Rue Des Suisses

So I lumbered into college today for the first time in a month. My task is to make a model of Herzog and de Meuron's Rue Des Suisses (One of the buildings I visited in Paris). Although it sounds like a straightforward job finding a set of plans is proving more difficult. The best so far are scanned images from el croquis. What an excellent publication it is.

http://www.elcroquis.es/Home.aspx?lang=en

Although the building looks beautiful from outside I was lucky enough to get talking to a fairly colourful resident when I visited. His main angle was "it's a piece of trash". He claims nothing on the inside was designed properly and the materials are weathering poorly and are easily damaged as well as having unusable balconies. It was a real slice of luck to talk to him. He also claimed it was "facade architecture". I liked him even though he was a tad nuts but he made me think about what the purpose of a building actually is. For the rest of my Paris tour I tried to question things a bit more and not just take the easy view.

Anyway I plan on starting the model tomorrow in the workshop after my first lecture in our new module. I recieved this in an email describing it

An introductory lecture to the Body and Space
The lecture will introduce conceptual relationship between our bodies and space. Not necessarily as literal as you may think, but through how we understand ourselves, how others understand us and the types of social practices that have forced the interpretation of our bodies to transform.

Sounds interesting. I also received my new timetable for the term. It's pretty sweet. Mondays are free and there is no more 1st year studies or Cultural context. It really leaves us free to concentrate fully on our Library project. Woohoo!