howie's design adventures part 2: le corbusier

La Maison Blanche

the second part of howie's design adventures took us to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the birthplace of Le Corbusier. it was there where he lived with his family and started to practice architecture under the mentorship of a local architect. the town itself is actually quite different from any other swiss town i've been to- it is very linear and gridded with row houses lined up along the blocks. one could see why he escaped to paris to study architecture. 

la maison blanche was not his first house he designed- there are a few others very close by up on the hill above the town. he designed the house for his family which included himself, his parents and brother. it was really a beautiful house- i realized after that didn't take many photos but it was difficult to capture the feel of the place. i think what made the house dramatic was the contrasts in views and lighting and the proportions and layout of the spaces. it seemed so simple and straightforward from looking at the plan and looking at photos ahead of time, yet it had so much life that i didn't expect. amazing to be in a place where a most famous architect got his start. 

looking out from Le C's bedroom

Le C's study. not too bright with a skylight over the desk.

through the dining area out to the garden.

looking back from the garden- the blue garden wall on the left...

the first (?) house he designed. 

one of the early Le Corbusier houses

howie's design adventures part 1: basel & vitra!

upon returning to lausanne, i still had a few things left on my list of things to see before december.  howie had some free time between job interviews and more applications, so we took a train ride to Basel for the day. we were both dragging a little to get out of the house on a chilly fall morning, worried about the weather and potential rain. luckily we dragged ourselves to the train and once we were in Basel we found beautiful weather! we also decided on a whim to visit the Vitra factory and had an amazing time- see some photos below. i was a little disappointed that i didn't see any other Herzog & de Meuron buildings because Basel is much more spread out than I had imagined and everything requires a separate bus or train. next time...

p.s. don't forget your passport when visiting vitra- its across the german/swiss border! and bring some euros for the bus. (oops!)

Vitra: Gehry & Oldenburg in the background

Vitra: new H&deM

stacked houses with evening light

15 min naps only!

Howie learned about the Eames,
and the price of designer chair miniatures

which vitra chair suits you??

beautiful and inventive spaces perfect for displaying vitra wonders!

cheek to cheek with Ando concrete

v for vitra. 

first snow!

It hasn't snowed yet in Lausanne, but in the alps there is always snow on the mountain glaciers... 

A few weeks ago Howie and I were excited to host Howie's cousin, Yokewai, and her friend, Pooiyin, coming from Malaysia and Singapore. They were embarking on a European adventure and they started by visiting us in Lausanne. We gave them a taste of Swiss fondue- unfortunately it was not the best fondue and none of us liked it. But we had a beautiful day to ride the train up to the Jungfraujoch where one can walk on the glacier and have gorgeous views of the alps, and the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks. Yokewai had her first sight and touch of real snow- and she could not have asked for a more beautiful place for that experience. We had a great time and hope they enjoyed the rest of their journey through Europe!

we stumbled upon the Swiss equivalent to the
MN state fair

we made Yokewai try cheese curds
(or something similar)

cousins!

master photographers at work

don't look down...

the beginning of the Altesch Glacier

the tropical girls were not afraid of the ice!

sliding around in the ice palace

vals, therme.

its official, i am returning to vals! i just booked 2 nights at the therme-vals hotel because this is something that howie MUST see before leaving switzerland. and i must see again. :)

images from "Stone and Water, Bells" found in my hotel room.

let me rewind- a few weeks ago amber and dan were visiting switzerland after spending some time in lisbon where i hung out with them for a bit. we had pretty much decided to make our time together in switzerland into a peter zumthor pilgrimage, of sorts. if you don't know what i'm talking about, you can get the idea here.

the thermal baths/spa that he designed is studied in all schools of architecture- a seriously famous building. i do admit there is a lot of hype about this building, and i was trying to prepare myself just in case it wasn't all that amazing, or perhaps spending a semester hearing about the building would have spoiled everything.

hotel info packet

let me just say now that it didn't matter how much i'd studied this building from afar- it is really the most amazing architectural + bathing experience that i've ever had.  in both separate and combined categories. even my hair felt nice after soaking in the amazing mineral water. (or maybe it had been a few days since last washed??) one can wander from room to room, pool to pool for hours, it is a true sensory experience- all 5. this is the kind of place that you literally have no idea how much time is passing and i know we could have stayed longer. hence upcoming visit #2.

green roof of the spa looking towards Vals

i'm not going to spoil it for you (and mostly for howie). there is nothing like exploring this building for the first time- especially in the darkness of the evening. if you are a guest of the hotel you have special guests-only use of the bath in the morning from 8-11ish and again at night from 11-12:30. we decided that our first experience would be at night and so we walked around town in the afternoon and had ourselves a nice, "light" swiss dinner so that we wouldn't drown later. (there is no such thing as "light" swiss food.)  in the end we survived dinner and enjoyed floating and looking at the stars. we all slept like babies in our "spirit of the sixties" naval-themed hotel rooms only to head back to bathing at 8am.

outdoor portion of the spa

after bathing we gorged ourselves at the enormous breakfast buffet complete with a looseleaf tea bar (including many types of tea that dan may or may not have read to us several times ;-)  i've had many daydreams about that breakfast...