unawkward girl: Time, Space and Urban Design

Unlike I was hoping last week, we ended up deciding against going to Stuttgart from Thursday to Monday because our long-awaited studio (project) started on Thursday and we were keen to get started.

A bit on the structure of the course: At the introduction to the course three weeks ago, it was explained to us that we would be completing two projects in our first year and a thesis in our second. For our first project we could choose one of six projects. Introductions to the six projects were presented to us by the lecturer who would be supervising that project.

Niel and I chose the same project: Time, Space and Urban Design - Aviation Takes Command by Prof. Johannes Kalvelage. Although the introduction was very vague, and not as Go Getter! as the others, I liked that the project is based in Dessau and that it has to do with urban design, and I also liked the lecturer's pensive air.

The studio lasts for the entire semester and there are four other students taking part in the studio under the direction of Prof. Kalvelage. We met for the first time on Thursday, but since the rest were in Stuttgart, there were only three of us - Niel, myself and (Italian) Philippo. We met Prof. Kalvelage in the room that will serve as our studio for this semester and after brief introductions and some form-signing we went on to the Bauhaus cafe for some coffee and to meet Sven, a german student who had already completed some extensive research on the topic of our new studio and was joining us for the day.

From the Bauhaus Café we were off to the Hugo Junkers Technical Museum where our project begins.

The museum is a rather sad sight. The lonely strip of potted trees that seem to be meant as a decoration to the old Luft Hansa aeroplane seem to emphasize the neglected concrete road rather than console the lonely plane. The other aeroplanes on exhibit are impressive, but neglected examples scattered about on unkept lawn, seeming equally as awkward and out of place

The inside of the museum is a lot like the outside: the building is a large shell with a lot of natural light, but the exhibitions of mechanical inventions, planes, gas water heaters and a steel house are awkward in the space and the few visitors dwindle from one object to the next, apparently unsure of what to look at next

This Junkers J-13 plane's outer skin is Duralumin - a fortified aluminium. It was built in the early 1920's and was the first all metal 8 passenger aeroplane

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This is the problem that we are presented with in this scheme: Hugo Junkers was one of the pioneers of modern engineering and, after designing and producing the first all-metal aircraft in 1919, he went on to introduce ordinary people like you and I to commercial air travel for the first time in history, making him world-famous. His research and development in the field of steel construction had an equally large influence on Walter Gropius and the Modern Movement, and he should be remembered as one of the key figures in shaping the way of life that we are all enjoying today. Sadly, less than a kilometer away from the much loved and cherished Bauhaus building, the icon of modernity, a few lonely model aeroplanes gather dust in a museum that is more like a shed, waiting for Hugo Junkers to be forgotten completely whilst the Junkers factory buildings have been abandoned, subjected to extreme vandalism and overtaken by nature

The four Junkers factories of 1926

"Every Day Bath Day" - an advert for the Junkers Gas Bath-Oven, gasp!

"Hmm, when last did I bath?"

One half of the wind tunnel used for testing wind-resistance. The building between the two halves was demolished, we're not sure how but Philippo insists that it was BOMBED!

"I think... it was bombed."

Our legs! My new blue boots are great for east german freezingness

After lunch at the Bauhaus mensa (cafeteria: only €3,90 for lunch and another €1,20 for orange juice/coffee, ahem, my budget for the week) we went to one of the Junkers factories of which the buildings date back to 1937 - not very old in european terms

Above: Sven the Junkers man and the Junkalor busstop en route to the iron gate where we snuck onto the premises

Junk...hmm

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Not looking too good...

Eeeek!

One of Hugo Junker's main aims in building was to use as much natural light as possible and in these photos his success in this regard is obvious

Chairs are a favourite amongst objects to design, probably because they have so much character. The chairs amongst the trash at the Junkers factories seem alive and I photographed most of them. There will be a Junker chairs blog to follow this one