By the way if you haven’t seen the France Special, you can find it here.
Thinking of awarding the Swiss competition winner within the next couple of days, so send in your answers before I do that. As for the answers so far, I CAN tell you that ONE person got it quite close.
Very interesting use of stone, I like how it’s positioned on the site. It’s very apparent here that Botta’s work has that strange contradiction between contemporary and homage to the past.
And us Malaysians think we are trained by tropical rainforest mosquitoes? These mosquitoes are so poisonous they leave a ring-like mark around the inflamed area, which range from the size of coins to Famous Amos cookies!
At one point, my screaming itching bulging body decided to go see a doctor. The best place I could find was a First-Aid Centre and they immediately gave me an injection, prescribed oral medication and a skin ointment. Even with full guns blazing, it still took about three days to heal.
Curse the Swiss-Italian mosquitoes!!!!!
The place feels like a really mountainous Italy. The food, language, even people looks Italian.
Jeff gave this place too much credit because of Mario Botta’s work. The town is easily explored, much of the third day was spent watching CNN in our claustrophobic hotel room. Moreover I couldn’t update the blog because we couldn’t find a computer with USB.
Having said that, we managed to bump into a wind orchestra playing in the main hall !! My first live music in probably, forever, or something. I managed to record three full sessions (including a James Bond remix !!). So if you’re a classical music fan, remember to ask me to show it to you.
Peter Zumthor is one of my favorite architects.
But getting there is probably the ultimate pilgrim’s nightmare. Even from Lucerne, considered one of the best starting points in Switzerland because of its central location, we had to change trains three times and catch a 30 minutes bus ride.
Finally arrived and we couldn’t locate the bath house. Had to keep asking for directions because we’re still skeptical. After working our way to the reception (very inaccessible), checked in, dumped our luggage in the room, we saw this …
This looks remotely familiar, it has to be it!
Then, we found the entrance …
Thankfully Zumthor is still slowly renovating the place. We reserved the cheapest rooms, the so-called “Outhouse”.
Check Out Our First-Class 5 STAR Outhouse
I’ve been talking most of the time, so this will be a Jeff Blog Special on, The Vals Therme Bath House!! Presenting, Jeff the Architectural Critic !!
Primitive, yet, finely crafted, is perhaps the most adequate description of the bathhouse. To use these two seemingly contradictory terms simultaneously I am interpreting Zumthor’s design at two levels; first, that the experience one gets from bathing in that space is very much in tune with the basic human needs for shelter, privacy, prospect, light, darkness…etc, at its crudest sense; and that the craftsmanship in the handling of materials, plans, fenestration, thresholds, passages and the landscape, elevates the crude human needs into a spiritual indulgence……enough architecture for now…..what i mean to say is…….what a nice bathing experience it was………..
- by Jeff the Critic
After bathing, we bumped into Zumthor’s wife and had a short but very good conversation!
Thanks to our Traveler’s Phaidon Atlas, we anticipated Jean Nouvel’s Culture & Congress Centre. The cantilever is even bigger it looks in photos. It’s a Monday, most European museums are closed on Mondays. Therefore, it was really cool to see so many people still using the public space even though it was closed. The building is very successful in those respects.
Check out the thickness of the glass mullions.
Very very beautiful city. The city nestles between a calm lake and river, totally surrounded by the snow capped Alps. The streets, like Lyon, oozes with character. Those wooden bridges are really old, dating back to medieval times.
There is quite a number of Disneyland-like buildings around the whole town. I could feel Bambi is right around the corner.
Lion of Lucerne
When we’re done, we went into a bar. They only serve alcohol-less beer there. Beer sans alcohol in a Swiss-German town??????
Florence may be old, dirty and chaotic but it’s FUN. Happy Hour now, want to hit the pubs soon. I’m sharing the room with like a thousand people, so-called “8 bed mixed dorm” but much dodgier. But whoa, it is actually the bedroom of one of the hostel workers, and he plays rock guitar !!! His guitar is pretty shit but it is plugged into a Marshall JCM900, right below my bunk bed !!!! Don’t think I’m going to sleep much tonight.
Florence is really funny, there’s these two other American Hispanic dudes from LA (USA) and they were like telling their absolutely hilarious backpacking stories. Their most funny one, they asked for Florence accommodation while they were in a s*** hostel from Rome, just yesterday night. The receptionist booked them a reservation in a place called “Florentine” or something. When they got here this morning, the whole place got shut down !!!! Apparently it was overcrowded or something. And it was shut down because they were like repeat offenders of the council laws.
When we finally got to our hostel, they had to take us elsewhere using a golf cart, zipping around the tiny streets of Florence. Imagine 5 backpackers with their huge luggage just crammed onto a little cart going at 20km/h, tourists were taking photos of us!!
Once we got there, I noticed at least 20 other people in three bedrooms, each with probably 8 beds. And there were more coming. I also noticed hostel workers were pulling out spare beds, I think they had to be “illegal” tonight. And when they mean MIXED dorm, they really mean it. The other girls don’t seem to be very modest as well, walking around in their, ahem. Most are Americans so .. I don’t know.
Best of luck in the Swiss competition!
Hey it’s time for another competition. Seeing that the previous one was WAY too easy and discouraged responses, I’ve decided to make things a little harder this time. Observe the following picture …
Yes, hahaha you are right, that is what you call A REAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE. And yeap, that really is a radio antenna in the middle. WTF??? Once you get over the madness, the competition only requires two answers from you.
1) How many tools there are on this Swiss Army Knife. Good luck to your eyes. (Hint: It’s not a Victorinox, it’s a Wenger)
2) Guess how many times I’ve actually bumped into this knife on display! I need some element of luck in this game. (Hint: between one and ten)
Is it worth the prize?? That’s for you to judge. The winner will receive an authentic Victorinox Swiss Army card, with a blade, ruler, pen, light, screw heads, scissors, magnifying glass, pin and tweezer all in one super-thin package you can fit in your wallet !!
Rules are ..
1) Only ONE entry per person.
2) I must *know* you, so I can make sure there’s only one entry per person.
3) If no one guessed it perfectly, the prize goes to the one who guessed the closest.
4) The second answer has higher precedence. Meaning if you guessed the second answer perfectly, it may override the first answer’s error.
5) You don’t have to be in Sydney to join, if you are in Sabah, Adelaide etc. etc. I will post it to you absolutely free of charge.
Okay, that’s it. Now good luck using Photoshop to enhance the image or something, hahahah. Have fun!
Cup Noodles (look at the French spelling) with funny eggs and Swiss cheese! As mentioned earlier, there’s nothing really special in Basel, even in terms of food. It is however, compensated by the fact that there’s a lot of microwave ready stuff, if anything.
For those of you who haven’t been to Ronchamp, you get there using …
The World’s Shortest Train
Seriously, it really indicates how tiny the town is. I couldn’t believe it when we arrived at the town’s train station, it looked like a bus stop.
Seeing no taxi stand, we were about to panic. Then we noticed a map on the “bus stand”. Dude, Ronchamp is not just tiny … it’s microscopic! I think there’s only five streets here or something. We arrived at the cathedral after a good 15 minutes walk uphill.
We’ve learnt from the Paris Notre-Dame that even famous historical churches are still used for Sunday services. We timed ourselves so that it will be a Sunday when we visited the Notre-Dame du Haut. You will notice that there are chairs outside the building for Sunday morning mass. So rest assured, 50 years after completion the space outside is still used as designed and intended by the architect. A good hindsight, considering houses are renovated immediately upon purchase these days.
It is immaculate. For those who say that modernism is devoid of any humanistic values or spirituality must see this building in person. The moment you step inside, you’re wrapped in an intense microcosm, best described by the architect himself as, “a place of peace, prayer and silence.” Inside, you hear a constant and rather loud bellowing noise, in the dark space lit by poetry in windows, the church has a real and tangible feeling of calmness, solitude and sovereignty.
Too bad we are not allowed to take pictures inside the church.
Lunch in front of the Notre-Dame…
Is this safe?? BCA ????
Architects who’ve never been here, put this on your next travel itinerary !!
A few people have requested about getting original copies of our photos. Thus, on our way to Ronchamp, we have officially drafted the official code of conduct in dealing with our material. The Code of Ronchamp is …
1) Thou shalt not give away copies of originals, digital or analog.
2) With the exception of popular landmarks, (e.g. Eiffel Tower), landscape, and non-architectural items, any publication or distribution must be limited to the maximum
of 240 x 180 pixels at 72 DPI.
3) Thou shalt take all necessary steps to prevent the violation of the first two codes of conduct.
The Signing Ceremony
Download Code of Ronchamp 2005 [pdf]
There you go, the perfect circle of protection! Pretty hard line, I know, but maybe if you ask hard enough ……
They have so many museums here that their only city guide is “Guide to Museums – Basel”. At this point I feel that this city is extremely overhyped. Even Jeff says, “It’s like Taipei”. We expected the city, or at least even the museums, to be forefronts of contemporary architecture. With the exception of Mario Botta’s Tinguely museum, all of them are actually just interior renovations of old buildings. And to make things worse, we are not allowed to bring cameras inside the museums!
As for the exhibits, the Kunstmuseum had the most highlights. The famous apples on a table still life by Cezanne, Picasso’s Naked Boy, and one of my personal favorites, Van Gogh’s self portrait are all in here.
The Tingueley Museum by Mario Botta was alright, we concentrated more on the building than the rather interesting looking Tingueley exhibits.
Make Love, Not War.
The Architecture Museum is really really pathetic. It is tiny, has practically nothing about architecture, and most of the space are taken by art installations. The only good thing about it is the fact that I bought the Traveler’s Edition of the Phaidon Architectural Atlas. And inside the book I discovered that Herzog & de Meuron’s Signal Box is actually in Basel !!!!! Freaked out, why didn’t I do more research earlier, I have always LOVED this building. To make things more freaky, it’s actually just across the road from my hostel!!! And I’ve walked past it (duh, you blind fool) a number of times !!!
Another building I accidently “bumped” into.
On our way back, we saw some weird metal things protruding out of people’s front doors. Figured it’s a shoescrapper thing, maybe this used to be a mudtown.
Does It Work For Chewing Gum?
Stopped by this place for two hours during the train ride from Lyon to Basel. This is one of the top three cities always trading places with Vienna and Sydney for “The Best City In The World”. Now that I’ve been to all of them, I can assure you – Sydney is the best !!
Slightly disappointed here. There’s nothing here really, except lots of swans in the lake.
I did discover that Geneva was the base of John Calvin’s Protestant thing, after walking past his home! Pleasant surprise!
Don’t You Wish You Were There?
The Église Saint-Pierre is the only building that was never finished after Le Corbusier’s death. In fact, it was pretty much left just half constructed, with exposed steel bars – for 20 odd years. After 25 years of effort by one of his former students, that one unfinished building is now finally getting completed.
When the church is finished, it will be the third religious building built by Le Corbusier. The other two are the Convent of La Tourette and Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. This is a really big deal because the town of Firminy-Vert will then officially exceed Chandigarh in having the highest concentration of Le Corbusien work. As a university student, my father visited Chandigarh and got deeply inspired there. So to see Firminy-Vert means a lot to me.
Eglise Saint Pierre. Can’t get in because it is a construction site.
Maison de la Culture. The interior is quite small in reality. The angled wall must have really exaggerated its size.
Unité d’Habitation. The last of five Unités. This is the biggest of them all, with 400 individual homes because all the apartments are single storey.
The Fourth Le Corbusier Building
a young capricious architect chronicling an itch to backpack around the world and discover the deeper qualities of architecture, food and people.
