Melbourne.

Remaining days in Sydney

I know...it's been a while.

Internet hasn't been available for a while so sorry for the lack of updates.  We wrapped up our last week in Sydney and had an unbelievable final presentation. We had people come to our presentation and give us feedback that were some of the most respected artists and architects in Sydney, even Australia. We all kind of sat there with our eyes wide open and mouths dropped realizing how important these people were to their respected fields. Someone even commented that the artists we had in the room would be the equivalent of some of the most well known, prominent artists in the US. It was so touching to realize these people took time out of their day to give advice and feedback to this group of ten American kids trying desperately to be just as respected in our field as they. We spent our last weekend in Sydney exploring the city and some of its markets. I spent over two hours just riding the ferry one of the days because the weather was so nice I just wanted to be completely surrounded by water. An early morning rise on Monday and we headed to the airport to fly to Melbourne, our second city stop on our trip. We had the rest of the day free in Melbourne once we landed so we all headed out to grab lunch/dinner. Emily, Gina, Carmen and I found this incredibly cafe and had an amazing lunch. We headed to the beach after that to watch the sunset over the water in the background of sailboats lined up on the dock. I could pretty much spend every day like that...good food and the water, what more do you need? We took a tour of the city and architecture, met with the head of DesignInc. (a large firm in Melbourne who actually maintains a strong social responsibility stance while maintaining a large popularity and firm size), visited Monash University for some presentations, visted a prominent Melbourne artist's studio, discussion of public architecture with well known architects in Australia, met with Sean Godsell, met with an architect from LAB architects who designed Federation Square, Adrian's book discussion, gourmet to-die for desserts at Brunetti's, Koorie Cultural Center, more architectural sites around Melbourne, Queen Victoria Market (unblievable amounts of fresh, locally grown produce and meat), WINE TOUR in the Yarra Valley!, birthday celebration...to quickly list a few of Melbourne's activities. 

Off to Brisbane! also known as The Bris, or Bris-Vegas

What a weather difference! 75 degrees and absolutely clear skies all the time. Pretty much the ideal weather, and yeah it's winter here so people were walking around in sweaters, jeans, and boots and here we Americans are walking around in flip-flops and tank tops. Took another architecture/city tour with some people from the firm Donovan Hill which is like THE firm in Brisbane, met with Timothy Hill (one of the partners of the firm), dinner out with the group, Paul Memmot lecture (prominent writer and researcher for Aboriginal studies in Australia), theory with Adrian, North Stradbroke Island (quite possibly paradise) and now in the library finally using the internet and getting some research done.

I have finalized plans for my travels after classes:

Tuesday myself, Emily, and Carmen will be flying to Alice Springs (middle of Australia, desert, outback) to spend five days or so there. We will be taking a tour Wednesday through Friday of the area around Alice Springs which includes three days of exploring and hiking and two days camping outside..and I am so excited beyond belief to camp outside in Australia! Then myself and Emily head up to Cairns for a few days of beach relaxation and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. Home Thursday August 13th. Until then, ciao!

More Ferry Travels

I can't help but admire the beauty surrounding me.

This is kind of unbelievable to me. Disgusting really.

Traveling by Ferry

Wrapping Up Sydney

It's hard to believe we are wrapping up our last week here in Sydney. The last week we spent some time working in studio and trying to get some work accomplished. I tell you it's hard though because we have been able to do some incredible things while we've been here and we've wanted to sight-see more than do school work. Luckily I think our professors realize this but still, we are in school and so the work must begin sometime. Monday we had our first critique with a local artist at a local ARI. It went well and we got some good feedback from an artist that could potentially be inhabiting this space. Tuesday we met Adrian for a tour of art space in the afternoon so we went to brunch at an incredibly quaint French Bistro and had meat pies. We went to the Library and of New South Wales to attempt to do research for our sustainability papers but the library is incredibly staunchy and you have to request books to look at and you cannot check them out so...needless to say research is a little difficult. Wednesday was Tranby college, which is an indigenous school to help educate indigenous Australians to enter into secondary levels of education. We met with Nick Seeman and a couple architects from his firm and it was really nice to have thoughtful conversations with people who have such a passion for the field of architecture. We went out to celebrate a girl's last night in Australia and had great times at the local pub Kelly's. Thursday  we got a personal invitation and tour of Brian Zulaikha's house on the harbor and had lunch with he, and other very prominent architects/artists in Sydney. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. To be surrounded by these people who completely exude parts of my life that I wish to have in the future. It gives me such hope for what could lie ahead in my future. That afternoon we went back to the Library of New South Wales and I ended up falling asleep while researching so we didn't stay too long there obviously. Friday we went to the Museum of Sydney and saw a Glenn Murcutt exhibit whose work is incredibly inspiring to a young design student just trying to make a difference in the world and create beautiful spaces at the same time. Friday night and Saturday was free and up to exploring. Explored a couple islands and beach spots around Sydney and Saturday night went to the Opera House for Drag! All in all the weekend was amazing because we got to explore the city and the surrounding areas. It made me realize that I would ultimately like my commute into work to be on a ferry because the water just does something amazingly peaceful that nothing else has the capability to do for me. Pictures above from the preceding days. 

Blue Mountains