Erfurt

 

In the end of March me and my boyfriend went on a weekend vacation with my family.
A city in the east of  Germany called Erfurt. It is about a 3-4 hours drive away from Hannover.

Erfurt has a beautiful old part of town, with lots of half-timbered houses and small streets, where cars are not allowed to drive where you can enjoy taking a long walk through the city, while enjoying the beautiful scenery of an intact typical old town of Germany.
Especially if you live in Hannover, where mostly all of the old town was destroyed during world war II, it is an eye-candy to see these houses which obtained such a horrible time.

Krämerbrücke (Krämer Bridge)

Believe it or not but the ‘Street’ in the picture above is actualle a bridge with houses on it. During the middle ages there were several bridges like the Krämerbrücke built in Europe – maybe the best known is the Rialto Bridge in Venice.
Most of the houses on the Krämer Bridge are used for little shops which sell unique things like blue pottery. The blue they use to color the pottery or even clothes is well known for this area of Germany – it is called ‘Waid’-Blue.

 

Krämerbrücke (Krämer Bridge)

 

Beautiful ornaments on the Facade of a House

Another very popular tourist attraction is the Cathedral of Erfurt. For me as an architecture student it was really amazing there, old sacral architecture has just something special.
It has the power to make you feel as small as a bug in just one second. And it makes you realize that hightech is not everything you need to create great, impressing architecture.

 

Portal Cathedral Erfurt

 

View from the Side Aisle to the Nave

Everytime I enter such an impressive old building with  so much focus on the details my head is full of questions.. How did they manage that heights and static and still it looks so pretty and massive in one? In my opinion those old master-builder and their helpers where real geniuses and still mostly we don’t know which great minds stand behind buildings like this cathedral or other extraordinary buildings all around the world.
Nowadays we talk about Le Corbusier, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, BIG and all the others. Of course they all are great in their special fields of architecture but I think we all can and should learn from those old master-builders from the past. They created architecture that already lasted for centuries and still make people speechless! Architecture that can touch people’s hearts, no matter what their religion or believes are. Architecture that connects people with each other on a higher level, where they share similar feelings without knowing or talking to each other.

Reunion in June

 

We changed quite much during the last years, the style and size of clothes, the haircut or the interests…. but some things never changes: Every Photosession will end up kinda crazy..!!!

 

Can’t wait for the next Reunion.. Oh wait, it’s going to be this Saturday!! ^^

Jakarta - Berlin

Since the end of April I’m in Indonesia again – doing an Internship at a construction site in Alam Sutra (close to Jakarta).
Of course I’m spending a lot of time in Alam Sutra, Jakarta, Sentul and Karawang.
I talked with friends and their families about the problems they have in the cities and other very obvious problems.
All these problems screaming at your face “Help!”
For helping or doing something against the excisting problems you need to understand the urban planning of the cities first.

How to understand the planning of a city? It’s simple nowadays.. use Google Maps!
You take two different cities, Zoom in the same scale, there you go: Compare the cities!

 

Jakarta (above) vs. Berlin

After looking at these two pictures I was quite shooked first… where did the free  (green) space in Jakarta go?! Both Zooms show an area of the city mostly used for living (houses or appartement houses), but in one case you have visible streets and GREEN space and in the other case you just see rooftops and asphalt!
So now to one problem in Jakarta: Every year Jakartas inhabitants suffer by floods. Not only 20 or 50cm, nooo… it’s getting way higher. How come? Look at the zooms and ask yourself; Where do you expect the water to go? How can the water be absorbed by the ground if everything is covered in asphalt? Does it in a mysterical way disappear? No it doesn’t. It certainly appears every year again in form of a brown, disgusting liquid full of rubbish in your neighbourhood or even in your house.

Maybe the normal citizen of Jakarta thinks that there is nothing he or she could do against it. Well actually there is (at least I think that there is something). In Indonesia it is more common to buy land or a house than renting something. So the ones buying a house or land do have a choice about the size of the house they are going to built. So Please if you want to make Jakarta a better place to life don’t  built your house on the whole land - Safe at least 1/3 for green space. Design a backyard or something in front of the house ( No Garage or parking space! That doesn’t count as green space!), not only will it absorb some water but also your children will love to play outside and you don’t have to worry about them playing on the street!

Maybe this post will make you think about what you want and what you could change in your life for making an incredible city like Jakarta a better place to life!
Of course  this also works for other cities with flood problems and too much builded space.

~ Together for a more habitable and even more incredible Jakarta!! ~

Spring Is Coming Back

 

Sooo… after a not very cold Winter it seems like spring is coming back to Hannover…
Last week I went to my grandpa’s house, he has a big garden. When I arrived there I was surprised how  many flowers there were…

I hope that it really  is the beginning of spring.. Last year in the end of March it was still snowing… So the chances that it might be snowing again is quite high….
But now everything seems to prepare for a wonderful spring…
Flower blossom everywhere, the birds are coming back, the sky is blue and the sun is shining…. the smell of spring is in the air…
Let’s see how it turns out

Picture Of The Day

Georgengarten

The Sun Is Back

This weekend the weather finally got better. The sun was shining and we got the chance to enjoy some hours outdoor.
We went to Maschsee – it’s an artificial lake in the south of Hannovers center.
It was very full there, I guess because everyone wanted to enjoy the sun.
At the moment Hannover is filled with tourists, because this week is the “Hannover Messe”. I think one more reason for so many people there.

 

Maschsee

 

Maschsee

 

New Town Hall (left Middleground) & Nord LB Building (right Background)

Winter Comeback

Last week the spring finally got his breakthrough – we thought!
It was wonderful, the sun was shining, just wearing normal clothes and a trenchcoat was enough! Finally, no scarfs, no gloves, no hat!! It was just wonderful.
I took a ride on my bike to the Georgengarten, read a book and took some pictures.. It really felt like spring!

Looks good right? Well on the next day it started raining and getting cold again. Since Saturday Hannover is covered in snow AGAIN! I think I can speak for nearly all the people here: We don’t want snow anymore!! Were’s the Spring?

Please spring, If you hear us: Come back!!! We need you!!!

Beauty Of The Winter

 
During the last two months there were several times when Hanover was covered in snow. Sadly not during Christmas or New Years Eve.

Two weeks ago it looked really pretty in the garden close to my campus.
So between some classes I went there and took some pictures – Capturing the beauty of the snowy Hanover.

Wilhelm-Busch-Museum

Charming Season

Leaves turning yellow, orange and red… Even though it’s turning cold now, it’s a wonderful time in the year… it’s so colorful, especially if the sun is shining and the sky is in an amazing blue….

Döhrener Turm, Hanover

Pic Of The Day

 

Georgengarten, Close to University of Hanover

Pic Of The Day

Church St.Aegidien, Hanover

Berlin, Berlin

Two weeks ago I went to Berlin with a very good friend.
Even though it was for just several hours we had a lot of fun together and actually saw quite a lot.

Since it was my friends first time spending in Germany the Berlin Wall was on her “Must-See-List” and it was our first thing to search there.

(both pictures taken at the memorial close to “Nordbahnhof”)

When we arrived at the memorial the weather actually changed in minutes – from sunshine to rain. Actually a matching weather for visiting a memorial like this. On the second picture you can see some of the people died while trying to escape from East- to West-Berlin.

Afterwards we went to the Brandenburger Tor and the Bundestag, close to the main station.

 

Building close to the Bundestag

Bundestag

“Old meets New”

Main Station, Berlin

We had some wonderful hours in Berlin and I can’t wait to go there again…