i visited my mecca or La Tourette, situating on the top of mountain, in Lyon, France. I call it mecca for the adoration towards the aesthetic of musical window frame, designed by Xenakis. The integration of vertical lines with articulations by horizontal ones in between, it was and will be the main motivation to visit here all way long. 7 years have past since the last visit and during the period everything happened from all-nighter days in Tokyo to new life in Berlin.
"lots of things happened at my side ...and you? water leaking? drainage system seems problematic, good luck on surgery and see you soon"
One of the worst things one could do is, I believe, re-reading the text he wrote years ago. Discovery of such vestige is often accompanied by feeling of embarrassment since that is actually the excrement of brain, which represents the pure desire to be.
I am not a big fan of such masochistic pleasure, I must say. Nevertheless I enjoyed excavation of the old text in forgotten folder situated deep inside of my laptop HD. This occurred because of a resolution of new year 2013, re-writing of 4-year-old-half-way-done essay, no need to remember the cliche "the best day to start something is the very day you make your mind to do it". This phenomenon happens during new year, I know. New year could be an good excuse to start it, I am this positive, as of today at least.
While being embarrassed, I just kept moving my eyes from left to right with enough concentration not to recognize clearly what I have typed. Soon I was surprised to find how much I hated architect. Remembering the fact that I have worked on planning in architecture field, which was totally out of blue for me 4 years ago, I found myself changed and became free of "architect is sin" obsession. It was not that I obviously criticized architect in that way but I could find every attempt that I tried to imply that idea in every sentence of essay.
I still hate architect. But after the experience at work, today I hate it differently. Being architect, I have to keep it in mind with another bias that I have obtained in the last 4 years.
When a guy, standing in front of me and my flat mate in the left side of down escalator from platform at S-bahnhof Zoologischer Garten, despite noticing our presence and even told by those next to him that there were people waiting behind him, he replied "I DON"T WANNA MOVE SO I DONT MOVE", spontaneously did I shout on bourgeois Ku'damm "...ahhh it's very DID, Das Ist Deutschland!".
I was how surprised by myself, reacting in same way as 4 years ago...
It was when living in New Delhi that I was sharing one large flat with trainees, mostly grad school students, from all over the world (China, Nederland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Yemen and Germany). India was unique in that it was literally "foreign country" for all and we rarely spoke and understand Hindi, except for our poor vocabularies such as "theek hai/ acha/ haan ji" (alright/ yes/ hello - on the phone), which resulted in occasional failures in negotiation with local market seller who always replied "fixed price" no matter what he was told, or with auto rickshaw driver who didnt let the fare meter switched on in favor of keeping on endless bargaining which took us forever to discount as small as 5 rupees ( EUR 15 cents)... It happened more than once that we found one person paid more than double for same pair of shoes sold in Central Market, a nearest local market from our flat. After finding being deceived, moreover as an outcome of time-taking negotiation, one used to mourn "...TII!", which is the abbreviation of This Is India.
It was an great invention, I must say, since once you utter it, irritation goes away. It is not forgiveness nor compromising but something close to acceptance that comes afterward to your heart.
Cultural gap WILL happen and irritating people WILL appear. Instead of wasting time and getting annoyed, chant the three-letter incantation and keep calm and carry on ;) ( i'm not Brit, though!).
On the way back from the nutritious LABO ( foreigners' office in Berlin ), I happened to encounter this yellow pillar covered with square tiles with such marks. First I thought it was made by some "urban artist" however touching its surface, I found it was printed. On next moment I found all the space or platform, of U-bahnhof Westhafen, was covered with such literal tiles.
I was confused, the tiles with words and images are too perfectly fit to the place to think it as sort of graffiti. Moreover the font was also contributing to convey certain atmosphere. Everything was existing in harmony with each other... I was confused.
"...well I am here too change to S-bahn", I headed for the exit to find this exhibition was still continued to the end...
Isnt it Wedding, Berlin, Germany...?
Is it an insult or...? I am not un rien but somebody with name...
I was confused. Later back home, I found it was designed by french artist, the word was by German poet Heinrich Heine and this project was involved with an international art project about human rights and the station "Westhafer" was selected in terms of location, since it is situated near the bridge where Jews were once sent away. The poetry was about the experience when the German poet once went to France. ( here I quote it from the website above. this is shown on the wall of the station, left wall in French and right in German).
Here in France immediately on my arrival in Paris my German name "Heinrich" was translated into "Henri", and I had to adapt myself to it and had even so to style myself here in this country, for the word Heinrich is not pleasing to the Frenchman and the French do make everything in the world pleasant for themselves. Even the name "Henri Heine" they were unable to pronounce, and most of them called me Monsieur Enri Enn : Many contracted this to Enrienne and some called me Monsieur Un Rien.
It was heart touching, especially because I was on the way back from LABO where foreigner struggles in communicating with unfriendly attitude staff there in order to get visa, where foreigner finds oneself not treated as human being sometimes and where foreigner finds an invisible wall between oneself and the surroundings...
...Is it a coincidence that LABO is located at this place?...remains question.
Working in Tokyo... especially for architectural planning office, workaholic life as obligation needed some addiction as a means of escape from reality. The fact that I have eaten self-cooked healthy food supported me during days of deadlines.
I was addicted to a small vegetable shop situated on the end of narrow street in Nakameguro ( one of the most hip place in Tokyo ), old-school shop with nice shop keepers which has full of tropical fruits and cheap vegetables, hence I saw cock of foreign embassies' visiting quite often. It was so cheap one box of pelican mango ( approx. 24 mangoes ) was 500 Yen and 6-7 peaces of ready-to-eat Avocado was 200 Yen (let's say 100 Yen = 1 EUR) . My Bulgarian ex-flatmate showed the place to me and since then we used to bike to there for 40 minutes for one way with empty backpack and returned home with hanging fully packed heavy stuff on back ). On first visit I was almost ( or actually ) said "Oh it's cheaper than India..." This presence of dreamy shop was such a fascination for me. In Tokyo where you need money to enjoy the city life, this shop was one of my secret hidden Tokyo essences in that it enabled me to have quantity-wise and quality-wise rich food life with less money than shopping at supermarket.
In Berlin, on Friday evening I visit another Nakameguro or Türkenmarkt. Price is almost same, or sometimes cheaper...With an exotic atmosphere, my stress and fatigue from weekday hardworking disappears. Below is the documentation of shopping on June 8th evening, FYI.
Apple Mango ( one box - 7 pieces )--------------------EUR 3.0
Strawberry ( two packs - 1.0 kg )----------------------EUR 1.5
Green Asparagus ( a bunch of - 500 g ) ----------------EUR 1.0
On Craigslist Berlin > for sale / wanted > call phones - by owner
Iphone 3GS found - EUR50 (Ostkreuz)
Datum: 2012-05-31, 5:48AM CEST
Antwort an: **************@sale.craigslist.org
During the Carnaval last weekend, two strange guys close to Alexsandr platz, sold me their Iphone 3GS, luckily, I only had 50 eu in cash and I checked it and worked perfectly. After I got it, I just felt that they might have found it from somewhere. So I am honest person, the Iphone is still belong to me, if anyone lost their Iphone 3G, and if you still have your serial number, please send and if it matches, I will be happy to give it to you. I have lost my Iphone before so I know the feeling.
PS: the phone was in English, no information inside,
Since I've been working on outside (under the sun, i mean) during weekday, which is almost labor work (with an essence of intellectuality), on weekend I am either too tired to be physically active or.... find myself in want of brain exercise.
Magdeburg life was another thing. I was made to live without internet during weekday and this lead me to internet-detox. I didn't know how much I was addicted to internet and SNS thanks to iPhone ubiquitous life and I finally came to feel like read text on a paper book, not blog on computer screen. This was great achievement actually and I was happy to rediscover my desire to input with books, the activity which was missing for years (i literally didnt read a book recently, with an excuse of too busy at work).
I've known architectural and art discourse are my favorite tastes and magazine such as Apartmento is another choice for chill out reading. Sad to say, my favorite Tower Records Shibuya (one of the best places to get art books and foreign ones' price is cheapest in Tokyo, as far as i know) was too far from Berlin. Moreover I felt urgent need of reading something that I could understand. Life is too short for the deep understanding of German text (at the moment, let me say) hence I googled my brain for "english book store Berlin Mitte".
At 18:30 on Saturday, the last minute for shopping, I dragged my body with following my brain google search result. I was actually heading for Pro qm, the nicely posh book store which I've used several times, however on the way I found another one on August strasse, do you read me?!. As apparent from the name, the shop dealt with tons of English books. There I bought bunch of luxury sweets including "architectural entertainment magazine featuring Berlin" PIN - UP Magazine Berlin special, inspiring Design Like You Give a Damn [2] and several modern classic from Penguin book (two books about the sight and perception, written by McLuhan and John Berger).
Sometimes I hate posh art book store because of the atmosphere which makes me doubt whether I am suitable for the store or not and I sometimes could not help feeling I am not the right customer for them. Or I just think being posh is boring and I am fed up with seeing how such snob atmosphere is generated and consumed quickly. Still I love to discover in the inspiring space made by shop owner's choice, not by automatically generated Amazon recommendation. There I found wordless love of owner. I love the silent dialogue with books on the shelf. Book talks to me "do you know me?, I tell you about..." while another book gazes at me and and and... yeah the pleasure to be embraced in this concentrated space. The silent dialogue straightens up my back and reminds me of existences of another worlds.
Cliche (and truth?) is Berlin is poor but sexy. How rich experience the city provides to the public... Concept of public is totally different, is what I've thought in comparison of Tokyo and Berlin and here it is very obvious...
As it often happened when working in Tokyo, this job makes me stay away from Berlin during weekday, hence I am living dual life; I'm currently working in several hundreds km away from Karl-Marx-Allee and sleeping in my room from Friday night till Monday morning.
Größere Kartenansicht
Dilemma is that this life style is out of expectation and while I am sure many events are happening in every night somewhere in Berlin, I have to stay in the old (registered heritage architecture actually) apartment. From Monday morning, every night I came back to there with really exhausted after over 10 hours of labor-tique work outside (sometimes at 60m high from ground) and find myself too tired to do anything, other than sleeping. Where has my dreaming Berlin life gone? No energy left for weekend cycling and swimming... I am often at a loss by being asked philosophical question, why I am here (despite lack of German skill and lack of a special skill ). I am at a loss when colleagues open bottles of beers shortly after they put off helmets.
Still, I'd better focus on positive side of this situation rather than complaining. I would learn from it. At least colleagues are really nice to me. On my last day in Tokyo, I was given nice words "there will be a reason to meet the person no matter how the one is annoying or you dislike the one...". True. So although who knows when it occurs to me, the moment of eureka, I believe the idea......
ah and it's weekend and I am really...... Muscle ache I hate you.
for Japanese, this plate seems to be small Mana-ita (originally wooden thick rectangular plate for cutting food) however it is used as a dish for breakfast. On it, you put a piece of bread, insert knife to divide into two parts, put whatever you like onto it, then "Bon appetite!" This is typical cultural gap, i'd say. Since it was out of the blue when I found this new usage, I was happy to find that there are more things that I don't recognise.
In the end of April, I made a weekend trip to Hannover, to visit friend studying there, by carsharing with meaningful convesation with strangers.
Funny fact is that the facility of university is reuse of Expo 2000 pavilions and buildings while some of the pavilion are also used as office by companies.
Who knows what will become heritage in the next century, still the landscape seemed graveyard for out-of-fashion architectures. Lack of people's care, attention... remembering the time when I read an article about this Dutch pavilion by MVRDV in a+u, I wondered what happened in the last decade.
Aging doesnt look this structure attractive; flaking of paint and cracks are just disgusting. 12-y-o architectural realized dream could be attractive again, if... what happens? Or are we too busy to think about it since we need to keep consuming something new?
When dream is once realized, deformation follows. Utopia in real world ...will be boring and that's why un-built project is always attractive.
White pig in Neukoelln - nightmare of room hunting
-Berlin (finally!)
After tearful reunion with the on-board view of Berlin TV tower, or Berliner Fernsehturm from Lufthansa bound for Tagel, I arrived at Hermannplatz to stay the first week in a Japanese artist's apartment who belonged to Tacheles. This situation was made all by chance, still how typical to live in an Tacheles artist's atelier, I wondered. I have been to Berlin for 4 times so far but never been to Neukoelln. Nearest point which I have stayed was Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg 2 years ago and for other times which oldest was 9 years ago, I've stayed in Mitte's Rosa-Luxemburg platz. Shortly after walking from station to home I found Hermannplatz to be another Brooklyn in Berlin. The balance was perfect, canal nearby, green place was quite enough and not too much hipster atmosphere. I came to fall in love with the place.
I tried to put as much (thought to be) eye-catching words as possible, such as "from Tokyo (but born in 150 km away from Tokyo)", "architect (actually very junior one)" and "experienced flat sharing in Tokyo, Arizona and New Delhi (literally true!)". I have no idea how it worked actually but I got several chances.
A young guy with somewhere European name replied shortly after my first email, saying you can come visit tomorrow noon. I liked this rhythm of quick emailing and it was one of the points for me to find "hum, this is the one!". His writing seemed very casual yet not rude. According to his description, the room is quite tidy and clean, with new wooden flooring and big window facing yard. I thought I've found one.
The would-be new flat was situated in an opposite side of U-bahnhof Hermannplatz from mine. One the way I was really imaging how the new life would be..."The new house locates 10 minutes from station... hum, not bad and the slope on the way is a bit steep, but it's fine, get to used to it soon... " The apartment was facing to a narrow street with rough stone paving. "Not for bike, but it's okay i could start ridng on it from the paved street over there ". I rang the bell with very light touch.
I did not know that holding one's hands in front of body was not characteristic gesture only to Japanese so that I was how surprised to find a tall, wide white guy waiting for me in that pose with smiling with his mouth, not eyes. It was apparent he tried to be very polite to me, just like job interviewer. Also I found him being surprised to see small Asian girl coming. After the awkward silence, he finally opened his mouth. After few words, I asked him to speak slowly since his voice was so low and I couldn't instantly understand his words. Then he spoke slowly to me and his voice implied "...not good at English, -10!". Seeing the room is normally the highlight of the room hunting, which turned to be a torture this time. Might-be my future room was just a boring space with artificially white wooden flooring. It didnt take time to find him bossy and this hierarchy was the last thing I want for my private life.
After several questions as my disguising, while I was thinking it was waste of time staying here anymore, he as a duty explained the process of choosing the roommate from numbers of candidates. "I've shown the room so far to several people and later today another will come as well. To decide the one, I am collecting documents from everybody, so could you give me your passport copy and work contract which amount of salary is shown. I will judge from such documents and let you know within couple of days." "...what? in advance to contract you need such documents?" "Yep." "...well I havent brought any at the moment. And as for contract, I haven't received one so it wont be available for a while... And could you tell me how you choose the one?"
"Money." his answer was literally that clear. "You know, the rent in Berlin is increasing so rapidly so that people who used to live here are no longer be able to stay. So constant income is of highest priority for me on choosing flat mate. As for me I am studying abroad here in Berlin and I am from a Scandinavian country with governmental scholarship which allows me to stay without problem." "Okay, ill send documents later. Thanks, bye". ---End of conversation---
Who would have moved to Berlin to live with such asshole! On the way to the station, I was at a loss, wondering whether it is normal for Berlin or not. Still remembering all my Berliner friends nobody was like that "yeah, for sure..." I said to my self to calm down. Checking email back home, I found another reply from a girl living in Mitte saying you can come over this evening... Why not?
DDR heritage Karl-Marx-Allee was next destination. The room was facing to the avenue. My next home might be that massive apartment, on the way I was wondering. There everything was different from the last bad experience. The people there, the atmosphere there, the conversation there, everything was what I knew. From the window I could find symbolic tower and I really liked the space. Still, naturally there were other candidates. I, remembering the last experience, explained "sorry sorry I dont have documents of ID and job contract at the moment...". The word surprised the landlord "What? I have never asked to anybody! if one doesn't pay the rent, i just kick one out!"
Yes!!!! That was the way I've known. When I arrived at home in Neukoelln, I received "we take you as new mate!" email. How relieved I was then and I thought it was just a nightmare that I visited an strange non-Berliner white pig.
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