2006.05.04_Pergamon

At 09:00 we arrived at the bus station of Izmir, and immediately, we hopped onto a bus to Bergama, the town where the famous Classical ruined city of Pergamon lies. We hired a taxi from Bergama's otogar (bus station) to the ruins. I was quite excited about seeing the ruined city of Pergamon, largely due to my 2003 visit of Berlin's Pergamon Museum, where Pergamon's high altar is restored and displayed in a majestic way. The site of the Acropolis pretty much in ruins, with a few notable structures, including the Trajaneum (where a headless marble statue in Roman armor stood in a courtyard). The most impressive structure in Pergamon is the Greek theatre, claiming to be the steepest theatre in the ancient world. At the theatre's lower end, we stopped by the Temple of Dionysus, paying a little respect to the God of pleasure and wine, before leaving the Acropolis.

2006.05.02_Beyazid II Külliye

Photo: Road to Beyazid II Külliye, Across the river from Beyazid II Külliye, Arriving at Beyazid II Külliye, Forecourt arcade, Local Woman.

After the mosques, we ventured to a Roman / Byzantine fortress tower. The security guard was kind enough to show us around. When we were done, he suggested we should take a short walk to visit the Beyazid II Külliye.

We followed his instruction, exited the old city, walked on a road for a kilometer or two, before seeing our destination standing beyond a river where a father and son sat under a tree shadow with two fishing poles in hands. A shepherd dog appeared from under the bridge, looked at us at a distance, and ran away. Two men who sat on a pile of dirt at the back of the tractor waved at us as they drove by. The scene was picturesque and romantic. Farmlands, white clouds, and blue sky at the background. The Beyazid II Külliye majestically stood in front of the horizon.

The Beyazid II Külliye was a unique complex consisted of a mosque, a health university, and a hospital in the Ottoman era. Nowadays, part of the hospital complex is turned into a museum where visitors can learn about Ottoman medicine, their health treatment and long-term health facilities. This complex was once a hospital that treat a wide range of health problems, from eye disease to mental illness. It was one of the first example of mental hospital that treated patients with music, sound of water, and scents.

We stayed for quite a while until late afternoon. We hopped onto a minibus that passed by the kulliye to return to the city otogar for our return ride to Istanbul. In Istanbul, we discovered a local eatery at Aksaray called Nederi Urfa. We had some lentil soup, meat kebabs, pizzas, and some dessert, for only 9 TYL each. Pretty good price.

2006.05.02_Mosques of Edirne

Photos: Ucserefei Camii ceiling, Eski Camii ceiling, Selimiye Camii ceiling, Interiors of Selimiye Camii.

A primary reason of coming to Edirne was to see its architecture. In a few hours we managed to visited three unique mosques and the Bayezid II Külliye Health Museum. We first visited the Ueserefei Camii and Eski Camii, two modest-size mosques with beautiful interior decorations. Mosques are often decorated with abstract patterns and Scripture from the Qu'ran in vivid. It was forbidden to depict realistic portraits of people and animals in a mosque. The carpet floor of the mosques are often made up with many pieces of small carpets put together. Each small carpet is richly decorated with the same pattern, and each is designated for one prayer.

The third mosque we visited was Selimiye Camii, designed by Mimar Sinan in the 16th century. With its 70m minarets, fine interior arrangement, and magnificent tile decorations, the Selimiye is one of the most famous Islamic architecture in Turkey, if not in the entire Muslim world. Sinan himself considered the Selimiye his best work.

Mimar Sinan is often referred to as the most famous architect in the Ottoman Empire. As the chief royal architect for three sultans, his works ranged from mosques to many institutional buildings in the 16th century. Sinan experimented with various configuration of domes, semi-domes and galleries to form a unified dome interior lit with natural light. He also arranged the mosque and other buildings into large complexes known as külliye.

2006.05.02_Black and White City, Istanbul

In City of Black-and-White, every speck of grime on the timber sidings of an old house calls on memories of transient splendors of a great city. Filled with houses whose wooden facades have never been painted for decades, contemporary urban landscape becomes a series of age-old postcards, monotonous and serene. Here humble architecture stands unchanged beyond generations.

Morning smoke from the chimney reveals that the crooked timber house is still occupied. Since an earthquake in the 16th century and until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, timber was the primary construction material for vernacular architecture in Istanbul. This house is probably built in the 19th century when influx of refugee flocked to the ancient Ottoman capital, raising the demand for narrower and smaller dwellings in densely populated areas. The cantilever bay on the upper floor, a common architectural feature during that time, reflects the needs to maximize living space and to shelter the pedestrians on the street below. Despite being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985, Istanbul’s historical areas are continuously facing the threats from urban transformations. Efforts have been made to maintain this historical urban fabric, a provocative setting of melancholy that reminds people of the bygone eras of the empire. Yet, in a city of 11 million inhabitants, Istanbul’s urban evolution has no turning back. Just as one of the locals commented while I was taking the photo, ‘This house will be gone in 2 years. Look at it, it’s crooked! No one wants to live in it.’

2006.05.01_Topkapi Palace, Istanbul

At 09:00, we arrived at Topkapi Palace. We began our visit from the Harem, and then the Palace Courtyards, and finally the Treasury. By the time we reached the Treasury, the Palace was packed with tourists. The Treasury contains some really interesting artifacts, including the sword of Prophet Mohammad.

For several centuries the Topkapi had been the royal palace for the Ottoman Empire. Today it's a World Heritage site and a magnificent example of Ottoman architecture. The history of the Ottomans has always fascinated me. From a groups of nomadic tribes (突厥) who dominated the Central Asian Steppes, migrated west to the Islamic Empire and became Islamic warlords of the Near East, and then established their own empire and culture somewhere between Europe and Asia. Their culture was a true fusion.


We had lunch at a restaurant called Hamdi Et Lokantasi, located on the rooftop of a century old building. We had some "authentic" Turkish food, such as Turkish pizza and eggplant kebab. The eggplant with mince lamb meat, grilled to charcoal black. The taste wasn't bad, it's just something I can't have everyday.

2006.04.30_Blue Mosque, Istanbul

The Hagia Sophia is grand. The Blue Mosque is poetic.

7 years, 5 months and 6 days was what it took Sultan Ahmet I and his architect Sedefkar Mehmet Agha to complete the building. The mosque with 6 minarets. An urban artifact constantly reminds modern citizens of Istanbul of their glorious past.


Photo courtesy: N.U.

2006.04.30_Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Our first destination in Istanbul was Hagia Sophia. The icon of the Byzantine Empire, the equivalent to grandeur. Built upon Constantine's earlier version, Justinian's Hagia Sophia was unique in style, enormous in size, and for many generations of the Byzantine court, the white-elephant to maintain. One of the biggest achievements for architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus was the gigantic 100-feet dome without resting on any solid wall support. The cathedral was completed in AD 537, only five and a half years after Justinian went ahead with the project. The iconic cathedral Hagia Sophia of Constantinople was later converted into a mosque when the Muslims conquered the city and transformed Constantinople to nowadays' Istanbul.

After seeing some of the remarkable mosaics on the upper level, we left Hagia Sophia, crossed a small park, and arrived at the entrance of the equally famous Blue Mosque.

2006.04.29_On the Plane

Photo: plane landed in Zurich; shopping and cafe concourse, Zurich International Airport

Toronto to Zurich. Zurich to Athens.

We stayed at Zurich's International Airport for a while. The new 5th expansion done by Grimshaw is very nice. We didn't stay long before boarding onto the place for Athens, the jumping stone before our true Middle East journey.

Thanks to Prof van Pelt for Istanbul: Memories and the Cities by Orhan Pamuk. The autobiographical work truly wet my appetite on Istanbul. The City's complex memories and its melancholy setting. What about contemporary Middle East, a place to many only exists on international news headlines? This is my grad trip, sort of like a conclusion of a previous chapter and an introduction of a new stage in my life. That's something I didn't realize back then in 2006, but I am aware of it now.

05/05 - Fondation Cartier, Paris

We made a brief visit at the Fondation Cartier, a contemporary art gallery designed by Jean Nouvel. A unique place to house art, with extensive use of living walls and high glazed walls. It is a nicely designed building with pleasant exterior spaces surrounding the main building. The visit was brief, but worthwhile.

03/05 - Parisian Architecture

After the museums, we dropped by the Effel Tower, took a few pictures. Then we found our way to Dominique Perrault's National Library. It was an interesting complex, with tons of criticism about having the building sunken in a courtyard beside the Seine, ignoring the risk of flooding. We entered the complex and walked in the public area for a while. We continued our way along the river until we hit the recently completed bridge project and design school, which we had seen in magazines before. Just before dusk fell upon, we made our way to visit Jean Nouvel's masterpiece, the Arab World Institute. By the time we arrived it was already closed. We could only walked around the building and take pictures of the exterior.

After we exhausted ourselves with museums and buildings, we headed to the nearby 13th Arrondissement, where Chinatown is located, to dine in a Laos restaurant.

03/05 - Parisian Museums

Going to museums in Paris on the first Sunday of the month is by no means something that we love. First Sunday of the month means free admission to many national museums and galleries, and free entry means long lineups and crowded exhibitions. Nevertheless, we managed to first revisited Louvre (wrong choice), then went to Centre Pompidou, and finally the recently completed Quai Branly Museum of non-western art by Jean Nouvel.

02/05 - Rotterdam

Time was ticking right at the moment we get up. We were leaving Rotterdam in the early afternoon. So during our remaining time in Rotterdam, we visited the cube houses, the NAI (Netherlands Architecture Institute), and Rem Koolhaas' Kunstahl. After Kunstahl, we returned to our hostel to pick up our backpacks and said farewell to the friendly hostel dog.

In order to save money, we never took the Thalys during this trip. The route that we took from Rotterdam to Paris involved some train changes at Antwerp and Lille. Each of us only spent 3 euro to reserve a domestic TGV from Lille to Paris Nord, and our Interrail Pass took care of the rest.

01/05 - Almere and The Hague

It was indeed contemporary architecture that drove us to revisit the Netherlands. This was a day reserved entirely for architecture.

In the morning, we took our time wandering in downtown Rotterdam, passing by an urban plaza designed by West 8 a few years earlier. At Rotterdam Centraal, we hopped onto a train heading to Schiphol. Our destination was Almere, a new developed city northeast of Amsterdam. By midday, we reached Almere. From the station, we walked through a series of pedestrian arcades and shopping area until reaching the waterfront area where OMA was responsible for the masterplanning. In a few parcels of land we could find a number of interesting architecture done by renounced architects like Alsop and SANAA. On our way back to the station we dropped by UN Studio's La Defense, a colourful office complex widely published earlier.

From Almere, we took a train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, where we stopped for a bowl of tomato soup, at the same restaurant where we had lunch in April 2008 when we visited Amsterdam. After the refreshment, we headed off to Den Haag (The Hague), where Netherland's central government is located. Again architecture was our main draw. We visited the Dance Theatre by Rem Koolhaas, the city hall by Richard Meier, and a new metro station by again Koolhaas. Before we returned to Rotherdam, we paid a quick visit to the Dutch parliament.

After dinner, we made a special visit back to Belgium's Antwerp, because I have left my mobile phone at Bed, Bath & Bread. Luckily someone was there to open the door and we left happily with my mobile phone for Rotterdam to spend our final night in the Netherlands.

19/04 - Traboules, Lyon

Without Michelle, we could have easily missed the traboules when strolling in the Saint Paul area of Vieux Lyon. These hidden passageways inside old apartment blocks were used as trading shortcuts in the Middle Ages.

18/04 - Lyon Architecture

Architecture wasn't the prime reason for us to stay in Lyon. We did, however, make a brief tour to see a few buildings in the city: Jean Nouvel's Opera House, Renzo Piano's Cite Internationale, and the area of La Confluence, the further site of a cluster of buildings which includes Coop Himmelblau's Musée des Confluences.

Frog's Dream

My project, titled Frog's Dream, has been chosen as one of the finalists in ReBurbia Design Competition, a contest to generate ideas that transform the declining North American suburbia. Online voting and viewing starts on August 10 and closes the following Monday. Please vote for me and take a look at the projects of all 20 finalists. There are really some great ideas: http://www.re-burbia.com/finalists/

Here's the statement of my project:

What to do about all those abandoned McMansions? Turn them into wetlands and natural water filtration systems for urban centers.

According to many scientists and climatologists, we are fighting a losing battle against climate change, loss of rain forests and wetlands and extinction of species. Historians who study Maya and Angkor have warned of an inevitable collapse to civilization when natural resources are overused in non-sustainable ways. Many real estate analysts have also predicted that a change of lifestyle, shrink of household size and a rise of energy prices will seal the final downfall of suburbia.

What would be the future of suburbia when McMansions are abandoned?

In response to the anticipated future, the Frog’s Dream project attempts to re-establish a sustainable relationship between city and suburbia. It proposes to transform the vacant McMansions, at the periphery of cities, into eco-water treatment machines, commercially known as Living Machines, in which a micro-ecosystem of plants, algae, bacteria, fish and clams are present to purify the water. A micro-wetland ecosystem will be formed around these mansions to sustain larger wetland animals and plants. The project also involves transforming the highway system into a multi-functional infrastructure that transports cars, trains and bikes, as well as forming a network to facilitate water transport between a city and its surrounding suburban wetlands.

The Frog Dream presents the idea of a highly concentrated city and its ring of suburban wetlands will hold the key to a green future.