Organic Design Seminar

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I’ve just returned from 10 days of a wonderful seminar course. Where better to study about Organic Design and Architecture than up the hill from Starnbergsee in a seminar center situated amongst farmland? I have no way of summing it up, because I had such a totally amazing time that words won’t ever cover it all! (Plus, dear readers, you are true saints if you’ve honestly read everything I’ve posted to this point, so I won’t try to burden you with ‘another long one.’)
Herr Bodack is one of the instructors at Fachhochschule Coburg and the main reason there is a product design department here. He’s an extremely generous character and uses his contacts and knowledge in a most giving way. That’s how I needed up being able to afford the week near a resort town to study alongside students from the University of Kiev, Ukraine and fellow students from the Fachhochschule. I went expecting to work like I work on every other assignment, but ended up having the kind of fun you have at summer camp, staying up too late and becoming friends with every single person there. When I got out of Tina’s car on Wednesday evening, I thought “20 people that I don’t know? We’re a big group!” I left thinking “man, it hardly seems like there are 20 of us, these people have become my family for the past week!”
We met for class periods for 5 ½ of our 9 days, spent one day in the city of Munich visiting cultural sites relevant to our topic of study, and one day in the Bavarian alps enjoying the astonishing weather. Class in the morning was theory, as taught by Herr Bodack, where we learned about history, proportioning systems, and generally how man relates to the built environment. Afternoons were taught by Reinhard Coppenrath, and covered practical application - I designed a single family dwelling, basing my design on one of the other students. In my case, I designed for Nazar, a boy who lives in the Ukraine, but whose father is Lebanese. Needless to say, it was an extremely interesting problem with which to be presented!
Beyond that, I suggest reading through the picture captions to understand what went on…

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Photos

Haus Freudenberg
The main building of the Haus Freudenberg seminar center. http://www.hausfreudenberg.de/index.htm?anbahn.htm

Freshly arrived at Haus Freudenberg
Liv and Tina (who was my ride to and fro)

Day 2
Break during the first day of classes

Day 2
The second evening, we went down to the lakeside to a friend of Herr Bodack's who has a party room and a dock.

Day 2
Lakeside as it got dark...
Kostya, Artem, 'moi,' Liv, Aaron, Tina, Alyona

Day 2
A little early for the fireworks by an American's standards, but we happened to be sitting in direct view of a show someone else had arranged and paid for... what luck!

Day 3 - Freizeit
using 15 minutes to its full advantage - volleyball & ping pong

Day 3
Scoping out one of the possible sites on which to 'build.' Nazar, my 'client,' is the big man in yellow.

Day 4 - Munich
The Königsplatz was only our second stop... we had to visit the design of the ICE trains at the main train station first. Why, you ask? Well, because they were designed 'organically.' Oh, and Herr Bodack worked on them with Deutschebahn during his 30 year career with them...
Daring to get a picture in front of the Propylaen...

Lenbachhaus
The art movement of 'Der Blaue Reiter' is chronicled here in the most complete single collection. It was a second wave of the expressionistic movement. Artists = Klee, Kandinsky, Marc, Macke. Nothing I'm too in to.

Also Inside Lenbachhaus
...really! This place was ptretty spaced out. i'm still not sure if I liked it.

Pinakothek der Moderne
Munich's modern art museum

And then the absolutely strangest thing that could ever happen...
did. See, there in the picture, in front, there's Spaceman (as we all knew him. Really his name's Oleksii). But then behind him, there's Tanner, Adam and Aaron. HUH? For those of you that don't know these people, they study at KSU, they were abroad for their semester in Prague, and... hey! They were in Munich for the day because school's out and they are winding their way to Barcelona where they hop a plane home! 'Total Krass.' 'Bouche bee.' I'm at a loss for words.
Oh. the other people. Tina, Mirelle, me.

Pinakothek der Moderne
The weirdest 'art' ever. Yes, ever. ...so far.

Pinakothek der Moderne
more 'art.' Karim Rashid needs a new color. The wall's cool, though. I know it sounds like I was bummed, but I wasn't! I didn't take pictures of the warhols and the wierdest art ever I liked. I was just in a super-funk cuz I'd just ran into the 3 boys...

Olympia Park
Herr Bodack speaks in English (or German, depending on how tired he is), and Natascha translates. Even though the seminar was supposed to be taught in English, many people came not really understanding it, I'm guessing because they wanted to visit Germany for pretty cheap. Natascha and Nazar were kind enough to translate nearly the *entire seminar* for those who needed it.

Olympia Park
housing at Olympic Village