06 March, 2008

Amsterdam Housing


The most intriguing aspect of the study trip in Amsterdam to me was the wide variety of housing designs used. With the continuing completion of artificial islands, the vast majority of Amsterdam's housing is brand new. It was incredibly interesting to compare housing types and styles across the islands, or even just across the streets. In most cases, land owners were permitted to hire an architect of choice to build their home as long as it kept with a few general regulations, primarily regarding size and dimension. This process created very dense and diverse cultures of housing projects, literally on every street you walked down.


It was a lot like this candy store we found on the trip called Jamin. They had an entire wall devoted to so many different kinds of candy, of which you could take whatever you wanted in a bag at 1.85 Euro per 100 grams. It was pretty impressive, and too enticing, to see so many different colors and textures and sugar contents in one compact space. Similarly, as an architecture student, it was really intriguing to see all the different materials, spatial workings, landscape jobs, etc. at work on a single street. It was just cool to take in so much variety and contemporary design for housing projects.


Also, its gettin pretty close now, we're still third in the ACC, found wins number 20 and 21. im never ready to celebrate early and make guarantees, but it seems like CU basketball is finally gonna get a chance to dance in March!

No comments: