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Cornell Icelandic Rare Book Collection

#cornell university #iceland #architecture #studio #olin library #rare books #spring 2018 #cornellaap

Week 1

It’s amazing how fast life in the architecture studio ramps up to full speed. We’ve definitely hit the ground running with our first project: designing a bridge in Ithaca. Every student in our studio has the freedom to place their bridge wherever they like, so it has been interesting learning about everyone through their approach to this project. Because this option studio has a mix of B.Arch, M.Arch 1, and M.Arch 2 students, many of us were strangers to each other before this semester started.

Ithaca has extreme topography changes due to its rich geological history, so there are a multitude of viable bridge projects for this city. Some students are exploring the Fall Creek and Cascadilla Gorge systems in order to examine how bridges can activate these spaces in new ways. Others are looking at bridge sites near the inlet to Cuyuga Lake, where numerous water systems snake their way through Ithaca and cut off pedestrian pathways between popular attractions. Students are building bridges to explore tree canopies, connect islands, make protected swimming spaces, hold small book collections and reading nooks… the ideas are as numerous as there are students.

Our first assignment is also a great way to practice the idea of rationalizing a design to the point of constructibility. Although we only have two weeks to fully realize this bridge, this project gives us an opportunity to put our structural knowledge, building technology experience, and design skills to work. Because our projects in Iceland could potentially be constructed, it is important for us to design with the mindset of buildability.

This week we also got the opportunity to visit Cornell’s Fiske Icelandic Collection, which is the third-largest collection of Icelandic literature and cultural artifacts in the world and home to many incredible manuscripts. The collection’s curator, Patrick J. Stevens, showed us some of the collection’s remarkable pieces, including a map by Abraham Orelius from around 1590.

In addition to filling us in on how Daniel Willard Fisk started his collection, Stevens illustrated how Iceland’s literary tradition preserved most of what we know today about Norse culture, and offered a window into the mindset of Icelandic people in regards to their proud, independent nature and ability to thrive in times of hardship.

Understanding a site’s cultural history is necessary in understanding people living there today, and by taking this first step in our research, we will hopefully make architecture that resonates authentically with the people in Djupivogur.

#cornell university #iceland #architecture #studio #olin library #rare books #spring 2018 #cornellaap