of an addiction for many of us. It seems as though every Wednesday has become the “planning” day for the following weekends adventures. As nice as Lille is, it’s fantastic to leave for the weekend and see something new. So last weekend I headed up to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was a very welcome sight with all its modern architecture and tall high-rises. Rotterdam reminded me of a European version of Chicago though not nearly as large. High rises seem to rise out of the water and the channels split the city in many directions. It’s a very quiet city and the street life isn’t as prevalent as it is in Lille but it was rather nice not running into people every two seconds on the sidewalk.

Even though it was nice to be in a quiet city I wish I would have seen more street life down in the business district near the Erasmus Bridge. It was a beautiful area with huge skyscrapers rising everywhere but no one seemed to walk due to the lack of street life on the lower levels of these buildings. After researching and designing high rises for an entire semester it was almost bothersome that the buildings had no retail or restaurants on the base floor. These high rises were amazing pieces of architecture but the area almost reminded me of a ghost town it was so quiet. Don’t get me wrong though, I did find Rotterdam to be my favorite city thus far. It was a gorgeous city and a fantastic place to ask Whitney to marry me!….

This coming weekend we’ll be traveling to Frankfurt in hopes to find more European examples of modern architecture. Frankfurt is the “most international” city in Europe so I hope to see a mix of German and different international styles in their buildings. In the next few weeks we will be starting our semester long project, so by visiting different cities like Rotterdam and Frankfurt I hope to see what modern/contemporary architecture can look like in an old city. We’ll be working on bringing life back into an area of the city that has been left since the seventies. By visiting all these different cities each weekend I hope we can all bring different ideas to the table in order to create some fantastic designs.”   - Craig Martin

WEEK TWO

-Paris, France-

"Starting our third full week here in France, things are beginning to feel more like “home”. All of us are starting to discover more and more about our hometown, Lille, by exploring day to day and by visiting the local markets, pubs, and by navigating our way through the busy streets every day. I like the city of Lille because of its size and by how easy it is to access things we need just a short walk from our apartments. The Lille-Metropolitan area (which extends in Belgium) has a population exceeding 2 million people with 150,000+ students living here as well so there is never a dull moment – maybe besides Sundays, as most stores and businesses are closed. The public transportation (from bikes, the metro, or taking the bus) and walkability of the city makes it a great place to live and we are living in the center of it all. 

As far as traveling goes, it’s an easy and exciting thing to do right here from Lille. The city lies on the major rail line which allows you to travel many places near and far within a reasonable amount of time. I started my journey in Paris where I stayed for a few days getting lost in the narrow, busy streets and enjoyed watching the people of Paris live their different way of life. I am looking forward to returning back to Paris to see some more sites and fantastic examples of architecture. I have also ventured to Luxembourg for a weekend with some friends and loved the capital city/extremely small country! It was intriguing to see the financial capital of Europe and it was expressed in a lot of the buildings we saw and the cars that were driven everywhere. It’s a very old city being founded in 963 and it was remarkable seeing the old city fortress ruins and how the city has kept a lot of its halls for paths and walkways outdoors today. On our way to Luxembourg, we had to switch trains and we encountered the Liege-Guillemins railway station designed by Santiago Calatrava and its one of the largest/busiest stations in the region with more than 36,000 people passing through it daily. The station is made from steel, glass, and white concrete reaching 32 meters in height and spans over 160 meter in length. It was an amazing “surprise” to come across and we all enjoyed our time waiting for the next train to arrive.

Along with the rest of studio, the class traveled to Roubaix, France another part of the Lille metropolitan area. Paul met up with all of us at the old Roubaix railway station that is still in use today and was built the same year the Eiffel Tower was constructed. Later we toured an old bathhouse which has been turned into a modern day art gallery/museum. It was neat to see how an architect could visualize an older building used years ago for another purpose than what we are seeing it used for today."   

-David Patnode

-Liege, Belgium-

-Liege, Belgium-

-Luxembourg, Luxembourg-

-Luxembourg, Luxembourg-

-Roubaix, France-

-Lille, France-

-Lille, France-

-Lille, France-

  
                                        

"We are embarking on our third week we here in Lille.  In this time we have made excursions to intriguing places, settled into our new hometown, and became "French" students.

Lille is proving to be an excellent place to call home for three months.  I'm finally getting used to a non-gridded city, "interesting" milk, and not understanding French. Exploring the city of Lille has been more than enjoyable.  The city is abundant in character and charm. Our apartments are located ten minutes from the metro station which takes us right to the city center and basically to the door of our school.  

On the traveling front, this past weekend two of us ventured to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This trek was only a four hour train ride from Lille. The most notable part of our train ride was the Antwerp station. We were delighted to find such a beautiful train station that dates back to the early 1900's. In Rotterdam, most of the historic buildings were destroyed in World War II, but this unfortunate event paved the way for numerous modern buildings to be built. During our trip we visited multiple museums,  walked the remarkable Erasmus bridge, and ventured around an object fair. Overall, Rotterdam is a fantastic port city filled with modern architecture.

Last week we also settled into our new school, got our official ID cards, and are starting a new week long project.  Working with the French time schedule is very different than what I am used to back home.  There is a lot of lingering going on over here. Last week we also walked around the city of Roubaix, which is a city right next to Lille.  We saw a train station from the late 1800's, an adaptive reuse building where the owners converted a rundown bath house to an art gallery, and an old textile factory."   -Courtney Thompson

THE FIRST WEEK

"A few of us have been in Europe for a week now, we spent our first few days getting adjusted to Lille, followed by 3 days in London.  Lille is a fantastic city, it has many great buildings and squares, without any of the crowds or lines of tourists.  It is a modern day working class city.  Our long stay hotel is located between the historic train station into lille, and next to the new high speed rail line station.  Below our hotel is a mixed use complex, which is best described as an urban shopping mall attached to the newly forming modern business district, only blocks from the historic shopping center.  

Our adjustment to French was quite a bit to get used to, which made London a welcome break, back into english.  Here we stayed in a YHA hostel only 5 blocks from oxford circus, which contains marvelous buildings and planning dating back to the 19th century.  London was buzzing with activity to get ready for their summer olympics; streets now had young saplings along them, new pedestrian scaled street lamps were installed, and everywhere there were cranes on the horizon.  It is amazing to think of the great age differences between the old and new buildings in the denser parts of London.  Heavy closed in stone buildings are immediately next to spider glass clad structures.

Now back in Lille, we are grateful for its smaller, more intimate, compared to London.  We are not sure how this semester will go, but if it is anything like the first week, it should be a great adventure. "                            - Nick Sortland

"Landed in Paris after an eight hour flight exhausted from travel, I had to figure out the new streets of Paris, France.  One Major difference from France to the U.S. is the lack of street grid.  The first intersection I came upon had at least seven different streets intersecting it, also all street signs are on the sides of the buildings.  Once you get used to this, it all gets a lot easier to navigate.

Paris, you either like or hate it.  Paris is beautiful, but many people dislike it for their own personal reasons.  The only way you can truly decide is to come here yourself.  In my opinion, Paris is beautiful, fast, and the wine bountiful.  Oh the wine.  So cheap the wine is here at the marche (market).  The receptionist at the hostel would laugh at the amount of wine we brought with us. 

Be our guest, be our guest.  Luxembourg was perfect to us. They made us right at home, from the hostel to the streets no one was complaining.  Luxembourg, the 'Financial Capitol of Europe,' showed us that no one is going broke in this beautiful city.  Audi, Mercades, Beamers and many more high profile cars roam this city on a daily baisis.

Once coming back from Luxembourg, the trip to Lille, France finally happened.  Paris to Lille, one hours time, was not a bad trip after all.  After arriving in Lille we got settled in the extended stay hotel.  Gathering food, gathering the city, and of course gathering wine are only at the beginning of our great European trip. 

Much more is to come!"  

     - Ryan Thomsen