Let the Sketches Begin

 We had a late start to the day today, which was nice because when my alarm rang this morning at 8 I was completely passed out. After getting ready and some breakfast we got to the Institut at 10. From there we walked about 10 minutes to the registrar and become official residents of Vienna. Along the way we saw some beautiful architectural masterpieces, and stopped by to observe two installation pieces. One was by Rachel Whiteread for the Jewish museum to commemorate the burning of the books. It was a rectangular structure, white marble, carved to look like endless rows of books. The other was more discrete, off the bat it looked like a ground ventilation system, but we were told at night, yellow smoke is emitted from the ventilation creating an illuminating and hazy environment. I would love to see that. After registration, we had two hours to ourselves to get lunch and sight see. A group of us decided we would walk around for a bit and then head down to Nachmarkt to see what we are in the mood for lunch. We found out that there are several festivals planned for the weekend, including a beer fest and several musical concerts, so there were a ton of preparations with tents and construction in every corner. We passed by the Succession building and the ornamentation of the building was absolutely jaw dropping. Atop the building is a large gold circle shape structure with ornate cut outs; the gold is repeated throughout the design of the building and there are beautiful patterns along the two sides of the entrance. There are also three human heads with serpent hair etched out from stone on the main door entrance. Along the way, a bird dropped a nice present on my shoulder; pleasant. We also passed through the Hofburg palace, which was beautiful and peaceful. The interior was definitely a sight to see. After sitting down for some lunch (we decided on kebab’s again) we met up with the rest of the group at the Institut. There we learned we would be working on final project of sorts with the collective group to document our experience here in Vienna. We also practiced very basic German. Professor Tate was off picking up Khaki, his wife, from the airport, so Alexandra (the UPenn Professor) took us out to our first location visit. We went to Café Das Moebel, a modern furniture store where costumers are encouraged to use, try, lift, play with all the furniture. There were some beautiful spaces and extremely intelligent design. I had left my camera back at our apartment so I decided I could get some good sketches instead and stop by later in the trip to get some pictures. There were two things that I absolutely loved at the shop. One was a small hanging chair in a corner facing one of the rooms on the bottom floor. I found sitting on it backward, that there was a small hideaway with brick walls closed off by the bottom of the stairs. It was eerie and out of place, but it made me feel something so I sat there and sketched for a bit. The second was an outdoor space created for smokers but what made it so unique was how packed in the outdoor space actually was. It was a small space corned in every direction, creating almost an interior room, but if you look up you can clearly see its three buildings meeting at a point, and the trapped space in the middle was created into this claustrophobic comfort zone (if that makes any sense). The buildings were built 4 stories high so looking up you could see the sky but it seemed miles away and so distant. I got some great sketches and plenty new ideas from sitting out there for some time.

Afterward, my Viennese family decided to show us around town and recommend cheap and quality restaurants. We all ended up getting sushi at Hit Mi restaurant and some shprietz before heading back. Then Anna and I took a stroll around town for a few hours, we saw some really sweet design shops and a really artsy puppet show house; I'll have to remember to take pictures in the morning. The weather was perfect but it seemed most places had already closed, so we decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we are going to try the noodle stand for lunch and make plans with the group for a weekend trip. Until Then!!