Check out this website to see a summary of the Chateau that's at the center of the project we're working on in Decin. There's some history and photos of the restoration: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/66721
I'm working on posting more photos soon!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
From Praha to Decin
After some spotty internet availability, our group is finally set up in our first project destination, Decin (prounounced something like Ydeschen). We're staying in what was once the Chateau stables, now newly renovated into student housing. These accomodations are a big upgrade from our communist era dorms at a university outside of Prague. Being the only other female in our group besides the professor and Julie who's newlywed husband is also a grad student in our program and on the trip, looks like I get my own rooms on the trip - not too shabby. My third floor corner room has hardwood floors which I found are good for yoga, and two huge windows overlooking the town and lush forested hillsides.
Just to orient you, there are ten in our group. Ceci is the professor leading the trip with interests in historical landscapes and cultural landscape preservation. Ken and Julie are the newlyweds who had a lovely PA wedding the Sat. before we left. Then there is Jeff, my former Canadian roomate; Drew, Mike, and Brian - all fellow landscape architecture grad students; and Ben and Harsh - both tag alongs from the architecture grad program.
We spent a few days in Prague, or Praha (it always seems strange to me that the same place has different names in different languages. shouldn't places all just be called by what their name is in the local language?). We've been picking up a few Czech words. Dobry den is good morning. Prosim is please and excuse me - good for getting waiter's attention. We're still mystified by how to prounounce the word for thank you which is either daqui, diqui, dakuji, or some similar form. I serendipidously learned that laundry is prochka when following a local student I happened to spot carrying a bag of clothes down the hall in our first dorm who then helped me explain to the grumpy old man at the counter that I wanted the key to the laundry room. Now I can happily go up to any front desk and say "prochka" as I point to my room key.
In Prague, we toured around the main points of interest - the old town square, Charles bridge, and the castle. (I'll attempt to post pictures soon). A few of us splurged on a Carmena Burana concert in the Municipal House (my favorite art nouveau building in prague) theater. Stay tuned for my one minute video recording (using my snazzy new digital camera) of the opening song. Yep, so far this class isn't too bad at all. Besides some sketching in the castle gardens, it's quite a vacation.
The real work is beginning soon though. We met with our guide, Jan (a native who went to grad school in landscape architecture years back in the US and now works as a landscape architect out of Prague) yesterday after arriving by train in Decin. Decin is a medium sized town of 60,000 people about an hour and a half north of Praha. A historical Chateau here is the focus of our project. The Russian Army camped out here using the Chateau as their base. They actually used the basement for sewage and they longer they were here, the more floors filled up as a big outhouse. They also covered all the beautifully painted buildings up with gray paint and generally trashed the place. There is a major restoration effort underway. Our main project though is to create a master plan to connect the Chateau, main squares, river, and parks together which are all the places the local public should be making use of but are all disconnected and hard to get between. Should be an interesting project.
I'm off to spend some more crowns ($1 = 20 kc) on lunch and explore the town.
Best wishes,
Nicole
Just to orient you, there are ten in our group. Ceci is the professor leading the trip with interests in historical landscapes and cultural landscape preservation. Ken and Julie are the newlyweds who had a lovely PA wedding the Sat. before we left. Then there is Jeff, my former Canadian roomate; Drew, Mike, and Brian - all fellow landscape architecture grad students; and Ben and Harsh - both tag alongs from the architecture grad program.
We spent a few days in Prague, or Praha (it always seems strange to me that the same place has different names in different languages. shouldn't places all just be called by what their name is in the local language?). We've been picking up a few Czech words. Dobry den is good morning. Prosim is please and excuse me - good for getting waiter's attention. We're still mystified by how to prounounce the word for thank you which is either daqui, diqui, dakuji, or some similar form. I serendipidously learned that laundry is prochka when following a local student I happened to spot carrying a bag of clothes down the hall in our first dorm who then helped me explain to the grumpy old man at the counter that I wanted the key to the laundry room. Now I can happily go up to any front desk and say "prochka" as I point to my room key.
In Prague, we toured around the main points of interest - the old town square, Charles bridge, and the castle. (I'll attempt to post pictures soon). A few of us splurged on a Carmena Burana concert in the Municipal House (my favorite art nouveau building in prague) theater. Stay tuned for my one minute video recording (using my snazzy new digital camera) of the opening song. Yep, so far this class isn't too bad at all. Besides some sketching in the castle gardens, it's quite a vacation.
The real work is beginning soon though. We met with our guide, Jan (a native who went to grad school in landscape architecture years back in the US and now works as a landscape architect out of Prague) yesterday after arriving by train in Decin. Decin is a medium sized town of 60,000 people about an hour and a half north of Praha. A historical Chateau here is the focus of our project. The Russian Army camped out here using the Chateau as their base. They actually used the basement for sewage and they longer they were here, the more floors filled up as a big outhouse. They also covered all the beautifully painted buildings up with gray paint and generally trashed the place. There is a major restoration effort underway. Our main project though is to create a master plan to connect the Chateau, main squares, river, and parks together which are all the places the local public should be making use of but are all disconnected and hard to get between. Should be an interesting project.
I'm off to spend some more crowns ($1 = 20 kc) on lunch and explore the town.
Best wishes,
Nicole
Friday, May 25, 2007
Hot City
Whew, warm weather in Praha. It feels like summer in PA here now with the humidity. All is going well with our group. The airline found the missing bags of both Ben and Harsh. We§re off to go out in the city now, but i§ll post more very soon with photos. Love to everyone.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Prague Arrival
Our group arrived in Prague last night after some very long hours of planes and airports. We're staying in some dorms at a local university just outside the city. I'm off to tour around with some familiarity from my travels last year. More soon!
Nicole
Nicole
Friday, May 18, 2007
Itinerary & projects
If you're curious, this is the itenerary and project info for the Czech trip from our professor:
Cesta do Czech Itinerary
May 22-July 1, 2007
Part I
Objectives for this part of the course are:
· To identify historic/cultural layers, patterns and processes that define
· Become familiar with planning and design issues in
· Be introduced to heritage issues: cultural and natural resource preservation/conservation
· To identify historic/cultural layers, patterns and processes that define selected city
Product: Visual journal
22/5/07 Group departs US
23/5/07-
24/5/07 Free day in
25/5/07 Old town, City pattern, street studies
26/5/07 Castle, gardens
27/5/07 Garden suburb
28/5/07 Free day
29/5/07-
Part II
Objectives:
· Become familiar with Decin and attendant issues of development /management of park resources
· To become immersed in a particular community/regional planning or design problem
Product: Visual journal, plan/management report that can help guide decision-making (to be completed Fall semester)
3/6/07-
2-week charrette
15/6/07-
Part III
Objectives:
· Become familiar with contemporary planning and design issues in Cesky Raj region
· Be introduced to issues of management related to a significant heritage area and development conflicts
Product: Visual journal, plan/management report (Fall semester completion)
19/6/07-
10-day charrette
30/6/07 Return to
Eye of the Storm
Hi everyone,
This is my first attempted blog. If this works, you should be able to tune into my upcoming adventures. Here goes . . .
Nicole
This is my first attempted blog. If this works, you should be able to tune into my upcoming adventures. Here goes . . .
Nicole
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